STATUS: Completed
FUNDING: 50% Complete, Fundraising Ongoing
THE STORY: During the summer of 2020 Fleming Field was updated from a natural grass field to a turf field. The turf design features orange endzones, black border, and tiger mascot in the center. This update will benefit not just the football program, but all Shadyside athletics and the surrounding community.
The football team will no longer have to worry about a muddy field on game nights or cancel games earlier in the week to save the field for Friday night’s game. Most importantly, the football team will get to practice on the new field every day. This allows for high quality practice with all equipment and familiarization with the field.
The spring sport athletes at Shadyside will also benefit from the new turf field. Both the baseball and softball program will be able to practice there when their fields are too wet.
The Shadyside Turf Committee, a 501C3 non-profit organization, partnered with the Community Foundation of the Ohio Valley to run the fundraising campaign for the new turf field. Corporate and private donations were collected to meet the project’s $800,000 goal.
HISTORY: Fleming Field was named in honor of Don Fleming, a championed three sport high school athlete at Shadyside. Don went on to play football and baseball at the University of Florida, where he served as captain of the football and baseball teams his senior season. Don declined to leave school when drafted by the Chicago Cardinals and instead, stayed and completed his degree in construction engineering and played his last season of baseball, leading the Gators to their first NCAA playoffs. After graduating, Don passed up offers from the Baltimore Orioles and NY Yankees to sign with the Cleveland Browns after Paul Brown traded for the rights to him. Don moved from a defensive end into a starting safety for the Browns and made the All-Rookie Team. After his third season with the Browns, Don was named First Team All-Pro. Tragically, in the off-season that year, Don was working at a building site in Florida and, in the process of helping a worker, they were both struck with electrical lines and killed. The devastating event occurred on June 4, 1963, just one week before Don’s 26th birthday. Don was inducted to the University of Florida’s and the state of Florida’s Hall of Fame, and the school named their intramural field in his honor. The Cleveland Browns also named their practice field in his honor and permanently retired his number 46. Shadyside’s Fleming Field was dedicated in Don’s honor on September 6, 1963.
