Our Past Is Present July 25, 2018

July 25, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

 Rathert Stadium or Rathert Field???? This question was recently discussed and resolved on a July 16 “JC Now” program following research done in our Research Center.   So, which is it? Well, let’s take a look back at what was going on in 1936 and remind ourselves that people had just gone through the Great Depression.  To avoid thinking about that difficult time in people’s lives, some turned to baseball.  Some of the citizens of Junction City wanted to participate in the Ban Johnson League, the premier Midwestern Baseball semi-pro league and… there needed to be a quality place to play the games. 

There was a fundraising campaign to build a stadium not just for baseball, but also   other sports to be played in a stadium on the west side of town. However, in the end it was primarily used for baseball.

One of the fundraising activities was a campaign to have people buy bags of concrete. The goal was 3,000 sacks of concrete. Citizens were asked to buy as few as one or as many as fifty sacks of cement to help with the project.

The cost of building the stadium was $53,073.74.  It was the largest WPA project in Junction City.  The name was given to the stadium after Arthur Rathert, the city engineer, who spent a lot of time working out the plans to get the stadium built. 

The first game was played July 18, 1937. 1,400 fans watched the Jay Cees play Concordia. The Jay Cees lost 6 to 8. The late Marilyn Heldstab and former Executive Director of the Geary County Historical Society attended the first game at the stadium in 1937.  She was five years old at the time.

So… Rathert Stadium or Rathert Field???  In a resolution signed by the then Acting Mayor of Junction City and attested to by the City Clerk Louise Hicks, the resolution read: “BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND COMMISSIONERS OF THE CITY OF JUNCTION CITY: That the Athletic Field and Stadium located at the west end of 13^th Street be and is hereby designated “Rathert Field” and be it further resolved, that Rathert Field shall be used for athletic games requiring the facilities there at.”

            Adopted this 12^th day of July, 1937. 

And… that’s today’s story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.