GREENVILLE – We will have the Annual Alumni Open House on Sunday, May 4, the day after the Prom. We usually slip into this time slot since Mother’s Day is the next Sunday, and its timing has always been early May. We can determine the times later, but it has been 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm in recent years.

I have some great news that will memorialize our Alumni Association organization in Greenville High School history. The Harmon Football Field, built in 1937, as you all know, has been undergoing significant changes for several years due to its age. The astroturf field was placed and then replaced after the tornado. New lights and standards have been added. The field house has been built between the current football field and the newer Jennings Track Stadium to the north. This provides athletes locker rooms, concessions areas, and public bathrooms.
The final phase of the stadium project is to replace the press box and the old concrete stadium bleachers with a more modern metal stadium, like all newer facilities that have been built in recent years. This phase is coming soon and is ready to begin. It will have a total cost of $4,000,000 to $5,000,000.
I have agreed to give a gift to the school board over the next five years, totaling $500,000, for the right to name the new stadium. The Board voted 5 to 0 to move forward with the project at their Board meeting on December 19, 2024, and the new name for the stadium will be:
“GREENVILLE ALUMNI STADIUM”
This will be the “people’s stadium,” with everyone in our city and school district able to relate to this as “their” stadium. The facility will be used for many years to come.
The last stadium lasted 87 years, and now we have the permanent name of its successor. The new stadium should seat about 3,000 compared to the 900 seating capacity for the Jennings Track Stadium. Seating will be on both sides of the football stadium, with more on the home side. The school district will still need more money to finish the project, and hopefully, many alumni will contribute to this project and boost community-wide interest.
We hope to have a plaque with different giving levels being recognized and a welcoming plaza area next to the current main entrance at the southwest corner of the present stadium. In years to come, we hope to have benches and maybe a small park area at this entrance. A more ambitious plan might be to close one block of Harmon Drive right at the south end of the field and extend the plaza into the existing City Park. The City may not agree to this, but a seed may be planted for a future expansion.
There are over 22,500 alumni of G.H.S. since 1873, encompassing the last 150 years. There will be no end to the connection between our city, our school, and now our stadium for decades to come. All graduates become Alumni! Green Wave Pride will continue indefinitely.
Merry Christmas to All … Richard “Dick” Brown
by Richard “Dick” Brown