A Field of Legacy: The Origins & History of the Satchel Paige Stadium Site

Photo by Marc Viquez, Stadium Journey

When you think about ballparks in Kansas City, you might think of Kaufman Stadium, which has been the home of the Royals since 1973. Recently rumors of the team moving to a downtown venue have floated around. The stadium with the fountains in the outfield continues to serve as home to major league baseball. However, another stadium in town has stood the test of time for much longer.

If you drive by Satchel Paige Stadium at 51st and Swope Parkway, you will see a small stadium with a covered grandstand gearing up to host the Kansas City Hormigas of the Pecos League this summer. What is more interesting is the number of sports the site has hosted dating back well over a century.

In 1904 one could have bought an acre of land for $850. The Prosso Preparatory School for Boys was created which included a two-story building with a basement. It is unknown if any sports were played on site, but in 1909 the school shut its doors and soon another organization would establish the site for athletic activities in October 1915.

The intersection of 51st & Swope was s boys school in 1905 and a baseball field in 1916.

The Kansas City Field Club was organized with 500 members and built a diamond, a swimming pool, a golf course, and tennis courts. The club signed a 20-year lease and remodeled the old school building, including dormitories, lounge area, dining hall, lockers, baths, and showers. The 11-acre site would be the home and devoted entirely to amateur athletics.

“It will satisfy a need which Kansas City has been unable to fulfill for years,” said club director W.P. Felix in the Kansas City Post.

The baseball field was on the southwest corner of 51st and Swope Parkway, the same location as where home plate is today. The field club had two baseball teams but by the spring of 1920, interest waned due to war efforts depleting many of its members. 

It led to the Georgian Gardens Company taking over the property in October. They turned the diamond into a summer garden for outdoor entertainment and then flooded it during the winter for ice skating.  The company’s purpose was to provide copious amounts of entertainment options in Kansas City. 

Much of that changed on the night of September 13, 1923,  when a fire broke out at the clubhouse that spread quickly. Members and co-workers escaped by sliding down a gutter pipe and through second-floor windows. Crane himself woke up to a room full of smoke, tied a white sheet to his bedpost, and rappelled to safety, even though the sheet gave way halfway down.

The first diamond and grandstand were constructed in 1916 by the Kansas City Field Club, photo Kansas City Public Library.

The game was still played on the grounds; the Masonic League operated leagues, and the Order of DeMolay attempted to secure $75,000 to erect an athletic field on the site. In June 1924, a benefit baseball game between Kansas City and St. Louis Masonic temples at Muehlebach Field, with all proceeds going towards the new stadium. It does not appear that it was enough to erect a stadium.

For the next several years, the field was used for amateur leagues and summer golf lessons before plans arose in 1936 to resurrect the old Kansas City Field Club with a new concrete ballpark, softball fields, and field lights. The proposed 5,000-seat ballpark would house auto racing, wrestling, boxing, soccer, and football games. Construction was scheduled to take place in early March, but it remains a mystery almost 90 years later why it never occurred.

Fortunately, a new ballpark would be erected on the site two years later when Ben and George Goldman built Goldman Stadium. The 4,000-seat covered grandstand was described as the finest amateur ballpark in the country, with all the modern comforts and conveniences for fans watching either a Ban Johnson or American Legion baseball game.

A sold-out crowd came out for the first game, and many stood 3-4 rows deep on the ramp. Hundreds watched from the terraces, and many others watched from cars off the Swope Parkway and on top of the bank down the right field line.

“If this is typical of the patronage the boys are going to enjoy in their new home, we’ll make immediate additions to the stands. We can build deeper into right field and deeper into left,” said George Goldman after the first game.

Goldman Stadium opened up as the home of the Ban Johnson League, photo Kansas City Star 1938.

The stadium was equipped with lights for auto racing and night baseball games, much to the chagrin of residents who bickered that the once quiet neighborhood was now a collection of noise, parked cars on the streets, and lights.

“This quiet residence section has been changed into an appalling, noisy, absolutely undesirable one,” said resident James R. Irons. “These things have changed a quiet and restful spot for the aged to a place of such noise as should if allowed at all, be far out in the country.”

What should have been a magical year of baseball was dampened by resident complaints. The shocked Goldman brothers, who built the stadium for the good of man, were perplexed. Auto racing, followed by night baseball was stricken from the schedule. 

