Offutt Field (Greensburg)
 Offutt Field
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| Former names | Athletic Park (1890–1928) |
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| Location | 302 South Urania Avenue Greensburg, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°18′11″N 079°32′24″W / 40.30306°N 79.54000°WCoordinates: 40°18′11″N 079°32′24″W / 40.30306°N 79.54000°W |
| Owner | Greensburg-Salem School District |
| Surface | Artificial turf |
| Opened | 1890 |
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Seton Hill Griffins (NCAA) (2005-Present) Greensburg-Salem High School (WPIAL) (1894-Present) Past Tenants Greensburg Athletic Association (WPPFC) (1890–1900) Greensburg Red Sox (WPL) (1907) Greensburg Trojans (PSA) (1934) Greensburg Red Wings (PSA) (1935–1936) Greensburg Green Sox (PSA) (1937–1938) Greensburg Senators (PSA) (1939) Greensburg Central Catholic H.S. (WPIAL) (1960–1993) |
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Offutt Field is a multi-purpose athletic field, located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. It is currently used by the Greensburg-Salem School District and Seton Hill University, primarily as a football field. The stadium was called Athletic Park, until 1928 when Greensburg-Salem renamed the field after James H. Offutt, a community leader and school director. The school district had previouslypurchased the land in December, 1916. Purchase price for the 4.4-acre site was $17,166.66. The Greensburg Athletic Association, an early organized football team based in Greensburg, played their home games at the stadium from 1890–1900. The stadium has also hosted minor league baseball, Little League baseball and track and field.
Offutt Field is currently the stadium with longest service in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The field was the home of the Greensburg Athletic Association, a professional football team during the 1890s. The field's playing surface once had a stream, known as Jack's Run, which crossed a corner of the field. Early-day accounts of football games at Athletic Park noted that the football occasionally went into the creek, and players became heroes with the crowd for plunging into the waters to retrieve the ball. On October 26, 1895, during a game between Greensburg and the Carnegie Athletic Club of Braddock, once Greensburg scored a touchdown after only a minute and a half into the game, some spectators at Athletic Park were, according to news reports at time, were "so hilarious over the rout that they threw their hats in the air and some went in the creek" that ran past a corner of the field. In 1916, the field level was raised and the creek covered. Jacob's Run is a part of Jacob's Creek.
The field saw a memorable game that ended in a scoreless draw on November 24, 1894, between Greensburg and the Jeannette Athletic Club. During the first half of the game Greensburg's Lawson Fiscus got into a violent altercation (which was very common in this era) with an unknown Jeannette player. Several accounts of the incident describe Fiscus kicking the Jeannette player in the face. However, the Pittsburgh Press reported that Fiscus had tripped the player and "purposely tramped on his neck." Either way, Jeannette immediately petitioned the referee to expel Fiscus from the game, meanwhile Greensburg defended Fiscus' actions. The arguments continued through to the second half of the game. Finally, either Jeannette or Greensburg stormed off the field in protest and the game was declared a scoreless draw. Another memorable professional game occurred at the field on Saturday, October 12, 1895, the Greensburg Athletic Association defeated Western University of Pennsylvania (renamed the University of Pittsburgh in 1909), 42-2. In this era of football, it was common for college and professional teams to play each other. During this game it was discovered that Western University's coach gave his players a set of signals, which were commonly used in pre-huddle football days, that had been used by Penn State the year before. Two of the key players of the Greensburg team had starred for Penn State the year before, one of which was player-coach Charlie Atherton. Thus, the team knew what the play was prior to the snap.
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