BEAUMONT, Texas — The Beaumont Independent School District has decided to spend more than $80,000 to tear down the Babe Zaharias Memorial Stadium.
The school board recently voted to tear down the stadium, which has been a landmark for more than 50 years, and put a new transportation center at the site, Joe Evans, BISD board member, told 12News.
The district has not used the stadium since 2009 and considered renovating it, but renovation proved to be to expensive.
Members of the community who have fond memories of the stadium said they cannot believe the place that once was home to high school football games and raucous crowds will soon be gone.
“We used to have track and field,” Gerald Johnson, Beaumont native, said. “We also used to come and have picnics, and through my junior high school years, we played football."
Johnson played football for Crockett Junior High in the 1980s. He and other members of the Beaumont community who grew up in the 70s and 80s said the stadium was the place to be.
Much of Johnson’s childhood was spent at the stadium hauling in passes or hanging with friends, he said.
“It felt like a college stadium because of how small I was back then,” Johnson said. “I was the shortest running down the field. I remember catching balls and making touchdowns.”
It is a sad reality that the place that once felt like the biggest stage for local athletes will soon be reduced to rubble, he said.
“We still talk about the field, you know,” Johnson said. “They talk about 'well we wish we could go back over there and relive those high school years again.’”
Johnson understands that the change is inevitable but wishes the city would consider other alternatives for the site that would better benefit youth, like a new field or skate park.
“Recreational for the kids to keep them off the streets,” Johnson said. “Instead of their minds being idle they should be doing something positive.”
As of now, the school district plans to move forward with the demolition, and they said construction for the new transportation facility could start as early as next year.