Alumni

Farwell: Field of Dreams

By Cara Jepsen '86

Considerable progress towards the completion of our athletic field was made during the past summer, and while a large amount of work remains to be done, it is in such shape that the football men will be permitted to use their portion of it this fall. The going will be a little soft, but then it is not the nature of football men to mind a little thing like that.
— The Stentor, September 24, 1903

The venerable Farwell Field now has a new face to show the world. The first major renovation of the facility in more than a century resulted in a sparkling stadium that boasts roomy and comfortable bleachers, a new press box, and real—not portable—goalposts. A brand-new field of artificial grass wears so well that not only the football team but the women’s and men’s soccer teams can also play their games there. The new bleachers accommodate 1,050 fans, as opposed to the previous space for 500 (30 percent of those had obstructed views). The $1.4 million renovation was funded primarily by former Forester football players.

“I played on Farwell Field in the 1950s and coached on it in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and the millennium,” stated handball coach and assistant football coach Michael E. Dau ’58, who wrote personal letters
to some 70 former Forester footballers. “Until now, there was no change to the field or the bleachers. [Before the renovation], when a few boards would rot out, we’d just bring in some new planking. And we stabilized the old press box in the early 1990s because it got a little shaky when the wind was blowing. But other than that, there was no major renovation.

“When we invited high school kids up for recruiting and showed them the field, it wasn’t something we could point to with a great feeling of pride,” he continued. “Today I think it’s the nicest field in the league, and we’re proud to show them the football field.”

Farwell Field was named for Senator and Mrs. Charles Benjamin Farwell, who helped found and nurture the College in late 19th century. The couple donated a small fortune to the school, including the plot for Farwell Field and $1,000 for its upkeep. According to the October 1, 1903, Stentor,  “In 1876 Mr. and Mrs. Farwell’s oldest daughter was just finishing at the high school in Chicago. Mrs. Farwell, a highly educated woman, who in her earlier years had been a successful teacher, was thoroughly in favor of co-education. She persuaded Mr. Farwell, inasmuch as nearly all the best collegiate institutions in the country were closed to women, to try the experiment of a college at home. An abandoned summer hotel in Lake Forest was secured and a number of Miss Farwell’s class were persuaded to form a freshman class.”

The Stentor went on, “ . . . Mr. and Mrs. Farwell simply carried the institution, he as a trustee and generous giver, she as a faithful friend and counsellor. College Hall, North Hall, the gymnasium, College Commons, [and the] Mitchell Hall for college women owe their existence largely to the Farwell purse.”

A renovation for the 21st century
The renovation of the field was supported by over 230 alumni, parents, and friends including primary donors Peter G. Schiff ’74 and Elizabeth “Lisa” B. Schiff ’75, John H. Krehbiel Jr. ’59 and Kennetha Love Krehbiel ’60, Frank Farwell II, Herbert Osgood McDowell III ’65, John Ballantine, and Michael J. Maiman ’70.

“It looks completely different,” says former Forester footballer Ryan L. Shoemaker ’98. He and his wife, Amy Wilkin Shoemaker ’98, donated to the renovation and attended the first game. “It’s a phenomenal experience for the players, with the new turf and stadium complete with the Forester logo in the middle,” he says. “It’s a state of the art facility for any college, but it’s spectacular for a Division III program.”

Donor and former football player Christopher D. Evans ’77 remembers the old grass field as being hard and unforgiving. “I think our money was well spent,” he says. “We played in the mud, we played when the field was frozen, and we played in all kinds of different conditions. It was never really even. It seems to be much better now.

“Before, football was never a big deal,” he adds. “You really had to want to continue to play after high school. But now I can see Lake Forest College being a place where people come to get a good education but continue to play football. It’s a real attraction now for athletes.”

The “grass,” technically called Momentum Turf 51 (a synthetic turf infill system), is made by the Texas-based company Sportexe and features ambient rubber silica sand. Players agree that it has much more “give” than either natural grass or the Astroturf of old. “It’s very uniform,” says Coach Dau, who played offensive guard and defensive tackle on the field in the 1950s. “Landing on this grass is more forgiving than landing on regular grass. Secondly, you don’t have to worry about weather. The drainage system will take up to six inches of rain in one hour. So inclement weather doesn’t affect the playing surface. And the cost and maintenance of upkeep is marginal compared to maintaining a natural grass field, where you’re constantly watering, cutting, and marking.”

