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The Naval Academy used the area which eventually became Thompson Stadium for football from partway through the 1911 season through 1958; it replaced Worden Field and was replaced by Navy-Marine Corps Stadium.

Overall, NC State had a record of 2-6 at this field, with all games coming as true non-conference road games. All of the meetings predated modern rankings. The 1918 meeting was canceled due to war-time travel restrictions.

  * Non-conference games

The US Naval Academy was founded in Annapolis, Maryland in 1845, when the federal government, endeavoring to establish a land-based naval training facility, earmarked the "practically abandoned" Fort Severn (built 1808) for that purpose. Military parades and drilling logically figured prominently into the curriculum of the cadets, with those events taking place on the old fort's parade ground, located in the area between the old Superintendent's House and the midshipmen's quarters (Stribling Row), about the present location of Memorial Hall.

Recognizing that the derelict 10-acre plot was not sufficient for the Academy's continued growth, school officials began expanding the grounds, buying several neighboring parcels of land from the 1840s through the 1870s, and also enlarging the land by the construction of sea walls, with expansions on the east (1851) and north (1853) of the grounds considerably increasing the academy's acreage; the latter addition resulted in the creation of a new drill field (then called the "upper" drill field) between Stribling Row and the Severn River. Additional extensions to the sea wall in 1867, 1874, and 1894 gradually pushed the northern boundary of the campus further into the Severn.

The largest expansion came in 1889, when 15 acres of land were purchased along College Creek; about half of this included a large, flat patch of land to which the parade grounds were immediately moved. Along with the expanded drill field was an expansion in available housing. The Middies' rush to move into the brand-new accomodations, which contrasted sharply with the degrading quarters spangling the rest of campus, led to several cadets nicknaming the grounds Oklahoma, in reference to concurrent Land Rush in the western territory.

Throughout the early years of the academy, athletics were a relative non-factor. While rowing and sailing activities naturally figured into the school's curriculum, virtually no organized competitions of any kind took place until the postbellum years of 1866-1867 under the encouragement of Vice Admiral David D. Porter. Of the terrestrial sports, baseball figured to be the most popular, though football started in 1879. These events likely took place in an ad-hoc manner on whichever of the school's parade grounds were available at any given time.

The Oklahoma Parade Ground did not become the Middies' primary athletic field until 1901, when construction began on Bancroft Hall, the cadets' newest dorm. That was not the only change taking place in Annapolis: the turn of the century corresponds with the replacement of nearly every building on Academy grounds. The old Fort Severn was initially spared the ax, but was demolished in 1909 after structural concerns arose. Today, the only buildings which pre-date the 20th century are the Officers' Quarters (built along Upshur Road from 1893-1898) and two small buildings flanking Gate #3 (the Main Gate): The Waiting Room (built 1878) and the Guard House (built 1881, now the site of 1845 Coffee). Simultaneously, the sea wall on the southeast side of the grounds was enlarged, creating a new parade ground at the end of King George St along the Severn. Just before the completion of the new parade grounds in 1910, the old Oklahoma grounds were named Worden Field in honor of John L. Worden, naval officer in charge of the USS Monitor during the ship's famed Civil War skirmish [1] [2]:(155-160, 262-263, 267-268, 280-281, 334-337, 408-412) [3].

The first athletics to move to the newly-created land were the track and field sports, whose practices (if not their formal events) moved to the south end of the new parade grounds in the summer of 1905; though I've found no description of the move, a change was hinted in the 1905 Lucky Bag, with photographs also showing the area in the background. The track was formally outfitted by 1909, and shown on the 1910 campus map. Finally, in December 1910, it was decided to divorce their athletic events from the parade grounds and build a real, genuine steel and concrete bleacher seating 5,200 persons all on the southwest side of the field; another couple thousand temporary seats could be added around the field as needed. Rumor has it that the steel procured for the stadium was originally intended for battleships -- sometimes, specifically the USS Washington, left incomplete after the enactment of the Washington Naval Treaty -- that were scrapped. (If the Washington part is accurate, it could only be true of a later addition.)

Work began in January 1911, and at a cost of $22,000 (just over $750,000 in 2026) the structure was finished by late August, hosting a freshmen track meet for its first action; the plant was initially named Buchanan Field * for Capt. Franklin Buchanan, Confederate commander of the CSS Virginia, as well as the first superintendent of the Naval Academy. The Middies' gridiron team, however, played their first three games of the season on old Worden Field, presumably to give the new grass time to take root -- after all, the field was built on grounds that had, until recently, been open ocean, not terra firma, and was started less than 9 months ago. Navy coach Douglas Howard was said to be "not at all pleased" with the change in venue, objecting to the hardness of the grounds. Despite Howard's misgivings, the Midshipmen formally dedicated the venue on October 21st, 1911 in a game against Princeton which ended in a scoreless tie [4] [5].

Two changes took place in 1915 and 1916. The first change was that of the venue's name: the parade grounds and athletic field were renamed Farragut Field, in honor of David Farragut -- a naval officer remembered for breaking the blockade of Mobile Bay by uttering the now-famous phrase "Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead!" -- as part of a campus-wide effort to give the buildings (many of which had been heretofore unnamed since being built from scratch in 1898) titles honoring famous Navy men. The second change: baseball returned to Worden Field, joining lacrosse and soccer as the only terrestrial sports at the old athletic grounds. According to athletic officials, baseball had "harden[ed] the ground," forcing it to be resodded annually ahead of football season. They remained at Worden Field until 1923, when Lawrence Field (now Bishop Stadium) opened.

