Here is an interesting article from hustlebelt.

http://www.hustlebelt.com/2017/6/1/15723...ck-in-time

Dear ljmhurons,
The article leaves out, a forgotten part of Eastern's athletic history. That being that Briggs Hall was the first part of what was to be the first field house for Eastern. It contained locker rooms, and a tiny indoor track. It was converted to classrooms after Bowen Field House was opened in 1956. (If I have that date correct) However the locker rooms were still used by the football team for their home games until Rynearson was opened in 1969.
Nice photos of the stadium. I don't know if Eastern was hoping that Walter O. Briggs would donate more money to complete the field house, but he died in 1952, (I believe) and his son "Spike" Briggs, was not interested in pouring any more money into Eastern's facilities, as I understand.

Looks like there was a nice baseball stadium next to it.

I see we had a track around the stadium but interesting enough, we allowed spectators to stand at the end zone. I would like to see our band at one end zone and spectators at the other end when we renovate Rynearson.

Dear WoodenNickle,
That baseball stadium had more room for spectators than the present Ostrike stadium. Don't know why it was built with the number of spectators that it could hold, because Eastern only had a few thousand students at the time, and when I was a freshman, and went to a few baseball games, there were only a few dozen people there.

When I was a tour guide we were taught that the Tigers used to play games there as a fun fact to share with campus visitors.

Dear KPJ,
In the early fifties the Lions held there training camp at Eastern. I don't know if there was any connection to the Tigers, but they were there. Do you know if there were many people there to watch the Tigers?

Awesome article, great read. Amazing to see the transformation.