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Roanoke's Victory Stadium first opened in 1942 as a replacement for old Maher Field. When it was demolished in 2006, its field was incorporated into River's Edge Park.

Overall, NC State had a record of 2-0 at this field, going 1-0 in conference games, and 1-0 when ranked.

  * Non-conference games

As the 1930s turned to the 1940s, dissatisfaction with Roanoke's old Maher Field (the former Fair Grounds) was mounting. The multi-use field had been privately owned since its construction in 1906, first by the Roanoke Agricultural Association, and then by the Norfolk & Western railroad. With nearby Lynchburg building the concrete City Stadium in 1939, even the long-standing VMI-Virginia Tech game (which had been held in Roanoke annually since 1907) began threatening to relocate. The need to improve the grounds grew impossible to ignore. It was ultimately decided to build a new concrete or steel stadium on the Maher Field lot in conjunction with a new armory, hoping to utilize federal WPA funding.

Demolition to old Maher Field began immediately after the close of the 1940 Thanksgiving Day game, with initial projections anticipating the new stadium, initially termed Roanoke Municipal Stadium, to be ready by the same date in 1941. In order to allow for federal assistance with the project, the N&W donated the land to the city. The project was delayed a handful of times, first for a federal pre-war construction hault, then difficulty acquiring steel, and later as questions about funding arose. Work on the venue, which included an up-to-date press box on the western side, was substantially complete by late July [1].

The 1941 season proved what is technically the end of old Maher Field I's life. However, the name of the venue lives on to this day in the form of a baseball diamond at the west end of the plant. Built on a plot at the western edge of the property, a lighted softball diamond was constructed on the grounds in 1941 and upfitted for the semi-pro Roanoke Red Sox (also called the RoSox) in 1943 at the club's expense. Both grounds retained the Maher name and utilized about 4,000 seats of the old wooden bleachers left over from the fair days. To differentiate the ballfield, I have dubbed it Maher Field II [2].

The 24,540-seat, $300,000 (just under $6 million in 2025) concrete and steel stadium formally opened that Fall, hosting its first action on September 12th, 1942, with Jefferson and William Fleming High Schools playing the opener. Originally, games ahead of mid-October (including the collegiate opener between Virginia Tech and Catawba) were to be played on the temporary playing field built in 1941 directly adjacent to the stadium so as to give the grass time to grow, but the groundskeeper's request proved unpopular: the venue had been built using considerable local revenue in the midst of a way, and by golly, the local populace wanted to see it put to use. High school, semi-pro Dixie League football, and collegiate action all commenced in what was at the time the largest stadium in the state; it remained the state's largest off-campus stadium for the duration of its life [3].

Those games were all held on a field with a couple of sobriquets. Some fans retained the name Maher Field in deference to the defunct former grounds, as well as the entire complex on which the stadium sat, though it's worth highlighting that the new football field was never formally given that name. Most called it Roanoke Municipal Stadium or variations thereof; sometimes "at Maher Field" was appended to the name. This confusion was settled on October 27th, 1942, when the name Victory Stadium was adopted on what was meant to be a temporary basis. "After the dawn of peace, with victory achieved," explained the City Council, "it is recommended that this name be reviewed." Dedication was formally made during the Thanksgiving Day Virginia Tech-VMI game [4].

Lighting came to the stadium in 1947, though actual implementation of the lights was shadowed by difficulties. When the stadium was originally under construction, conduits were run and poles erected for use in the future, but when that time finally came, it was found the existing poles were too weak to support the weight of the heavy floodlights ordered. New steel poles were ordered, but were delayed several months due to nationwide steel and coal strikes. Once the lights and poles were finally installed in late October, transformers became scarce. All told, the lights weren't operable until April. At the same time, the city decided to install a "midget" racetrack inside the confines of the stadium [5].

As far as improvements to the stadium go, that was about it; plans to make a 40,000-seat horseshoe by rounding out the southern end never materialized. In 1957, a pedestrian bridge over the adjacent Roanoke River was completed, replacing almost a decade of temporary pontoon bridges erected by the Marines. In 1966, a new scoreboard was installed, and in 1989, the playing surface was renamed McLelland Field in honor of long-time local sports writer and amateur football coach, Bob McLelland; this was part of the general upfitting of the Maher Field complex to the more modern Rivers Edge Sports Complex that also saw the baseball diamond (Maher Field II) improved. In 1998, the stadium's bermuda grass was replaced with bluegrass while improved drainage and irrigation systems were put in. At some point in its life, some of the wooden seats were replaced with aluminum, but the job was never quite completed. And obviously, the "temporary" name of Victory Stadium stuck [6].

On the western edge of the property, the development of Maher Field II was not all that different. The diamond used from 1943 until 1954, when a series of legal battles put the ballfield out of commission. After Red Sox ownership suspended the Star City's baseball league midway through the 1953 season, it was assumed the field would revert to amateur use, but unfortunately, the matter was not that simple. First, the old stands were condemned for the final time, marking the end of the road for the old "Splinter Bowl" seating. Then, there was an outstanding lien against the Red Sox; in order to pay off the balance, the lights, sound system, and anything else furnished by the baseball team was liquidated at auction, requiring Roanoke to rehabilitate the field oncemore. The mostly-bleacherless field remained through 1986, when it was torn down and rebuilt as part of a plan to modernize the complex and rebrand as River's Edge Park. The new field, which opened in 1989, was oriented with pitchers facing southwest; the old field faced southeast [7].