It had long been felt that the seating capacity at Farragut Field was too small; temporary stands were needed for its very first game, after all. With the Navy's athletic prowess growing, more games became sellouts (in name only -- attendance to Navy games was still largely free to the sporting public), reaching a boiling point during the 1920 Georgetown game, which was attended by at least 15,000 persons -- three times the permanent seating capacity. Because of space limitations, the 1922 Penn State game and the 1923 Princeton game were relocated to Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland respectively. It was decided ahead of the 1924 football season that the old southern stand would be enlarged by 11 rows, and have a press box built atop it. A 7,500-seat stand would be added along the northern sideline, giving the plant a revised capacity of 13,000 persons, though temporary stands and standing-room ticket sales allowed upwards of 20,000 persons. A practice field was also built adjacent to the stadium to minimize wear and tear [6].

In 1926, a series of floodlights were installed around the field, and in 1928 a new scoreboard was installed; a clock was added atop it some time between 1937 and 1939. The lights were only used to extend practice: a night football game was not held on Academy grounds until 1985. Two other changes came in 1931, the first being the renaming of the venue to Thompson Stadium in honor of Col. Robert Means Thompson, an early and active proponent of athletics at the Naval Academy; his leadersghip precipitated the creation of the Academy's first athletic association in 1890. The field was dedicated during a late-May joint baseball game / track and field competition against Ohio State, whose representatives planted one of their mascot Buckeye trees at the edge of Farragut Field. The second change was that it would now cost money to see the Middies play; while it was inaugurated as an effort to benefit unemployment (with a portion of ticket sales going towards relief efforts), the sailors never made an about-face. The change was likely coming anyhow: the Athletic Association had been operating at a deficit the previous two seasons [7].

Despite the improvements, it was increasingly clear that maintaining Thompson Stadium was akin to bailing water out of a sinking ship: the last major update to the plant was the improvement of the press box in 1938; images appear to also show an improvement in lighting in the 1940s, but I have been unable to confirm a date. A review of the Academy's campus in 1939 called the stadium "inadequate and badly placed," highlighting both its size deficiencies and the Academy's desperate need for more buldings to house and educate its expanding enrollment. Not to mention, the stadium was in increasing need of a refurbishment. Indeed, the Midshipmen played an average of just 1-1/4 home games a season from 1947-1958 (including none in 1938 and 1950), often relocating well-selling games to either Baltimore Municipal Stadium or Norfolk's Foreman Field. To that end, the Navy Athletic Association purchased a plot of land just across College Creek and drew up plans for a new plant in October 1941. Plans to push Academy grounds eastward by dredging and infilling a new seawall were also broached for the first time since the late 1890s.

As most readers know, the Navy became a little preoccupied in December 1941, resulting in stadium expansion plans getting tabled. They languished for more than a decade after the war until they were finally revived in the early- to mid-1950s. In total, 53 acres of land were added to the campus, allowing for the expansion of Bancroft Hall. Navy's only home game in 1958, its season-opener against William & Mary, was played in a half-demolished stadium, as the old southwestern stands had been removed to begin construction on Halsey Field House; about 15,000 seats were realized through the construction of temporary stands. Perhaps fittingly, the game was played in a pouring rain. The field remained in that condition for about another year, with photos showing lacrosse was held in Thompson Stadium through 1960 [5] [8].

While the football field was no more, the old stands lived on: they were dismantled and in March 1960 shipped halfway around the world, to the Fleet Recreation Center at Subic Bay Naval Base, in the Phillipines. The athletic field itself continued to see use for football scrimmages, as well as minor athletics use, especially track and field, and was increasingly called Thompson Field thanks to its largely-seatless status. All athletic action came to a close in August 1979 with the opening of Ingram Field and the improvements to the (relocated) Farragut Field, which had shifted to the new infill southeast of Bancroft Hall; none of the old drill grounds are encompassed in the footprint of modern Farragut Field. Construction then immediately began on Lejeune Hall, which opened three years later, in 1982; it has remained the Navy's indoor swimming facility ever since [9] [10].

* It's not always clear whether the Buchanan and Farragut names were applied to the entire complex of athletic field and parade grounds, or only the latter. While a 1911 article (cited elsewhere) noted "all 'Varsity games will be played on the new football field, Buchanan Field, on the lower parade ground," a 1913 article wrote that games would take place on "the new athletic field, adjoining Buchanan Field." Further, a 1931 article noted the venue had "long [been] without a title" until named for Thompson. Whether the names were considered formally applied or not, I have chosen to refer to the grounds as Buchanan Field and Farragut Field because it was commonly referred to as such throughout its early life.

Pictures of Thompson Stadium

The first two sets of images are of the first parade grounds and Worden Field; though NC State never played at either venue, I felt it worthwhile to document them due to the dearth of readily-available information covering them. Indeed, many period newspapers claimed the NC State football games were at Worden Field.