Jessee/Miller Field
The Jessee/Miller field is Trinity's main athletic field, supporting football, lacrosse, and track and field. It is located on the lower campus, close to the library.
Named after Trinity's head football coaches Dan Jessee and Don Miller, the Jessee/Miller Field is the tenth-oldest college football field in the United States. In recent years the field has also been affectionately referred to as “The Coop” in reference to Trinity's mascot.
Plans for the field began in the early 1900s, championed by President Flavel Sweeten Luther and was set to be finished in the spring of 1903. The Trinity football team has played on the field since 1904 and it has not been relocated.
The Jessee/Miller field was christened “Jessee Field” in 1966 to honor Dan Jessee, who served as Trinity's head football coach from 1932 to 1966. In 1934, Jessee achieved the College's first undefeated and untied season in football, one of several outstanding accomplishments in his long career at the College. The stadium was renamed Jessee/Miller Field on November 13, 1999 to honor Jessee's successor, Miller, who retired in 1998 as the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division III football history in New England.
Starting as little more than a dirt track and pavilion in the late 19th century, today the Jessee/Miller Field features a modern playing surface, a six-lane, 400-meter track, and stadium seating for 5,500 people. The field was converted from grass to turf in 2002.
Sources
Trinity Athletics: Jessee/Miller Field
Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter J. Knapp and Anne H. Knapp, pp. 77, 124, 276, 431.