Furman's University Grounds is a largely-retrospective name applied to Furman's home athletic field during their team's earliest years, about 1890-1906, and once again in 1918. Furman eventually began to host athletics at local venues (first League Park, then Augusta Street Park, and finally Riverside Park) before opening Manly Field in 1919.

Overall, NC State had a record of 0-0-1 at this field, tying the sole game they played.

  * Non-conference games

Furman holds an important place in the annals of the Palmetto State's football history, having been one of the participants in the state's first college football games, held in December 1889 and January 1890 against Wofford. Though the Mountaineers, as they were then known, likely practiced somewhere on their own campus, details are scarce. Reflecting on his time as manager of the football team from 1895-1896, alumnus James A. Hoyt recalled that "material was very scarce; there was no football field to speak of... no proper playing field."

Hoyt is correct in saying there was not a "proper" playing field -- a 1903 report indicated the field had no fence, no grandstand, was difficul to access, and was "encumbered with several trees." But games were held on campus; the earliest date I have found was for the 1901 Thanksgiving game between Wofford and Furman, which local papers noted was to be held "on the Furman campus" or "on Furman University Grounds" [1].

Unfortunately, there's a gap in digital newspaper coverage of Greenville from 1905-1910, so the exact development of the grounds is somewhat unclear, but starting around 1907, the university developed Furman Baseball Park, along Arlingtone Ave and Memmenger St. That year coincides with the first season of play of the Spinners, Greenville's local baseball club, who rented the grounds from Furman, leading to the grounds being known as League Park as well. The grounds were also fit up with a running track, allowing the grounds to play host to an annual high school track meet which proved quite popular. In 1915, the grounds were purchased by Henry T. Mills, who parceled the grounds up into several properties [2].

Though disparate from the University Grounds, it's worth covering League Park briefly. After having been used by Greenville-area athletics for about a decade, their sale was impactful. The sale meant Furman's athletics, as well as local baseball teams, had to move. It was briefly assumed the Mountaineers would return to their campus haints (after all, funding for Manly Field had begun as early as 1915), but instead, they moved first to Augusta Street Park (1915-1917), and then the new Riverside Park (1917), neither of which NC State's football team visited. In 1918, though, the Baptists returned back to campus due to the unpopularity of Riverside Park, which was mired by locomotive fumes thanks to its location near the railway yard [3]

Period reports are not entirely clear on where the 1918 grounds were. Preliminary reports ahead of baseball season said that "old diamond at the campus" could be fixed up for a small sum; presumably, this is the same location as the old grounds. Further validating this point is a scathing editorial printed in Furman Hornet complaining of the much-delayed Manly Field project, which opined that:

The old field in question is full of small ditches and washes, and is bordered on all sides by great oak trees, the roots of which grow above the ground in many places, making the playing of baseball and football very difficult and causing many bruises and sprains to the players. The old field is very small, being cooped in on three sides by the city streets and on the other by the buildings of the University. The old field is not surrounded by a fence and when games are played many persons see them without paying the regular admission.

This tirade likely refers to the same trees hemming in the field that the Spinners' owners complained of back in 1910. Additional faults to the revived home grounds included the continued lack of most permanent seating (benches were reportedly built for female spectators; male viewers were not so fortunate) and the presence of a non-negligable incline on the baseball diamond's left field side. Despite (or perhaps thanks to) these shortcomings, the field was pressed into service in short order: the team went from having "no field" in late January 1918 to being game-ready in mid-March. The field was used through the 1919 baseball season, after which it was replaced by Manly Field [4].

So where was this field, then? Though I've been unable to locate the field on a period map, we have a few context clues. The Hornet author's rant hinted that it was an on-campus space closely hemmed in by roadways, and mentions it was developed with the original campus back in 1852. And though no period descriptions (from either its initial usage or the 1918 revival) have been found, three articles from 1919 and 1920 note it was "in front of the library" and faced by Montague Hall. That puts the field on the western part of campus, along Howe Street. Whether the map was north or south of Elkin Choice Avenue (modern-day Bradshaw Street) has been determined based on an undated aerial image showing heavy wear to the north side of the library. The location was slated for beautification and planted with grass in early 1920 [5].

Following a boom in enrollment following World War II and the GI Bill, Furman began looking to expand. In 1955, they opened a third campus (the Women's Campus, which was Furman's old campus before 1854, was the second) north of Greenville and held the first classes. The Paladins finally consolidated the university into a single campus in 1961 and decided to lease the old grounds to help pay off the construction debts. The southern portion of the men's campus was developed in the early 1960s, but it took until 1969 for the Bell Tower Shopping Center to open on the land of the former athletic field; construction had begun in the late 1960s [7].

Pictures of University Grounds