ABOVE) Photos of early Harmon Field development and activities. Includes photos from Bluffton Public Library digital archives.
By Paula Pyzik Scott
7:00 p.m., Friday, October 18, Bluffton High School Football vs. Allen East at Harmon Field
The Bluffton Schools are issuing an invitation to all who played on Harmon Field to attend the 100th anniversary of Harmon Field celebration on October 18 at the Bluffton vs. Allen-East football game.
The community is encouraged to spread the word to Bluffton College and Bluffton High School alumni. Did you play in the band? In soccer or football? Were you a cheerleader or coach?
Harmon Field became the home of Bluffton High School football in 1924. The now familiar stadium was built in 1936 with funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). At the time of the stadium dedication, College Ave. was closed for football games because fans without tickets would simply park nearby, a strategy that cut into gate receipts. In a Bluffton News article on the stadium dedication game–which was a 14-7 loss to Ada High School–paid admission was 846.
BHS Athletic Director Alex Hanna tells the Icon that with the bleachers that have been added to the facility, the highest attendance recorded was 3,790. This was a 2003 game against Columbus Grove. Hanna adds that BHS football games have never and will never sell out.
Or perhaps you participated in or attended a car show, baseball or kittenball game, field day or rodeo on Harmon field. Today the football field is a meticulously groomed grass surface, but at its inception caretakers were proud to note that Harmon Field was in fact mowed.
In past articles, the Bluffton Icon has detailed the origins of Harmon Field and initial funding by the William E. Harmon Foundation (titles).
Bluffton’s love affair with Harmon Field
Why is our football field called Harmon Field
Much information about Harmon Field comes from an archive of letters, purchases, telegrams and photographs in “The Harmon Field Story,” an almost 200-page collection of items by Isaiah B. Beeshy from the 1920s and 1930s: https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll28/id/3347