Getting more for the money
Both soccer teams can now play their games on the new field, and at least one team practices on it daily. “You couldn’t do that with regular grass—there would be too much wear and tear,” says College athletic director and head women’s basketball coach Jackie Slaats. “We have more than doubled the use of the field.”

The athletes love it, she adds. “The soccer players like it because it’s a larger and faster field than they’ve played on and it’s always in good shape. The complaint we got from players before was that the field was in bad shape—it was either wet, or there were ruts. Now it’s in game condition every day.”

Head women’s soccer coach and former men’s soccer player T. R. Bell ’96 notes that more and more teams in the league play on synthetic grass, and he says it is a vast improvement over what they are accustomed to on the old soccer field. “Now you get a true roll; so if the ball’s rolling down the sideline it’s not going to veer to the right because there’s a slant in the field or because it hit something on the ground. The ball goes where you want it to go. I think the players also enjoy it because it’s not as pounding on their joints.”

A three-pronged plan for facilities upgrades
The renovation is the second part of a three-pronged plan to provide better facilities for the football program and athletic department, say Coaches Dau and Slaats. The first phase was the 1998 creation of a locker room for the football players in the lower level of Halas Hall (the athletic department moved its offices to the building in 2001). Phase two was the completion of the Farwell Field renovation. And the College is now in the process of planning and raising funds for the final phase, which will create restrooms, concessions, and space for visiting teams. “I think the last stage will be even less difficult to sell because the people who have seen [the renovations] are now convinced that this was a great project,” said Coach Dau.

“So many people worked extremely hard to secure the donations for this much-needed renovation,” noted Slaats. “The entire Athletic Department feels so fortunate to be able to practice and play games in our new first-class facility. It’s a testament to all those donors who recognized that there was a great need here and stepped up to the plate, so to speak.”

A more professional atmosphere
Before the renovations, portable goal posts were wheeled out for games and scrimmages, and the old bleachers went straight down to the ground, which made it difficult for people in the front rows to see the game (the football players were usually standing in front of them). “I haven’t been in the stands for 20 years because there wasn’t a comfortable place to sit,” says Vahan Janjigian ’77, a donor and former Forester guard who regularly attends games. “Usually I’d sit by the end zone for the first half, then go back to the tailgate party and catch the scores from people walking off the field. Now at least I can watch more of the game.”

“It’s very classy,” says Kimberly “Kimi” Kurz Ottaviano ’94, a former women’s soccer player and women’s assistant soccer coach. She and her husband, Kenneth J. Ottaviano ’92, who played football on the field, donated to the project and attended the season opener. “It’ll be great for soccer and football—especially since it won’t get beat up from all the play on it!”

The new pressbox is another welcome feature. “We played on that field with the same bleachers and the same tower,” recalled Roger W. Siuda ’53, who saw the new field at Homecoming. A former Forester tackle who played on what he says was the College’s winningest team in 1952, he said, “We had a photographer who weighed over 300 pounds. He’d go up in that thing [the tower], and it was pretty shaky then. I imagine that after 50 years it was even worse.”

Former Forester soccer player Christopher M. Roberts ’83 shot 8-mm game films for the football team in the early 1980s, and he remembered sharing the tiny, precarious 50-foot–high press box with the game statistician. “I’d be up on the roof of a rickety building with a little bit of a railing and a tripod and a camera.” Former football player Earl J. Barnes II ’86 added “I remember those game films as being really shaky.” 

Coach Bell noted that the soccer players are also pleased with more than just the turf. “Both teams like the fact that we play in a professional atmosphere, where there are stands and concessions for some games and a press box for the announcers and scorekeepers. Down at the other field, there’s a lot of duct tape and folding tables. At Farwell Field, it feels like you’re playing in a stadium.”

And it is setting new attendance records for football games. “The Homecoming game was absolutely wild,” said Coach Dau. “I’ve never seen as many people at a Lake Forest College football game in all the years I’ve been associated with the school. I’m going to say we had 2,500 people there. They were rimmed around field four and five deep, and the bleachers were absolutely packed. It was really something to see.”

With the first football season on the new field coming to a close, head football Coach Chad Eisele has nothing but praise for the newly renovated field. “I couldn’t be happier about the field both in terms of how we performed on it and how the spectators responded to the new facility. We won all five of our home games, how much better could it get? We are proud to be on the cutting edge of facility enhancement in our sport.” 

Cara Jepsen ’86 is a freelance writer based in Chicago. In the winters of 2002 and 2004, she spent a total of seven and one-half months in South India studying Ashtana Yoga. She published an article in Chicago Magazine in January 2005 on Chicago celebrities and how they stay fit.