Crowd surrounding first football game on Pratt Field (1910)
Description:
This postcard shows a group of people watching the first football game on International YMCA College's (now Springfield College) Pratt Field. There are people standing on the sidelines while others are seated on the bleachers. Houses and buildings are seen behind the field and to the left side of the image. There are several people entering the gate to the field as well and two tennis courts are visible in the front. The picture is not dated but it can be assumed to have been taken in 1910, since there is no grandstand. Pratt Field was a gift of Mr. Herbert L. Pratt. It consisted, originally, of a quarter-mile track, 220 yard straightaway twenty-four feet wide, eleven runaways and pits for jumping and vaulting, seven tennis courts, a football field, and a baseball diamond. An eight-foot high reinforced concrete fence surrounds the field. The entrances were designed by Edward Lippincourt Tilton, who also designed Springfield's Judd Gymnasium and the Marsh Memorial Building. Part of Pratt field is still used today for track and field, however the name was changed to Blake Field. The original photograph used for the postcard can be seen here:
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