Frank Myers Field at Tointon Family Stadium is a baseball stadium in Manhattan

Manhattan, Kansas

Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...

, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

. It is the home field of the Kansas State University

Kansas State University

Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

 Wildcats

Kansas State Wildcats

Kansas State University's athletic teams are called the Wildcats. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple, making Kansas State one of very few schools that have only one official color; white and silver are generally used as complementary colors.Kansas State participates in...

 college baseball

College baseball

College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...

 team

Kansas State Wildcats baseball

The Kansas State University Wildcats baseball team is a member of the NCAA and the Big 12 Conference, and is currently coached by Brad Hill. The program began in 1897...

. The stadium holds 2,000 people and opened for baseball in 1961. It is named after Bob and Betty Tointon, who donated money for renovations in 2002.

Construction

Tointon Family Stadium opened as KSU Baseball Stadium in 1961, with a capacity of 1,500. It would be built around the existing diamond, now called Frank Myers Field, which hosted Kansas State baseball games since 1897. In 1907, the team won the Topeka Conference title, a first in K-State history.

After the stadium's completion the field was dedicated on April 7, 1961, in honor of Frank Myers, K-State's baseball coach who retired the following year. It would be another 24 years until the team could play night games after lights were installed in 1985.

Renovations

In 2002, on its 41st anniversary, KSU Stadium saw the completion of its first significant renovation. The $3.1 million dollar project ended with the dedication on April 20, 2002, named in honor of Betty and Bob Tointon (Class of 1955).

New features included:

• State-of-the-art drainage and irrigation systems
• New home and visiting dugouts
  Dugout (baseball)
  In baseball, the dugout is a team's bench area and is located in foul territory between home plate and either first or third base. There are two dugouts, one for the home team and one for the visiting team. In general, the dugout is occupied by all players not prescribed to be on the field at that...
  
  
• New seating for over 2,000 fans with 118 in the suites
• FieldTurf
  FieldTurf
  FieldTurf is a brand of artificial turf playing surface. It is manufactured and installed by the FieldTurf Tarkett division of Tarkett Inc., based in Calhoun, Georgia, USA. In the late 1990s, the artificial surface changed the industry with a design intended to replicate real grass...
  
   on the entire infield locker room
  • 33 custom-built wood lockers
  • Bathrooms
  • Shower Facilities
  • Team Common Room
  • New administration offices and facilities

The stadium is lined with the limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 donated by the Bayer Stone Company of St. Marys, Kansas

St. Marys, Kansas

St. Marys is a city in Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee counties in the U.S. state of Kansas, approximately 20 miles west of Topeka on U.S. Route 24. The population was 2,198 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Manhattan, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 to match main campus buildings, including Anderson Hall. In 2003 a state-of-the-art lighting system, electronic scoreboard, improved warning track and permanent ticket booth were added, followed two years latter by new batting cage

Batting cage

A batting cage is an enclosed cage for baseball players to practice the skill of batting.It is usually made of netting or a chain-link fence and rectangular in shape. A batter stands at one end of the cage, with a pitching machine at the opposing end...

s.

Attendance

In 2010, the Wildcats ranked 36th in Division I college baseball

College baseball

College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. Compared to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a less significant contribution to cultivating professional players, as the minor leagues primarily...

 in attendance, averaging 1,813 per home game.

Historical notes

• The current 8-pole lighting system produces three times the illumination as the former system.
• The facility used a manually operated scoreboard until the renovations in 2002, now using a 20 feet (6.1 m) by 36 feet (11 m) Daktronics
  Daktronics
  Daktronics is an American company based in Brookings, South Dakota that designs, manufactures, sells, and services video board, scoreboards, digital billboards and related products. The company is best known for its electronic LED displays...
  
  scoreboard.