From 1991-1994, and again in 1997, full-size stock car racing returned to the stadium for the first time since 1952, using Bowman Gray Stadium as a go-by; unbelievably, no major improvements besides the placement of temporary concrete construction barriers on race days were required. The same raceway that was laid in 1947 and re-paved in 1976 -- so the stadium could host high school track meets -- was used as the course. Racing was the first professional event to utilize the stadium since the Roanoke Buckskins (Atlantic Coast Football League, 1969-1971), and was followed only by the Roanoke Wrath semi-pro soccer team (1998-2000) [6].

Though the stadium was not oft-improved, that doesn't mean it didn't have a legacy. It held the annual "Military Classic of the South" between Virginia Tech and VMI on (or after) Thanksgiving annually from 1913 to 1971, as well as the fundraising "Harvest Bowl" from 1958 to 1969. But perhaps the stadium's most noteworthy event was in 1961, when 20 black members of the Colts and Steelers threatened to boycot a pre-season NFL game held in the stadium in protest of their refusal to integrate spectator seating in the venue. Eventually, city officials relented, seating was integrated, and the game went on as scheduled; the Colts lost 24-20. Another important legacy of the bowl was its hosting of the Western Virginia Education Classic (WVEC) from 2000 to 2005, which pitted two HBCUs against one another for local charities [8].

Despite its storied history and many long-time fans, age was taking a toll on the Magic City's shining star. While a segment of residents had long been wearying of their increasingly-oversized public stadium, local sentiment really turned against the structure in the 1990s, when a series of op-ed pieces were published lambasting the decrepit venue. Sportswriter Jack Bogaczyk called the plant "a dilemma along the river," criticizing the splintering wooden seats, "small and dingy" locker rooms, dank bathrooms, and outmoded facilities, while others noted the lack of parking and dim lighting. And at nearly 25,000 seats, the space was too cavernous to suit the needs of semi-pro or high school teams, but too small for most professional or collegiate programs in the area. And to boot, the field was at least 5 feet below the flood plain.

By the 2000s, age- and flood-related damage to the stadium had become irreconcilable: repairs were tabulated at upwards of $14 million (almost $29 million in 2025). The main reason for its continued survival was that Roanoke's local high schools, William Fleming and Patrick Henry, needed somewhere to play. In 2001, the city elected to build a new multi-use stadium at a different site by 2004, but plans to move stalled as the decision was mired in controversies in whether the stadium should be preserved as a historic landmark or not. Additionally, lawsuits focusing on the verbiage of the deed gifting Victory Stadium to the city emphasized that the property could revert to Norfolk & Southern ownership if the stadium was demolished. With perhaps a dash of nostalgia, public sentiment seemed to be turning back towards the behemoth. "Walking across that bridge [over the Roanoke River] and seeing those parking lots fill up," reminisced Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer, "that was about as big as it got for a kid from Hillsville, Virginia."

The old Maher Field site was noted to have flooded several times, and the same was true of the stadium; the Roanoke River a constant presence throughout the venue's life. Local journalist M. Rupert Cutler noted water marks from several floods throughout the structure, the tallest among them measuring up to eight feet off the ground. That high-water mark was bested in September 2004, when the remnents of Hurricane Jeanne flooded the region. Even before the deluge, the venue was considered structurally suspect. But damage from the floodwaters led to inspectors ruling much of the upper stadium unsafe ahead of the 2005 football season, forcing the city to make hasty repairs right at the beginning of football season. Temporary bathrooms had to be brought in, a temporary press box constructed, and new entrances to the non-condemned portions of the stands divined. "We aren't trying to restore it," explained city facilities director Mina Boyd, "we're just making it usable" [9] [10].

By May 2006, it was announced that the stadium would be coming down. The high schools would play one season of games on a migratory basis while the their respective stadiums were constructed, sharing the newer of the two (Patriot Stadium, at Patrick Henry) from 2007 until 2009, when William Fleming's Miller Field opened. Tear-down on the sexagenarian concrete stadium moved swiftly, starting June 26th and wrapping up on July 5th. As if to show its displeasure, the stadium flooded one last time during demo. And keeping with the stadium's tradition of its seating outliving the field, the bleachers were purchased for use at Ferrum College's W. B. Adams Stadium.

The rest of old Maher Field was merged with South Roanoke Park in 1989 to make the River's Edge Sports Complex. This initially consisted of Maher Field II (baseball) and Victory Stadium on the north of the river and two baseball fields, four multi-use athletic fields, and six tennis courts, as well as a smaller athletic field behind the baseball diamonds. Victory Stadium's former land was turned into four athletic fields; the stadium proper's was the second easternmost of the bunch. This remained the case until 2019, when that field was bisected in order to convert the four northern athletic fields into two premier fields and a practice lot [11].

Pictures of Victory Stadium