By TODD FERTIG
TopSports.news
Baseball, more than any other American sport, connects the modern to the past. The 2026 Rossville baseball team began adding another chapter to the 100-plus year story of baseball in the town’s iconic Joe Campbell Field Thursday.
Rossville baseball opened its 2026 season in the newly renovated Joe Campbell Field. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Neither game of the doubleheader with Jefferson West went particularly well. The Bulldawgs, several of whom were competing at the state basketball tournament just two weeks earlier, scuffled on the mound and failed to produce much offense. Rossville dropped the twinbill by scores of 10-2 and 10-1.
Thursday’s games were the first in the newly renovated facility. At over 100 years old, the grandstand was in dire need of repair. Thanks to the generosity of fans of the stadium and the high school Bulldawgs – one donor in particular – significant recent improvements preserved the historic features of the ballpark.
“I noticed that the old grandstand was getting in disrepair, and I told the city council that we needed to start getting ready because we were going to either have to put a bunch of money in it or tear it down and put up a modern one, because at some point it was going to become a safety hazard,” said Rossville mayor Jim Meyer. “I put band-aids on it over the years, but it was going to need something more significant.”
The city owns the ballpark and leases it to the school as well as other users. The restoration effort was sparked by a Facebook post by the Rossville Community Foundation which asked if the community would prefer to renovate the facility or build something new.
“The overwhelming support was to restore the existing structure and try to do it in a historically pertinent way,” said Myron Leinwetter, vice president of the foundation. “The city, like most small communities, does not have extra funds lying around for big projects like this. So, the community foundation decided that since donations can come to us, we volunteered to start a designated fund for the baseball stadium, and all of the donations came into that.”
The original all-wood structure was a result of an $8,000 bond issue passed in 1922 to purchase land and develop a ballpark on eight acres purchased by the City of Rossville. At the time, baseball was an integral part of nearly every American town and a quality ballpark was naturally a part of the original plan, which included 400 trees, a bandstand and shelter, a tourist campground, children’s playground and picnic area. The field was first utilized on June 8, 1924.
Perhaps the most famous game played at the stadium was a meeting between local players and the touring Kansas City Monarchs on August 3, 1925. The legendary Negro League club was on its way to a Negro World Series crown and included Topekan Dink Mothell. While the Monarchs won, the score was a respectable 4-1.
The field boasts the only historic all-wood grandstand in Kansas one of just a few historic wooden grandstands remaining in the U.S. It served as the setting for scenes in the 2016 film Town Teams: Bigger than Baseball.
Fixing up the old ballpark was not going to be cheap.
“The whole thing is made out of wood. So, the main support beam structures were literally rotting away,” Leinwetter said. “Another thing that was big was the actual seating. It was built in 1924, so it was definitely not ADA accessible. It wasn’t even particularly spectator friendly. We wanted to change some of that so it would be a lot safer for people to get in and out of the grandstands.”
The final cost of the project exceeded the initial projection of about $100,000. While the Rossville Community Foundation worked hard to raise funds for the project, it wouldn’t have been possible without a sizeable donation and technical support from Bruce and Theresa McPherson, operators of McPherson Contractors, Inc.
“Bruce’s dad was actually the mayor of Rossville when the city bought all the ground for the baseball diamond and the surrounding park,” Meyer said. “When he heard about the project, he wanted to see to it that it was remodeled rather than torn down, and that it was done well. They did a really good job. It’s been there for over 100 years, and it’s going to last another 100.”
Meyer said the ballpark is a source of pride for the community
“All diamonds built these days are cookie cutter. Almost all of them put in turf fields. You see one, you've seen them all,” the mayor said. “This is kind of like Fenway Park. It's got a short right field fence. It’s got some character to it, and I know everybody loves playing on it.”
The fresh, gleaming red, white and black paint on the facility reminded the Bulldawgs of their proud history and promised that brighter days will soon come. Rossville utilized seven different pitchers in the doubleheader, trying to string together some solid innings. Cameron Miller threw three shutout innings to start the second game, but the basketball star ran into trouble in the fourth, a reminder that he and his teammates will need time to regain their touch on the diamond.
More celebrations of the stadium renovation lie ahead. Leinwetter said the national Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC) plans to install a historical sign on the Rossville Community Trail to note the significance of the ballpark.
“RTC put out a request for proposal for historical signs on trails,” Leinwetter said. “We submitted this project because the stadium is right adjacent to (the trail). When the RTC heard about it, they were super excited because this would be the first historical marker for a sports facility on any trail.”
More details of the construction project will be made available at a later date. Leinwetter said the community is planning a ribbon cutting ceremony later this spring to commemorate the new construction and historical marker. Meyer said that a naming of the facility is also planned to coincide with the traditional name of Joe Campbell Field. Meyer said the Campbell name will remain connected to the field in recognition of his work in recreational programs in the community.
GAME 1
JEFFERSON WEST 10, ROSSVILLE 2
Jefferson West 007 102 0 -- 10 10 2
Rossville 000 002 0 -- 2 1 3
Horgan, Lacock (3), Hansen (3), Bush (4), Martinek (7) and Meyer. Watkins, Briggs (5), Knox (6) and Pressler, Pollard (7). W -- Watkins. L -- Horgan. 2B -- Jefferson West: Skahan.
GAME 2
JEFFERSON WEST 10, ROSSVILLE 1
Jefferson West (2-0) 000 613 0 -- 10 7 1
Rossville (0-2) 000 001 0 -- 1 2 3
Miller, Graves (4), Martinek (7) and Meyer, Sumner (7). Mayer, Thelen (2), Tuck (6) and Pollard. W -- Thelen. L -- Miller.