The stadium was sold to Athletic Fields, Inc. in September 1940 for $13,500. They planned to continue renting it for Ban Johnson League games but only for day games. Legion Ball attempted day games but left after only five games into the season for another location in town. After the season, the B-J Leagues suspended operations due to not being able to play night games.

The Ban Johnson League played at the site from 1938-1940 & 1945-1968, producing huge crowds in the process.

With the U.S. entry into World War II, the B-J League suspended operations further, and the stadium’s mortgage defaulted, leading to the city purchasing the property. The neighborhood residence still held firm on no nighttime activities. Little excitement took place until the stadium and property were sold in 1945 to the Kansas City Diocese in the name of Bishop V. O’Hara for $12,500.

The grandstand and playing field, which had deteriorated over the last few years, were overhauled. O’Hara’s vision was to have a home for the rapidly growing Catholic athletics and physical education programs in the area. The old bleachers were repaired while new concrete stands were erected down the left field line for football games. The total cost was $100,000, and donations came in from 35 different parishes in the area. Bishop O’Hara was proud of what he saw with the new structure.

“It gives me the greatest pleasure as Bishop of Kansas City to open up the C.Y.C Stadium to the Ban Johnson League under whose auspices clean sport will be conducted for and by the youth representing this section of the city.”

Once completed, the stadium would be home to six high school teams and eleven parochial leagues. Baseball, football, and softball would be played in the newly named Catholic Youth Council Stadium, CYO or CYC Stadium for short. However, Bishop O’Hara made sure that other local amateur and youth leagues were permitted to use the fields, including the Ban Johnson League, after a 5-year hiatus.

Two versions of C.Y.O. Stadium imagined what the stadium would like, neither of them were accurate, photo Kansas City Star 1946.

The property was once again full of life and regularly hosted sporting events throughout the calendar year. By 1946, the site was also used for 185 baseball games in the American Legion, Catholic War Vets, and Jewish Center Softball Leagues to a total of 9,705 participants, and total attendance topped 99,722 people in the post-war boom.

That number would peak at over 100,000 in the next few years, which included 42 CYC parochial leagues and a few more Catholic high schools using the field. The stadium hosted events Monday through Saturday, with up to six games a day at times. Business was good that there was even talk of expanding the stadium’s seating capacity.

There were plans to increase capacity to 10,000 in 1950, which would see the addition of steel bleacher frames and wooden seats down the first base foul and right field lines for $45,000. The campaign also included a field house, swimming pool, and parking facilities for 1,000 cars. However, it appears that these efforts were for not as no other construction took place. 

This diagram from 1950 looks close to today's stadium, without additional seating along Swope Parkway, photo Kansas City Star 1950

In 1959, the stadium was renamed in honor of archbishop O’Hara, who passed away in September 1956. He was vital in rebuilding and reshaping the stadium’s objective when acquired in 1945. A plaque was created and placed at the entrance before the inaugural game of the Ban Johnson League that season.

O’Hara would continue hosting the occasional college football game, and a few semi-pro teams called it home. The Kansas City Steers used it from 1959-1961, followed by the Kansas City Steers in 1968. The stadium housed other events, including boxing matches, concerts, donkey baseball, Christmas tree sales, and 4th of July celebrations.

By 1968, only one of the high schools was using the stadium, and with declining usage, the CYO decided to sell to a land developer who would raze the structure in favor of an apartment complex. However, the plan never materialized.

“One way or another, the needs of the community weren’t the same as when it was built,” said CYO president Carl Migliazzo in 1969. The ballpark had been vacant since the Ban Johnson League left after the 1968 season and only Hogan High School used the field.

The O'Hara Stadium plaque is removed by members of the Kansas City Archdiocese, photo Kansas City Star 1969

The 1970s were a difficult period for the property, with fewer events taking place. The main grandstand had holes, grass, and weeds had taken over, and the old concession area was filled with straw and silt left behind by a horse club that operated there in 1977, according to Kansas City Star reporter George Kope in a 1980 article.

“If you close your eyes really tight, you don't have to look at the tragic effect 12 years of abuse and neglect have brought on what was one of the finest- and busiest amateur sports facilities in Kansas City”

Ollie Gates headed a fundraising committee to help renovate the stadium and was part of the movement, including renaming the stadium after the city’s most famous baseball pitcher, Satchel Paige. The ailing Hall of Famer was 75 years old when he appeared at the stadium’s rededication on June 5, 1982. He threw out the first pitch, greeted fans, gave an interview with a local television station, and thanked everyone for the $250,000 pledge towards renovating the stadium.

