The University of Notre Dame was in a bind. After years of playing in a field where spectators could watch for free, the university realized that it needed a stadium to hold the growing crowds that were gathering to watch their football team. There was just one hitch: with free admission, they didn't have the funds to build a stadium.
That's where Warren A. Cartier comes in. The 1887 University of Notre Dame civil engineering graduate who hailed from one of the nation's first lumber families had the funds, resources and passion to fuel the cause for a stadium. After purchasing 10 acres near campus, he donated it right back to the university and even provided the lumber to build the new cathedral to sport.
The new Cartier Field opened on May 11, 1900 by hosting a track and field tournament as well as a baseball game later. Of course, the main draw was the football team. At one point, the Fighting Irish had 23 straight winning seasons in their new complex, winning many with alumnus Knute Rockne at the helm. Under his guidance, the Irish won three national championships while at Cartier Field.
It was on this field when George Gipp and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse drew crowds from near and far while single-handedly forcing the university to expand Cartier Field seemingly every year. When it was first built, the stadium could only fit 500 in its wooden bleachers. At its peak in 1929, it could hold as many as 26,000, feeling more like Cartier Stadium rather than Cartier Field.
Rockne so revered Cartier Field that he insisted that they transfer its grass to the massive Notre Dame Stadium when it first opened its gates in 1930. While the football team moved to its football-only stadium, both the baseball and track teams continued to use Cartier Field for the next three decades until they moved the facility east of Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center in 1962 to make room for the library quad.
The baseball team played there until it moved to Frank Eck Field (Jake Kline Field) in 1994 and soon, the track team left as well, leaving only the school's football team to practice there. Once the LaBar Practice Facility opened in 2008, the Cartier Field name suddenly became obsolete to all on campus. While the football team still practices there, the Cartier name is no more.
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