|
Below
are pictures of Canton McKinley's stadium. Click on any
of the thumbnails below to zoom in.
Fawcett Stadium
is named for John A. Fawcett. Mr. Fawcett was a former member of the Canton
Board of Education and a well-known athlete. He died of pneumonia at the
age of 44, a few years before the stadium was built. The stadium was built
from 1937-1939 at an estimated cost of $500,000. The federal government
in the form of man power, the WPA, paid for $400,000 while a school board
bond issue paid for the materials. The stadium originally seated 15,000
and was the largest high school stadium in the country at that time. On
the grounds of the facility was a park, aptly named "Stadium Park". This
park still exists although presently is much more disjointed from the
stadium as part of the park was used as the site of the Pro Football Hall
of Fame and also because what is left of the park is separated from Fawcett
Stadium by Interstate 77. In 1997, Fawcett Stadium underwent a major renovation
and a name change. Backed by the Canton community, $ 4.3 million worth
of improvements were completed on the stadium. Some of the major improvements
included state-of-the-art Astroturf with a player friendly rubber base,
new locker room facilities, new scoreboard with graphics display screen,
new lighting, new sound system, new electrical services, structural repairs,
vinyl caps for all wooden seats, and a renovated press box. The newly
renovated stadium was also renamed to include the words Pro Football Hall
of Fame Field. When the Hall of Fame game went prime time in 1998, engineers
told ABC Sports, which broadcasts the game, that the stadium needed better
lighting for a night game. The NFL responded by paying $365,000 for the
addition of five light poles to bring the total to nine. In 2002, the
Sporting News rated Fawcett Stadium the number one high school football
venue in America. To make sure that designation was not in vain, the Canton
City Schools have completed major projects. First was a video replay board
built by Daktronics installed in the northwest corner of the stadium.
The second was the replacement of the Astro-Turf surface installed in
1997 with the new, more player-friendly Field-Turf. Finally, the scoreboard
was replaced by Daktronics. The new board includes a large video-capable
display. A total of four local teams play their home games at Fawcett
Stadium. They include NAIA rivals Malone College and Walsh University
as well as the two Canton City high schools: McKinley, and Timken.
|