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A brief history of Griffith Stadium

Written by John Agan

Friday, 20 November 2009

Currently, there is a committee working on obtaining funding to complete much-needed repairs and improvements at Griffith Memorial Stadium in Minden.

As I have mentioned in previous columns, as a child I was puzzled about why our local baseball stadium was named after the historic home of the hapless Washington Senators. For those of you who are in somewhat the “same boat”, today’s column will be a brief history of Griffith Stadium.

The recreational heritage of the sire of Griffith Stadium in Minden goes back more than a century. Shortly after 1900 a quarter horse racing track was operated on the site by B. F. Griffith of Minden.

Later, Griffith organized the Webster Parish Fair Association in 1906 and the area around the stadium was home to the fair. The entire area that today encompasses the Northwest Campus of the Louisiana Technical College, the Minden Fair Grounds and Griffith Stadium became known as the Webster Parish Fair Grounds.

After 1917, the fair association suspended operation of the annual fair and the prime piece of real estate was left in the hands of the stockholders of the fair. Even as it lay unused, it seemed the land was always intended for a “higher purpose.”

In the late 1920s, when Minden was considered as a possible site for a Junior College, the fair association’s stockholders offered the property as a potential location for the school. Minden lost out in the legislative process, and the college was never built.

By the early 1930s, American Legion baseball games were being played on the current site of the stadium, although there was no grandstand and no fences. The area was also used for recreation by CCC cadets at Camp Meyer, located adjacent to the present stadium.

Shortly after World War II, the property was transferred to the City of Minden, largely through the efforts of B. F. Griffith. Griffith donated his share of the property to the city (he was far and away the main owner) and the minority stockholders followed his lead.

In honor of his services, the Board of Aldermen of the City of Minden voted unanimously to name the entire Fair Grounds as Griffith Park at their meeting on June 2, 1947. That name, while official, never seemed to catch on with the public and was seldom if ever used locally.

In fact, I’ve never found a single reference in local newspapers calling the area Griffith Park. Later, in 1951, the City of Minden donated part of the property to the state for the construction of the Northwest Louisiana Vocational-Technical School, today the Louisiana Technical College.

Eventually, as the semi-professional Minden Redbirds of the Big Eight League outgrew their own Redbird Park, talk turned to erecting a city stadium on the site, since baseball games had been being played there for several decades.

The Redbirds were owned by Larry Hunter, who had also been allowing his private facilities to be used by the City of Minden for its recreation program for many years at the fee of $1 per year. It was proposed that in a move that would be mutually beneficial to both the city and the Hunters, that the city would build a municipal baseball stadium.

On December 16, 1952, the voters of Minden approved a 1-mil property tax for five years beginning in 1953, to construct a municipal stadium and baseball park. The individual vote in favor of the proposition was 216 to 91, and in terms of property valuations, the vote was $975,698 in favor with $436,998 against.

At their first meeting of 1953, the Minden City Council approved a loan with the Minden Bank and Trust Company in the amount of $30,000 to construct the new stadium. The loan was made in anticipation of the future revenues from the property tax and was limited by law to an amount not to exceed 75% of the estimated revenues to be produced from the tax.

Later in that meeting the Council approved a bid from Samuel and Tucker, electricians, to transfer the lights at the existing Redbird Park to the new municipal stadium for the cost of $1,300.

The City had been providing electricity to the Hunter’s Redbird Park at cost since 1948 and along with the Webster Parish Police Jury had helped erect the lights at Redbird Park in 1948, in recognition of the service being provided to the youth of Minden through the Hunter’s baseball program.

In addition, a bid of $1,342 for installing the water and sewer lines to the new stadium and providing the rest room furnishings was awarded to Shaw’s Plumbing. Later, at its February meeting, the Council voted to have the City construct the light lines to the new stadium in-house, rejecting a bid from an outside company.

By October 1953, the Municipal Ball Park, as it was being called was nearing completion and the City Council passed an interesting resolution for those days of segregation.

The resolution stated the following: “The City Municipal Ball Park shall be open to any and all ball teams, both white and colored, without charge from the City or any other ball team. All gate receipts go to the teams playing at that time.

The concession stand will be operated by the Baseball Commission and all proceeds from the concession stand will go to the Commission.”

Municipal Stadium, as the local sportswriters called the ballpark, was home to the Minden Redbirds during the glory years of the Big Eight League.

Along with Ruston, Minden was a traditional power in the circuit and also became a “hiding place” for great amateur players in those days before the Amateur Player Draft was established in the mid-1960s. Major league teams would help arrange for players they were “watching” to find places to play summer baseball.

It was this system that helped bring future big leaguers like Ralph Terry, hero of the 1962 World Series for the New York Yankees, and Marv Throneberry, best know for his Miller Lite Beer commercials, to our local squad as teenagers.

During the 1950s the Redbird games were huge events in Minden, drawing crowds that rivaled those of the lower level Minor League games of today. They regularly outdrew the crowds the Independent Shreveport-Bossier Captains now draw to Fair Grounds Field in Shreveport.

By the late 1950s, the Municipal Ball Park was being used not only for baseball games of Minden High School, American Legion Baseball games and games of the Minden Redbirds, but also for other events such as community meetings and even for rodeos and church revivals.

At its meeting of February 4, 1957, the Minden City Council entertained a motion from the Minden Baseball Club, asking that the name of the stadium officially be changed to Griffith Stadium, in honor of the contributions of (B. F.) Frank Griffith, Sr., to the sport of baseball in Minden and for his work in donating the property to the city.

In addition to that obvious connection to sports in Minden, it was also true that Griffith actually came to North Louisiana when hired as a professional baseball player by a company in Homer in the 1890s. City Attorney Henry Hobbs advised the Council that state law prohibited the naming of any public property after a living person and the Council was forced to abandon the renaming.

At this point, the Minden Baseball Association, which sponsored the Minden Redbirds of the semi-pro Big Eight League, unofficially renamed the field Griffith Stadium, with the blessings of the Minden City Council, although legal restrictions prevented an official name change.

Mr. Griffith threw out the first pitch at the Redbirds 1957 season opener and ceremonies were held to commemorate the new name. Three years later, after Mr. Griffith died in October 1960, the City official renamed the stadium Griffith Memorial Stadium.

In the years since its establishment the ballpark has seen standing only room crowds for semi-pro baseball, been the home field for five LHSAA state championship baseball teams for Minden High School and also the home field for games in the old LIALO high school association for Webster High School prior to desegregation of the schools.

It has also been the site of rodeos, speeches by national-known political figures such as Governor George Wallace of Alabama who was guest speaker at the local fair in 1964 at the height of his national prominence. Later it would be the site of Little League Football practices, Dixie League baseball games and numerous Kids Day’s activities for the Webster Parish Fair. It can truly be said that Griffith Stadium is an integral part of the fabric of the Minden community and deserves to be preserved and maintained for future residents.

However, time has in many ways made the old field obsolete. Despite some improvements and renovations a few years ago, much needs to be done. The seating for the spectators is in bad condition and need to be redone.
Restrooms, dressing areas for the players and handicap access are all needs for the stadium. It can be said that while Griffith Stadium has a “first-class” history, that history is living inside much less than “first-class” conditions.

You will be hearing more about plans for renovations and for how these needs will be met in local media. I encourage any of you, like myself, who played baseball games on that field, watched baseball games at that field, or just take pride in making such a significant part of our town a source of local pride once again, to do what you can to help this project along.

John Agan is a local historian, an Instructor at Bossier Parish Community College, and a published author. His column appears Fridays in the Minden Press-Herald.

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