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1926 – present
The ground: The field at Linden and Gernhart, behind the high school, first opened for football on 18 September 1926, by the school's own athletics history. It has been known successively as School Field, Mishawaka High School Stadium, Tupper Field, and — since 1980 — Frank M. Steele Stadium, for the coach of the 1920s champions whose full course stands in the football entry below.
The building: The school's own building history dates the stadium's completion to 1939 at a cost of approximately $130,000, with about $55,000 of it from the Board of Control. The two dates are both the school's, and they describe different things: a playing field in use from 1926, and the stadium works — the local historian Peter J. De Kever's history of the city celebrates the grounds' WPA bleachers of the Depression era — completed at the decade's end. The bleachers are a WPA work.
The centennial: The school marked the field's hundredth anniversary in 2026, with De Kever's three-part series on its history. Capacity is listed at 8,600 in the 2015 preview record. The Cavemen's 2026 season on the ground stands in the present-state entry at the end of this section.
Sources:
- Mishawaka High School athletics (mhs.mishawakaschools.com), 2026 centennial account — field opened 18 September 1926; the succession of names; Steele from 1980.
- Mishawaka High School building history — stadium completed 1939, approximately $130,000, Board of Control share approximately $55,000.
- Peter J. De Kever, Hidden History of Mishawaka — the WPA bleachers.
- usa-365, 2015 — capacity 8,600.