Lawrence Kansas

East Stadium, Kansas State University

The mischievous spirit of a deceased football player gets
his chuckles at the expense of the living.

A Civil War entity still is sitting on his own
chair in the modern structure built upon his land.

HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION

This limestone Memorial Stadium was dedicated in the early 1920s to be an athletic playing field with support stands and buildings in remembrance of students and graduates who died in World War I. This explains its fabulous architecture, with limestone towers and walls, reminding the visitor of a castle, “presenting a structure of quiet strength that will harmonize with other buildings on the campus.”

I think that it is a lovely memorial effort, creating a beautifully unique, solid structure which will stand for a very long time. The east and west stadium section stands have a castle tower on each end, with stone square decor on the top of the limestone walls between towers. After the West Stadium seating and structure was finished, the East Stadium seating and structure was built in 1924, at a cost of $45,000, a considerable amount for the era! The underside of the East Stadium seating was open to the air, until 1928, when another $37,000 was spent on completing the East Stadium, adding onto the seating structure the stone walls, towers and additional rooms to finish what was envisioned for the East Stadium structure.

The East Stadium was used as the college’s athletic center, throughout the 50s. After a new athletic center was built, The Purple Masque Theatre made its home on the first floor East Stadium rooms. This theatre presents plays which are produced, directed, designed and performed by K-State theatre students. Up until May of 2008, The Purple Masque Theatre was located in the East Stadium rooms 109 and 121, which now is the home of Telecommunications and Computing and Network Services, and the Technology Service Center, “to better serve the state university.” The Purple Masque Theatre now uses much better stage areas set up for the other theater groups on campus.

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HISTORY OF MANIFESTATIONS

Before the The Memorial Stadium was built, the land upon which it was built probably had other older buildings/houses, dating back to the Civil War, which were torn down when Kansas State bought the land as the university expanded.

When Memorial Stadium was a football arena, a football player was tackled during a game, and died of his injuries on the main floor of the athletic center in the East Stadium.

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MANIFESTATIONS

Reported during the time that the Purple Masque Theater was located in the East Stadium:

The mischievous spirit of the deceased football player, known as Nick got his chuckles at the expense of the living:

By stomping loudly on the theatre stage, the staircases and the hallways.

By unstacking and re-stacking wooden boxes in the theater’s dressing room, as well as other acts of levitation.

By spinning a fire extinguisher around in the air while delivering the foam!

Auditory manifestations: Nick’s voice has been caught on tape.

Recently, a female witness and her boyfriend while standing in the hall behind the East Stadium seating heard the sound of someone walking in football cleats behind them. When they turned around, they both saw the back of Nick’s apparition, dressed in 1950s football gear walking down the hall towards the main floor of what was the activity center in the 1950s.

Apparition of Civil War Soldier

An apparition of a man dressed in a Confederate Civil War uniform, has long been seen, sitting in his own phantom chair in the theater and stage area.

STILL HAUNTED?

Probably so.

Unless Nick was released from this world by a parapsychologist, he is still haunting the East Stadium, not willing to accept his death which wasn’t supposed to happen, cutting short his plans for his life. He may follow the thespians over to the main theater, but he has been seen recently at the East Stadium by two eye witnesses.

The entity of the Confederate soldier seems to be haunting the land, and will probably be seen again as he doesn’t care what department is using this space, which was probably originally the site of his home.

LOCATION

1101 Mississippi Street
Lawrence, KS 66044

This old, original football stadium, which is now used for soccer games can be found at the northwest corner of the campus, where Anderson and Denison intersect.