When Kent State Normal College established its first football team in 1920, the team played at
Rockwell Field, which was also shared with the
baseball team. Rockwell Field was plagued by poor drainage and sod issues and the school found it difficult to schedule home games because of the poor state of the field. In 1939, construction started on new athletic fields along Summit Street with the hope of eventually building a permanent stadium, a project funded by the
Works Progress Administration. The area was on what was then the far southwestern edge of the campus, previously known as the College Farm. It was completed in 1941 and included temporary bleacher seating and a cinder track around the field. Adjacent to the football field and track was a baseball field. The first game at the new field, which was initially just referred to as the Athletic Field, was on September 27, 1941, a 58–0 Kent State win over
Bluffton College. After World War II ended, the university saw an increase in male enrollment, so additional facilities were built in the area around what was eventually called Memorial Field. A new physical education building for men, now known as the
Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, was built on the hill overlooking Memorial Stadium and opened in December 1950. The university's first men's dorm, Stopher Hall, had opened in 1948, just north of the eventual site of the new gym. . The
Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center can be seen on the left The drive to build a permanent stadium was organized in 1946, led by a committee made up of students, alumni, faculty, and local residents who raised approximately $60,000 in two years. Long-range plans initially called for permanent seating to form a horseshoe around the field and seating for 30,000 people. The first game held at the new stadium was on October 14, 1950, a 57–0 win over
Marietta College. That was also the stadium's dedication game, where it was dedicated to the 113 KSU students who had died during World War II. The main grandstand sat 5,600 people and included a press box. Auxiliary bleacher seating was placed on the opposite side of the field for an initial capacity of approximately 7,000. Additional auxiliary bleachers would be added on either side of the grandstands and in the end zones over the years, finally bringing capacity to 20,000 by 1965. For the 1965 season, the 20,000-seat capacity made the stadium the largest in the
Mid-American Conference until the opening of
Doyt Perry Stadium at
Bowling Green State University the following year. During their stay at Memorial Stadium, Kent State joined the Mid-American Conference in 1951 and qualified for their first bowl game, the 1954 Refrigerator Bowl. The stadium also hosted the 1968 MAC track and field championships.
Replacement as the north end zone seats As early as 1964, there were discussions about building a new stadium as the campus continued to expand in the late 1950s and 1960s. By the mid 1960s, university leaders were planning a new university center that was based around a new library and student center and a row of science buildings. Memorial Stadium would also likely need upgrades to help it keep pace with other facilities in the MAC, so building on a new site was the preferred choice. Rather than build completely new, though, the new stadium, which was also called Memorial Stadium for its first four seasons, was considered an expansion and relocation of the old stadium as all of Memorial Stadium's main seating areas were dismantled in 1969 and moved to the new site further down Summit Street where they were reassembled in a new configuration. The original south grandstand was moved to be the north end zone seats at the new stadium, while the north grandstand became the south end zone. The auxiliary seating sections that had been adjacent to the grandstands at Memorial Stadium were placed along the east sideline of the new stadium. ==Facilities==