Sports & Athletics

Athletic Park , Built in 1890, Athletic Park was home field for Williamsport school baseball teams, hosted exhibition games for major league teams including the A’s, Phillies, Giants, and Pirates, and also hosted Negro Leagues. The field was also used for high school and college football, as well as horse and bicycle racing. The field's first night game was played in 1902. In 1910, the grandstands burned and Cochran Elementary School was built on the site in the 1920s.

Vallamont Park , Opened in 1890 as part of the Vallamont development north of the city, Vallamont Park was created by the Vallamont Land Company. The development was inspired by the flood of 1889, and was intended to attract people because of its elevated location outside of the flood plain. In addition to playing fields, the park had an amphitheater, bandstand, merry-go-round, and a pavilion with a movie theater and concession stand. People could gain access to the park and the movies by paying the trolley fare; there was a trolley station at Belmont and Woodmont Avenues. The pavilion stopped showing movies in 1917, and the buildings were raised around 1923. The site is now various private residences.

Memorial Park , In 1921, Jacob C. Brown and his family, owners of Standard Wood Pipe Company, donated the land for the park to the city in memory of Jacob's brother Max. The park, formally named Max M. Brown Memorial Park, opened in 1924 with baseball fields, playgrounds, a track, tennis and volleyball courts, bathing pools and beaches, a roller coaster, bumper cars, a dance hall, and a skating rink. There was also a zoo, which flourished in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The rides eventually went to Sunset Park on Lycoming Creek Road, the zoo declined until the 1936 flood ended it, and the dance hall burned down in 1946.

Williamsport High School Gymnasium and Athletic Field , From 1914 to 1972, the Williamsport High School was on the northeast corner of West Third and Susquehanna Streets. At some point, the gymnasium and athletic field were built on the opposite side of West Third, on part of the Culler Furniture Company property. The gym is now known as Bardo Gymnasium and the site of the athletic field is occupied by the Hager Lifelong Education Center, both part of Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Little League Original Field , In the summer of 1938, Carl Stotz organized baseball games for his nephews and other neighborhood boys on a playground in the section of Memorial Park south of West Fourth Street. In 1939, Stotz created a formal league which would become Little League Baseball, and permission was granted to develop a playing field on a vacant lot at the northeast corner of Memorial Avenue and Demorest Street. The field was used for Little League games in 1940 and 1941 until the Avco-Lycoming factory took over the site. Play then returned to Memorial Park. The original playground had been moved because of the ongoing construction of the levee, so a new field was developed from 1942-1945, and was rebuilt following the flood of 1946. The clubhouse was erected in 1948-1949. The first Little League World Series was held on this field in 1947, and continued to be held there through 1958. In 1959, the World Series moved to South Williamsport, but the Original Field continues to be used by local baseball teams.

Bowman Field , The Williamsport Grays, of the minor league New York-Pennsylvania League, were using a high school athletic field but had outgrown it. Grays club directors met with Williamsport city officials at the Ross Club in 1924 to discuss a new ballpark. An agreement was reached in 1925 to build a field at Memorial Park, for a cost of $75,000. Williamsport businessman J. Walton Bowman took the lead in raising funds, and "Memorial Field" opened in 1926. (At the first NY-Penn League game on May 4th, the Grays beat the Shamokin Indians 5-1.) The field was renamed Bowman Field on June 29th, 1929. Lights for night games were installed in 1932. Other minor league clubs to play at Bowman Field have included the Tigers, A's, Mets, Tomahawks, Bills, and Cubs. The team is now known as the Crosscutters and is an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. From the beginning, the field was not intended just for minor league teams, but for all the people of Williamsport. The field has been used for high school and college baseball, local softball leagues, Negro leagues, football, boxing, ice hockey, concerts, rodeos, circuses, and Easter egg hunts.

[photo captions] , . Golf Links at Vallmount Park , . Max M. Brown Memorial Park, Williamsport, Penna. , . 1950 Williamsport High School basketball team , . Williamsport High School Football Field , . Tommy Richarson, (microphone) and Connie Mack, (3rd from left) at Bowman Field, 1951