HUNTINGTON — Mike Hamrick was a long way from home, in his first job as athletic director and in the early stages of raising a family. It wasn’t an ideal time to drive to Marshall University.
But Hamrick gladly traveled 700 miles to see his alma mater finally play in a football stadium the school’s backers had fought so hard to build, one of which they could be proud.
Hamrick himself had played in the dungeon-esque Fairfield Stadium, a brick structure that was briefly condemned in 1962. The brick structure somehow lived for 28 more years.
On Sept.