Say goodbye to grass: Dayton, Bellevue opening new stadiums

Dayton’s old football home, O.W. Davis Field, was frequently dangerous to running backs.

Bellevue’s Gilligan Stadium was often impossible to drain after a hard rain.

Both venues have undergone major changes. Dayton christens its new on-campus digs against Pendleton County on Aug. 29, and Bellevue is scheduled to debut its new turf field Sept. 12 against St. Henry. 

The two schools share more than new playing surfaces – they are the last two Northern Kentucky high schools to play on grass fields. There’s Class A championship history, too: Bellevue won in 1977 and 1979 and were runners-up in 1976, 1980, 1981 and 1990, and Dayton took home the trophy in 1966.

Dayton’s new stadium includes a new track and will eventually have an indoor training facility. Bellevue’s field will cost about $8.4 million and will also have a new track.

Greendevils head coach Jesse Herbst said Dayton’s and Bellevue’s projects are part of an overall refurbishing – Newport’s new field last year, Highlands’ new soccer and track complex at Tower Park, and Newport Central Catholic’s new football stadium (Lloyd Memorial, Bishop Brossart, Holmes, Ludlow and Walton-Verona have all recently refurbished as well).

One campus

Dayton’s new stadium is part of the district’s nearly $14 million Project One Campus development. Former Dayton superintendent Jay Brewer said there’s also a new playground at Lincoln Elementary School, a field house and fitness center next to the stadium, new bleachers and basketball floor and upgrades to the front of the high school.

Brewer remembers what was there before work started. “Old apartments, old trailers, an old industrial plant,” he said. “It was rough.”

According to current superintendent Rick Wolf, O.W. Davis Field was built in 1934 and the end of Vine Street, about a half-mile from the high school. It was part of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) program and named after Davis, a former Dayton football coach, teacher, principal and superintendent.

Wolf also said the original Cincinnati Bengals, part of the second American Football League, played a game at the field in 1936. 

Davis Field was a cozy, cramped site; a fence clipped off a corner of the end zone nearest the entrance, and a corrugated steel fence surrounded the field – which Brewer said made the place “kind of look like a junkyard.” (A chain link fence later replaced the steel structure.)

By the time of Davis Field’s last game, a 44-8 loss to NewCath on Oct. 18, 2024, the grass field had numerous hiddendivots, which led to many sprained ankles.

“It was lots of potholes, not very safe,” Dayton sophomore Malachi Kennedy said. “Lots of times I rolled my ankle, and I actually had a foot injury because of it. I think (the grass) slowed a lot of our players down because it wasn’t always freshly-cut.”

Kennedy stepped on the new turf a few weeks ago. He said it was “very relieving, knowing that I could play safely.”

The school district owns Davis Field. Herbst (a 1990 Dayton graduate) realizes maintenance and liability insurance costs are expensive, but he hopes it won’t be sold.

“The idea of my mind is, it’s another grass field, somewhere else to go,” Herbst said. “We have youth leagues … we have middle school football. I would like to develop it into something useful for the community.”

‘No irrigation’

Gilligan Stadium, originally known as Bellevue Civic Stadium, was built in 1936. It’s not quite a half-mile south of the high school’s Center Street location. Like Davis Field, Gilligan was a WPA project. 

Bellevue head coach Chad Montgomery said the problems developed.

“There was there was no irrigation system,” Montgomery said. “The sprinkler system was messed up, there was no running water down there, so you couldn’t water it. It was hard as a rock; grass didn’t grow very well on it.” 

Motz Group, of Cincinnati, is installing the turf. Montgomery said it would take two weeks to lay it out.

Bellevue’s season begins Aug. 22 with road games at Trimble County, Nicholas County and Pendleton County. Montgomery is confident the Tigers will host St. Henry, and he said the Tigers would be quicker on artificial turf.

“You don’t have to worry about tearing it up,” Montgomery said. “But you definitely play faster on it. The kids all like it.”