Establishment Bell Field opened at Oregon Agricultural College (OAC, today's
Oregon State University) in 1909. With a conventional north-south orientation, its low-profile seating was mostly covered in a
horseshoe configuration, opening to the north, at an
elevation of above
sea level.
Namesake The facility was as named after J.R.N. "Doc" Bell, an early supporter of the college and its athletic teams. John Richard Newton Bell was born January 25, 1846, in
Pulaski County, Virginia and fought in the
26th Virginia Infantry Battalion of the
Confederate States Army during the
American Civil War. After the war ended, he attended Wytheville College in Virginia, from which he would eventually earn a
Doctor of Divinity degree in 1871. He made his way to Oregon by way of
Arkansas in the spring of 1874, He was touted as the "oldest grand lodge chaplain in the history of
Masonry," with 47 years of continuous service, at the time of his death. This construction, costing $21,000 (about $385,000 in 2025 dollars) increased total seating at the facility to 18,000. A natural grass field for football was first installed at Bell Field in 1937; the surface was previously a mixture of dirt and
sawdust. Such a field surface was not unique in the
Northwest in the
Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) —
Hayward Field in
Eugene,
Multnomah Stadium in
Portland, and
Husky Stadium in
Seattle made similar transitions to natural grass in this era. The Beavers' sole win in the PCC that season was the following week in the
Civil War game in Portland. The only game in
1953 in Corvallis was the opener for Parker Stadium on November 14, a 7–0 win over
Washington State.
As a track-only facility After
Parker Stadium opened in 1953, most of the seating at Bell Field was removed, but it continued to host the school's
track and field program on a cinder track until March 1974, after which it was torn down. Bell Field was located directly west of the
baseball field (today's
Goss Stadium at Coleman Field) and parallel to its first base line. The
Dixon Recreation Center, opened in 1976, occupies the former Bell Field site. A new
all-weather track facility opened on the south end of campus in 1974, aligned northeast-southwest, and was named Wayne Valley Field the following year. OSU dropped its track programs (men & women) after the 1988 season, and the facility was removed in the 1990s, now occupied by the softball stadium and a gravel parking lot. The women's track team was reintroduced at OSU in fall
2004 and the new Whyte Track and Field Center opened in September 2012. Adjacent to the southeast and lighted for night use, its alignment is nearly east-west, angled slightly northeast. It is bounded by 15th Street on the east and Philomath Boulevard (
US 20) on the south. ==References==