Sadly, it would be the Hall of Fame pitcher's last public appearance; less than three days later, he succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 75, or so people thought. His exact age today is still a mystery. His family asked fans to donate to fund the ballpark instead of flowers. A campaign began to help “Pitch in for Paige” that saw contributions of $20,000 raised within the first few months. A new roof, work on the electrical system, and a power wash of the supports took place in October.

“It was a big eyesore in the community. We wanted to do something about that, said Gates to the Kansas City Star in 1990. “And my main interest was to do something for Satchel Paige. The community needed to do something for him, and it was long overdue.”

Due to the effort of Gates and the community, which included all of the major sports teams of the time, a total of $250,000 was donated to renovating the old ballpark. By September 1983, the remodeled Satchel Paige Memorial Stadium opened with a new roof, underground water sprinkler, concession area, and aluminum bleachers replacing the old concrete slabs. Fresh sod was also poured over to cover the weeds.

Satchel Paige Memorial Stadium was considered the nicest baseball complex outside Royals Stadium. Everybody wanted to play there, and dates would get booked as early as late January of the season. Once again, the stadium hosted amateur sports from youth sports, rec league softball, and high school baseball. A few more events were held, including the Kansas City Monarchs Old-Timers Game, a Japanese Rugby match, and summer festival concerts.

The stadium has gone through its ups and downs this century

Well into the 1990s, the stadium hosted a 33-team RBI baseball program, Men’s Senior Baseball Leagues roamed the field, and church leagues were popular. The Kansas City Royals installed a pitching mound, the Kansas City Chiefs played the Los Angeles Raiders in a benefit softball game in 1992, and a new version of the Kansas City Monarchs played in the Jayhawk League during the summer of 1995. After well over a decade of use, the stadiums were still sought after by many in the city.

However, after 12-14 years of use, it once again needed renovations. The grandstand was structurally sound, but the scoreboard was broken, the press box was unstable, the concrete was chipping, and the place needed a paint job. The biggest problem was the drainage system; whenever it rained, the team in the RBI program couldn’t play for 7-8 days.

Efforts were made to help with the stadium, including Anthony Dickson, the head of the city’s RBI program, to clean up the debris left behind at the stadium. He contacted the Royals head groundskeeper Troy Vance and began working on the field. Soon donations came in once again to help level the field, smooth out the infield, give it a paint job, and replace the irrigation system. The generosity of the community helped keep baseball alive and well on the field.

In 2012, the stadium was renovated through the MLB All-Star Legacy funding and public donations. Renovations included an upgraded irrigation system, infield and outfield maintenance, fencing construction and installation, backstop maintenance, installation of a Satchel Paige marker, and other improvements. It hosted the Jr. RBI Classic event for young players to participate in the 2012 MLB All-Star Game at Kaufman Stadium.

In 2021, work was needed on the crumbling bleachers, reinforcing the foundation, replacing the concrete, and once again adding a coat of fresh paint.  A large portion of the retaining wall and sidewalk that borders the stadium was collapsing, which could also engulf the entire grandstand. Other luxury improvements included a synthetic field and a digital scoreboard.

This summer the Hormigas will become the first summer collegiate club to play at the stadium in three decades. The games will be announced in Spanish, feature a live band for all Sunday games, and feature $1 beers on Mondays and Taco Tuesdays. The Hormigas hope to bring a level of excitement not seen in a while at the old ballpark.

Before the club’s arrival work needed to be done on the field that has seen little activity in the past two years. The plumbing was repaired and works properly, while the locker rooms, used for storage, have been cleaned out and are ready for the Hormigas players. A new fence was installed in front of the decaying football bleachers, and a new scoreboard was added. There were a few JV high school baseball games played on the field this past season.

Chris Cotten, Kansas City Parks and Recreation Director, who also reached out to Andrew Dunn of the Pecos League about expanding to Kansas City, wants much more for the ballpark’s future.

“I would like to build a proper throwback stadium to pay homage to the man, instead of slapping his name on the top of the grandstand and coating it with paint. I want to see more activities, including the return of college baseball.”

Cotten added that the water company, KC Water, would rather knock it down since it sits in a 100-year floodplain and is uninsurable through FEMA. He would rather see it knocked down and replaced with a new structure that would stand 500 yards from the floodplain.

Baseball has been played on the same site at 51st and Swope for almost 110 years. The stadium has been home to many baseball and athletic activities in its life, but whenever it seems as if it has played its final inning, it makes another rally. It has been resilient and hopes to be around a little while longer.

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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com