Section B · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, September 2, 1999
Memorial Stadium used as housing after WWII
Stadium's temporary apartments housed 64 students in 1940.
By Shawn Linenberger sports@kansas.com Kansan sportswriter
Oread Hall opened in November 1946. The temporary dorm had 162 single rooms. It was torn down in the 1970s to make room for Wescoe Hall. Contributed photo
Jim Foulks lived in a modest apartment on the University of Kansas campus. Four occupants shared two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom.
However, his apartment complex was unique. For six Saturdays each fall, Foulks had 40,000 neighbors. His home was Memorial Stadium.
Foulks, a member of the Kansas 1947 Orange Bowl team, lived in what was called McCook Hall, apartments far removed from where wealthy boosters will be sipping beverages in luxury boxes this fall.
"During the winter, the track team practiced underneath the stadium on a dirt track behind our apartments," Foulks said. "You had to make sure they weren't running because they'd run you over if you weren't careful."
The front of McCook was flush with the entrances underneath the stadium's east side.
Foulks, a war veteran, said he and other football players and male students desperately needed a place to live. World War II ended in 1945, and of the 9,100 students at the University in 1946, 5,600 were male veterans. The enrollment increase sent the department of student housing scrambling to find places for students to live. Space under Memorial Stadium was ideal because heat and lighting already were installed in the locker rooms.
Barracks were constructed on campus and the old Robinson Gymnasium temporarily was home to students. Smith Hall also served as student housing. Lawrence residents were even encouraged to rent out rooms to students.
Many athletes such as Foulks who were temporarily living in the former Robinson Gym reluctantly gave up their quarters because the gym was close to classes, and they didn't have to climb the hill from the stadium. Foulks said the only drawback of living in McCook was walking up the hill in the rain or snow.
"The living conditions were adequate," Foulks said. "Each apartment had two bedrooms with two bunks in each. There was a study room in between with a table and desks, and a bathroom. There were also cement floors."
The apartments cost nearly $54,000 to build and housed 64 students after completion in the fall of 1946.
Dick Gilman, another war veteran on the football team, enjoyed his time at McCook. "The conditions were excellent," Gilman said. "It was new and convenient and really nice people lived down there."
Foulks agreed. "I really liked it; it was a compatible group." he added
Not everyone had the same outlook about McCook.
"It was cold and muddy," Dallas Pittering said. "I got out of there as soon as I could."
Pittinger, a football student manager from 1947 to 1948, moved to an apartment after two weeks in McCook.
Other football players lived in the Sunnyside Apartments, located on Sunnyside Avenue where Summerfield Hall now stands. It housed mostly married couples, including Don Fambrough, former Jayhawk coach.
"Most of us were four or five years older than the normal freshman because we were coming back from the war." Fambrough said about the football team. "Many of us were married, so we had a place to live at Sunnyside, but other players had to find a place to live. It was a tough situation."
Fambrough said players who weren't married were encouraged to join fraternities so that they had a place to live and could earn money working for the fraternity or sororities.
While some of today's football players eat in the Burge Union, Foulks and his teammates ate at the training table in the Kansas Union during the week and downtown on weekends.
"Businesses in Lawrence would bring food around to the dorms some evenings." Gilman said.
McCook residents shared two recreation rooms equipped with pingpong tables. The residents also had track meets amongst themselves in the evenings.
as housing after WWII
McCook got its name because Memorial Stadium was built on land originally donated by Col. James J. McCook, a prominent New York lawyer. McCook Field was home of Kansas football from 1892 until 1921 when Memorial Stadium replaced it.
Although McCook Hall's name moved to a building on Maine Street in 1953, the stadium structure stayed. The building of residence halls in the late 1950's meant the end of the post-war barracks and left the stadium apartments as housing for visiting groups.
The vacated apartments were then used as storage for equipment, publications, records and other materials until renovation last year gutted the stadium.
Edited by Matt Gardner
This is a sketch of Sunnyside Apartments from 1946. The apartments were intended for married veterans coming back from World War II. Contributed illustration
Memorial Stadium was the sight of many football games, as in this 1940 photo. Six years later, the stadium would be renovated to include dormitories to house men back from World War II. **Concluded photo**
A