Durham Athletic Park

Many of us will know Durham Athletic Park from the movie Bull Durham.

Before the Durham Bulls moved into DAP or El Toro in those days, they played their home games at Hanes Field of Trinity College from 1912-1926.

On July 7 1926 the Bulls moved into El Toro, then a wooden ballpark. Seven years later, the city of Durham bought the facility due to a 20,000 dollar donation by Annie Watts Hill and renamed it Durham Athletic Park.

As a result of the big depression the park didn’t host Minor League Baseball during the 1934 and 1935 seasons.
On June 17 1939 the wooden ballpark was totally destroyed by a fire. The park was rebuilt using concrete and steel. The grandstand had some 1000 seats. Along the foul lines the park had bleachers too. The iconic round tower was part of the rebuilding too.

Iconic tower before the renovations

and after

From 1940-1967 DAP was home to a Minor League team, except for the 1944 season. In 1945 the Bulls returned as tennant of DAP as a member of the newly formed Carolina League.

Fromm 1968-1971 DAP was part-time home of the Bulls. The team had merged with a team from Raleigh and played home games at DAP and in Raleigh. After the 1971 season the Bulls left, leaving Durham Athletic Park without a tennant.

It took 9 years before MiLB baseball was back at DAP again. Another franchise which adopted the name Durham Bulls played its homegames there.

The 1988 movie Bull Durham made the attendance figures rise tremendously. This made owner Miles Wolf push for a new stadium, also to obtain AAA status. Since the city of Durham was reluctant to build a stadium, Wolf sold the team, so he never saw the completion of new Durham Bulls Athletic Park as an owner. The new park was finished in 1995. The Bulls only played for two more years at the new park befor moving to Danville for the 1998 season and to Myrtle Beach to become the Pelicans in 1999.

The newly formed Tampa Bay Devil Rays decided to house their new AAA team in Durham. So another, new, franchise adopted the name Durham Bulls.

As for Durham Athletic Park; the facility is cherished as landmark now and is still in use as home for a collegiate summer baseball league club, a women’s professional softball team and baseball tournaments at various levels. In addition to baseball, the DAP has also been the site of concerts, festivals and other civic events. But shortly after the Bulls moved to their new park, there were votes to demolis hDurham Athletic Park. Thanks goodness this never happened.

In 2008, the city of Durham began a $5.5 million renovation of the DAP. Later that year, the city entered into an agreement with Minor League Baseball for the governing body of the sport to operate the DAP.

2008 renovations

On August 15, 2009, Minor League Baseball held a free, public Grand Opening at the renovated DAP. MiLB currently uses the stadium as a training center for business and facility operations in the baseball industry, as well as for pilot initiatives such as its Longball Program.

In addition to serving as the home field for North Carolina Central University, Durham American Legion Post 7 and amateur baseball tournaments, the DAP also hosts other Durham city events. The stadium is located in what they call nowadays the Warehouse District.

On May 10, 2010, the Bulls returned to the DAP for one game. Durham dropped a 6-4 Triple-A International League decision to the Toledo Mud Hens before an overflow crowd of 3,911 fans. There are plans to let the Bulls play one game a year in DAB.

Here is a video of the AAA game the Bulls played vs the Mud Hens in 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl … BudufgvHHM

The park in the late fourties