Last Battle on Cougars Field: Curtain to Close on Chapter of Beaumont Tradition

Friday night is billed as the end of an era for generations of Beaumont High football players and graduates.

Beaumont will take on Hemet High at Cougars Field, where Beaumont has played football since 1963, and where seniors and their families have celebrated graduations since 1964.

Hundreds of Cougar alumni are expected, and a pre-game mixer is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. in the San Gorgonio Middle School gymnasium, Beaumont High Athletic Director Martin DuSold said.

Football, band and cheer alumni, former homecoming queens and kings, and coaching staff members have been invited to walk the field at halftime.

The school district is building a new Beaumont High stadium to open for the 2012 season and the future. But Friday night will be all about appreciating .

"We took pride in our field. We had a tradition when we came to the gate every day before practice – all our worldly problems stayed at that gate and we ran on to the field," said former Cougars football coach Gary Harvey, who spearheaded the community committee for the new stadium.

"All people can say now is, 'But coach, there's a lot of memories there.' Each class remembers the close wins, the losses. . . . They're excited, but at the same time, it won't be their field anymore."

Cougars Field is a Beaumont institution, but Beaumont High School is older than the city itself, according to historical records. The school has occupied several locations.

Beaumont High was established in 1911, DuSold said. The city of Beaumont incorporated in 1912.

For many years the school occupied what is today known as Beaumont Civic Center. Beaumont used to host its home football games at the current Palm Elementary site on Orange Avenue and 8th Street, DuSold said.

In 1961, Beaumont High moved to what is now known as San Gorgonio Middle School, in the 1500 block of Cherry Avenue, and opened Cougars Field in 1963.

Beaumont High moved to its current location on Cherry Valley Boulevard in 2006, and continued playing football at Cougars Field.

Harvey coached Beaumont football from 1979 to 2005. He recalls Cougars Field was remodeled once, with the majority of the work being done by the booster club, the community and the players themselves.

"My guys would dig drainage ditches and dig up turf in the summer. We had our hoses out and watered where the sprinklers didn't hit," Harvey said. "We took pride in our field."

Thanks to their groundskeeping duties, the Cougars honed a special degree of home-field advantage.

No one knew the quirks of their field better than they did. Few people knew the field could not be crowned at midfield when the grass was replaced, and it had a dip at about the 20-yard line.

Murrieta Valley certainly didn't know it one year, when one of their running backs tripped and fumbled twice in the same spot during a playoff game. Harvey said the running back kept looking back to see what tripped him.

From 1963 to 2011, Beaumont hosted more than 200 varsity football games on Cougars Field.

"When you think of all the people that have played on that field, there's definitely a lot of nostalgia to it for the people in this community," Harvey said. "Friday night will be quite a list of folks participating."