The History of the Hubbard Grandstands
The historic grounds of Whittier Field are home of the Jack Magee Track and the beautiful Hubbard Grandstands. The Grandstands were named civil war hero General Thomas H. Hubbard, Class of 1854, whose philanthropy was also responsible for the construction of the College’s library and for the financing of Admiral Peary '1887 expedition to the North Pole.
The Hubbard Grandstands were designed by the English Architect Henry Vaughan, who is most famous for his design of the National Cathedral in Washington. Construction began in 1902 by the C.L. Fellows & Company. The original grandstands are 122 feet long, 37 feet wide and seat nearly 600 people. The dedication ceremony too place on June 22, 1904.
In his presentation address, General Hubbard dedicated the track to the declaration:
Today we give this structure to Bowdoin College and dedicate it to the use of athletes and the lovers of athletics. Let us at the same time dedicate it to the declaration, 'Fair play, and may the best man win
Fair play:
No true athlete should wish to win without it. All true athletes can bear defeat, if they give fair play and receive it. For victory unfairly won is not success. The worst defeat is to score an unearned record.
May the best man win:
It will not always be the Bowdoin man. What use for an athletic ground or building, that does not have its lessons of defeat as well as of conquest? The man who enters here throws down his glove. No weakling should give such a challenge. Only the craven will ask for respite, or for quarter. Defeat may come, but never supplication for mercy, or for favor
Fair play and may the best man win!
According to the Bowdoin College’s newspaper, the Orient, “the heavy shower which fell during the latter part of the exercise did not dampen the ardor of the throng of guests as they left the field, happy in the thought that Bowdoin possesses the finest grandstand for its size of any college in the country.”
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