Mitchell Stadium is a 10,000 seat stadium in Bluefield, West Virginia. It was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935, and is located in Bluefield's city park that straddles the West Virginia–Virginia state line.
The facility serves as the home football field for the Bluefield State Big Blues college football team as of 2021, the Bluefield Rams college football team as of 2012, as well as the public high schools of Bluefield and its twin city of the same name in Virginia—Bluefield High School in West Virginia and Graham High School in Virginia. The stadium is in West Virginia, unlike the neighboring Bowen Field baseball park, which is in Virginia. This makes Graham unique among American high schools in that its home football games are actually played in another state. The stadium is actually, however, closer to the Graham High building than the Bluefield High building.
History
City Manager Emory P. Mitchell would work to develop a recreation commission in Bluefield and set out to secure funds to build a city park, pool, auditorium, football field, baseball field and tennis courts.
"Of all the projects completed during the years Mitchell served as manager of (Bluefield), none was closer to his heart than the stadium," Betty Mitchell Nelson, retired dean of students of Purdue University quoted from the dedication of the stadium on October 23, 1954, in a letter she sent to the Bluefield board of directors. A school classmate had provided her with articles concerning a proposal to change the name of Mitchell Stadium, and Nelson, who retired as dean of students at Purdue after 30 years of service, shared insights as to why the city leadership chose to name the stadium for him. The dedication took place on October 23, 1954, more than three years after Mitchell's death on May 25, 1951.
"The stadium is named for the late Emory P. Mitchell as a permanent and lasting memorial to a devoted public servant who, in his lifetime, sought no praise or commendation for his efforts except the realization that his community had benefited from his work," according to the formal remarks presented at the dedication. Like her parents, Nelson dedicated her life to serving her community, West Lafayette, Ind. About 15 years ago, the Purdue University Chapter of Mortar Board created the Dean Betty Nelson Service Awards that are given annually to a student and a student organization for their excellence in community service in the Lafayette area. Nelson participated annually in the presentation which involves a certificate and a monetary award.
Nelson said that her parents showed the way for her in terms of community service. Her mother helped with meals at the YWCA and knit socks and sewed surgical gowns for the American Red Cross. "My father counted the offering after church every Sunday for years and took me with him to deliver Whitman's Samplers and bags of fruit to families of city workers who obviously had few luxuries," she said in response to an e-mail question concerning her father's commitment to community service.
Returning to the narrative from the stadium dedication: "There was one occasion during the time when government agencies were allocating moneys to municipalities for such projects, with the provision that the municipalities themselves also match the funds, that Bluefield was about to lose a large federal grant because the city had no matching fund," Nelson wrote. "Mitchell and members of his family signed a personal note that enabled the city to borrow the necessary funds to match the federal grant so that work could continue on the stadium."
Mitchell didn't start off in the city's top job. When he was 22 years old, the 1907 Bluefield City Directory listed E.P. Mitchell as serving as a bookkeeper for E.S. Pedigo. At the time, Pedigo operated a dry goods, clothing and millinery store on Princeton Avenue. Mitchell lived in a room at 806 Highland Avenue, according to information in the city directory.
In her letter to the city board of directors, Mitchell's daughter said her father held administrative positions at other Bluefield businesses before he accepted the appointment as city treasurer on August 1, 1933. Mitchell's appointment as controller of the city's purse strings came at a critical time in Bluefield's history. Bluefield, like many U.S. cities, experienced the surging economy of the so-called "Roaring '20s," and suffered the horrible economic realities that followed the Stock Market Crash in 1929, and led to the nation's prolonged economic slide commonly called "The Great Depression."