Though it was expressly built for Spartans football, Phillips Field nevertheless played host to other
college football contests. It was the site of the
Cigar Bowl, the area's first college
bowl game, which was played from 1946 to 1954. The
Florida Gators scheduled several home games at the facility during the 1930s and 1940s, and the
Bethune-Cookman Wildcats also played several home games there in the 1950s and 1960s. At the
high school level,
Middleton High School and
Blake High School, two
segregated local schools, shared Phillips Field for home games and ended their seasons there with a well-attended rivalry game. At the professional level, Phillips Field was used by various local
semi-pro football squads and hosted
barnstorming and other exhibition games, including several
NFL preseason contests in the mid-1960s that helped Tampa earn an eventual expansion franchise. When
Tampa Stadium was completed in 1967, the University of Tampa acquired Plant Field from the city of Tampa and Phillips Field fell into disuse. The land was sold and the stadium razed in the early 1970s, and
Tampa Preparatory School and Julian Lane Park were built at its former location. ==References==