My recent post on the Baseball Riot of 1903 gave me a nudge to finish up a bit of research that had previously only been a vague set of questions. And, the history of Athletic Park in Chippewa Falls did not disappoint. So lets talk about it's rise, heyday, decline, fall and revival, shall we?
I suppose there is no way to know just when baseball - and other things - were first played here. In the 19th century, heck on into our times, kids got a pickup game going on any open space. But it is safe to assume that there was nothing organized before the Great Floods of 1880/84. And a birdseye view from 1885 shows nothing but an empty field.
But in 1894 a couple of local businessmen got their act together and built something more substantial. Nice leveled off field, grandstand bleachers. Interestingly the accounts of the day suggest that there were some previous bleachers but that they were not that great. So I'd theorize that the site was in use for playing ball starting at some point between 1885 and 1894. Here's the best view of Athletic Park, from a birdseye view created in 1906.
Chippewa River behind the grandstands. Canal street off a ways beyond the outfield fence. Not too much else right at hand, although as I mentioned previously somewhere nearby was the Rosseau House, pioneer boozery of our fair community. It survived the floods and was moved to someplace very close to the ball field. I'm not sure which building. And to put a sort of end point on the story, here's a plat map from 1938...it shows the site vacant. But not forgotten! Construction of the city ball field on the spot must have come later. Post WWII I figure.
So, on to what happened on the grounds of Old Athletic Park.
The history begins, naturally for baseball, in the spring. Of 1894 specifically. The May 15th edition of the local paper announces that a five acre lot "on the South Side" had been purchased and that work was about to start. The primary purpose was baseball but there was mention of also putting in a bicycle track. An ice skating rink came later.
By the end of May games were already being played. It was mentioned that ladies got free admission, and that there were provisions for 40 - 50 carriages....you could watch the ball game from the comfort of your 19th century horse n' buggy!
By June construction had begun on a grand stand that could hold 700-800 fans. Brief mention that it was much sturdier than an earlier structure could mean there had been previous play on the site....or maybe they just tossed out some simple bleachers in May.
It's not easy recounting the ball games, and other things, that happened at Athletic Park. It is clearly a story too long for a casual posting - and too short for a book. So here's a sampling. Bear in mind that this was a privately run, for profit enterprise, and so the level of hype and hoopla is significant.
There were of course amateur teams representing most of the area communities. Eau Claire, Mondovi, Rice Lake. And further afield, from places like Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
Of somewhat greater interest were the specialty teams. Married Men vrs. the Less Fortunate. Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire Post Office employees squaring off. There was a game between railroad union members from Chippewa Falls and from the adjacent suburb of Irvine, aka Wallerville.
Businessmen took on Bankers, the two high schools in town played each other (usually in football), enigmatic local teams such as The Crescents and Moonshiners played for a $20 "stake".
Some of the games thus undertaken are a bit, well, jarring to modern sensibilities. In 1910 a team called Baby Bliss' Fat Men came to town. The aforementioned Baby Bliss was a 640 pound catcher, with the rest of the team of like proportions. They came out of Waterloo Iowa, courtesy of the Fat Men's Amusement Company.*
In 1901 a team of Native Americans came up from Nebraska. The Nebraska Redskins took on the Chippewa Whites.
On at least two occasions local Gun Clubs held competitive pigeon shoots. Not clay pigeons, real ones. In 1896 one such 3 hour exhibition had the Chippewa Falls squad beating the Eau Claire group by a tally of 48 - 47 dead birds.
Of the most interesting game played I'll have more to say on another occasion. But this was an era of "Bloomer Baseball". No, not teams from the neighboring community of Bloomer, but "girls" teams that barnstormed playing men's teams. In August of 1909 The Chicago Ladies came to town. As was generally the case, there were a couple of guys on the team, usually playing higher skilled positions such as pitcher and catcher. They were expected to wear wigs. I'm not sure if they had to wear skirts, or later the weird short pants called "bloomers" after the Suffragette, Amelia Jenks Bloomer!
As the years went by things started changing at Athletic Park. There were more football games. And the facility must have gone down hill a bit. By 1911 it was referred to as Old Athletic Park, and by 1919 it was just called the Southside Ball park. By then the newspaper was openly saying a new field was necessary, and indeed one was built at the current fairgrounds around that time. The last game I can find referenced was in June of 1919, and it was noted that the field was in poor shape with lots of tall grass growing up.**
We've certainly seen in modern times that sports facilities are built, age, decline. Communities build newer, better ones. At this point in history the South Side really was a seedy part of town. And perhaps the disruption of World War I and the subsequent influenza pandemic contributed to the grass growing tall on a once busy sports complex.
-------------------------------------------------
* Here's the sad story of Baby Bliss. The team was short lived but amazingly there are some surviving photos and jerseys out there....
** Another factor may have been the death of Maurice Poznanski, one of the businessmen who launched this venture. He passed in 1917. Odd that his name is still on the property map two decades later. Especially since the Poznanski had by the time of his death, moved to Minneapolis and changed his name to Pond.
