The Venues: Every Ground, With Its Teams

1924 – present · THE LEG'S GROUNDS AS ONE ARTICLE

Steele Stadium (Mishawaka Cavemen, football):The ground was School Field, Mishawaka High School Stadium and Tupper Field before it took Frank M. Steele's name in 1980; capacity stands at 8,600 in the 2015 preview record, and the 2018 renovations added Alumni Plaza, on the local-history account. Its full treatment stands in this section's stadium entry; it is lined here so the venues read as one line.

The Cave (Mishawaka Cavemen, basketball): The gymnasium of the present Mishawaka High School, the building that opened in 1924 on Lincolnway East — the Cavemen have played in The Cave since 1924, and the Tribune's accounting calls it Indiana's oldest active high school gymnasium. A local-history account of the school adds the second date: after a contested expansion fight in the 1950s, the enlarged gym was dedicated in November 1958 at about 4,500 seats. The name is the building's standing one in the school's own record.

Bob Otolski Field (Marian Knights, football): Marian High School opened in 1964; its founding athletic director, Bob Otolski, started the school's first football team in 1966, and the Knights have played on the school ground on South Logan Street since. In 2002 the school named the field Bob Otolski Field for him. The ground's own construction and first-game dates are not settled in the record reached — the field plainly predates its naming by the length of the program — and the gap is named rather than filled: the settling sources are Marian's school archives and the Tribune's morgue for the program's first seasons.

The Wiekamp Athletic Center and Gates Gymnasium (Bethel Pilots, basketball and volleyball): Bethel's present indoor home opened in January 1998: the Wiekamp Athletic Center, a 36,000-square-foot complex, holds Gates Gymnasium, home to the Pilots' basketball, volleyball and cheer programs. The university's athletics record gives the gymnasium's seating capacity as 2,400; its catalog gives a viewing capacity of 2,600 — both figures are the university's, and both are printed. The Pilots' earlier home stands in the same record: Goodman Auditorium, completed in 1957 and named for Bethel's first president, Woodrow Goodman, is now the practice gym.

Bethel's fields (the Pilots outdoors): Patterson Field, the baseball ground, opened in 1977 and carries the name of Dick Patterson, the coach of two of the baseball program's three national titles; Jenkins Stadium, the stand and press-box structure above it, was renovated to its current state in 2004, seats 250, and the baseball record book gives the stadium's year opened as 2004 — field 1977, stadium 2004, the same two-dates shape as Steele's. The softball complex, now the Therese & John Gardner Field, was built in 1982 and totally renovated, relocated and resurfaced — in 2016 on the university's venue page, in 2018 on its catalog; both dates printed. Morey Field, the soccer ground, was dedicated in 1999, the year before the men's soccer program's first national title in its ledger.

Twin Branch park (Wagner Steel fastpitch; the city's east-side diamond):The account does not date the building, and no city parks record reached fixes the year: the gap is named, with the Tribune's morgue and the Parks Department's records as settling sources. The park's documented modern line is its 2020 renovation — new pavilions, restroom, basketball-court upgrade and the city's first permanent pickleball courts, in the Parks Department's own report. Dodge Park, the fastpitch club's lost earlier ground, carries no building date in the record reached and is lined here at that size.

College Park and Ward Baker Park (the Wiffle Ball grounds): The World Wiffle Ball Championship's first ground was College Park, beside Bethel College, where Jim Bottorff laid out the new-look field on 12 June 1980 — six-foot fences, two dimensionally identical fields — and held the first championship on 2 August 1980. The park's own opening date is not in the record reached and is named as a gap, settleable from the city's parks records. From 1982 the tournament's growth moved to Ward Baker Park, on the city's southeast side, which the tournament's own history records as opening in 1974: converted to Wiffle Ball in 1982, expanded to fifteen fields, and reconfigured in 1999 into a twenty-field complex, the world's largest — the city's diamonds at their most documented.

Sources:

2. South Bend Tribune / ND Insider, high-school gyms accounting (2016; updated 2023) and Visit Indiana — The Cave in use since 1924, Indiana's oldest active high school gym; the local-history account of Mishawaka High School (Round the Bend, 2026) — the 1958 enlarged-gym dedication at ~4,500, and Steele's 2018 Alumni Plaza.
3. Bob Otolski biographical record and Indiana Football Hall of Fame — Marian's athletic director from 1964, first team 1966, the field named 2002; the naming stands also in this build's halls-of-fame record.
4. Bethel University athletics (bupilots.com) facilities pages and the university catalog — Gates Gymnasium opened January 1998 (capacity 2,400 in athletics, 2,600 in the catalog), the Wiekamp Center's 36,000 square feet, Goodman Auditorium completed 1957, Patterson Field opened 1977, Jenkins Stadium renovated 2004 with capacity 250, Gardner Field built 1982 and renovated (2016 venue page; 2018 catalog), Morey Field dedicated 1999; Bethel baseball record book (through 2024–25) — Jenkins Stadium "Year Opened 2004."
6. World Wiffle Ball Championship (worldwiffleball.org), History — College Park's fields laid out 12 June 1980 and the first championship 2 August 1980; Ward Baker Park opened 1974, converted 1982, twenty fields by 1999.