Enlow Field is a historic high school football and athletic stadium located at Benjamin Bosse High School on Washington Avenue in Evansville, Indiana.
Opened in the 1920s and dedicated in 1926, Enlow Field has been home to generations of Evansville high school athletes and remains one of the city’s oldest active high school athletic venues.
Along with the Reitz Bowl, Enlow Field represents an era when Evansville constructed large neighborhood stadiums that became gathering places for entire sections of the city.
Who Was Enlow?
Despite being located at Bosse High School, Enlow Field isn’t named for Benjamin Bosse.
The field was named for Charles B. “C.B.” Enlow, an Evansville banker, newspaper executive and member of the Evansville school board.
Enlow had his own connection to football. Orphaned at a young age, he reportedly helped pay his way through Ohio State University by playing football. He later became a major supporter of athletics while serving on the Evansville school board.
When Bosse High School opened in 1924, faculty members petitioned the school board to name the school’s athletic field in Enlow’s honor.
Building Enlow Field
The athletic field wasn’t complete when the new Bosse High School opened.
Work on a track and football field began during the summer of 1924, with temporary bleachers brought in from Bosse Field and the Central High School gym.
Bosse played one of its first home football games there on October 4, 1924, against Sturgis, Kentucky.
Plans for a permanent stadium took longer.
In 1925, a massive brick wall — approximately 10 feet high and 1,250 feet long — was constructed around the athletic grounds.
The permanent grandstand finally opened in September 1926.
The covered structure stretched approximately 327 feet and contained 21 tiers of wooden benches capable of seating around 4,000 spectators. Temporary bleachers could push attendance even higher.
The brick construction was designed to complement Bosse High School, creating the distinctive stadium-and-school combination that became a landmark along Washington Avenue.
The 1926 Dedication
Enlow Field received an elaborate formal dedication on October 29, 1926, before a football game between Bosse and Reitz.
Evansville schools closed for the occasion.
Senior classes and high school bands marched through Downtown Evansville before boarding streetcars to Bosse. Boy Scouts raised the American flag and an Enlow Field pennant, while city officials participated in dedication ceremonies.
The game itself featured two undefeated teams.
Bosse defeated Reitz 6–0.
The game was broadcast on WGBF radio, and officials attending included representatives from the IHSAA and Big Ten.
For Bosse, it was an appropriate beginning for a stadium that would become part of the school’s identity for the next century.
More Than Bosse Football
Although most closely associated with the Bosse Bulldogs, Enlow Field has served several Evansville schools.
For many years, Memorial High School also used Enlow as its home football field.
Harrison High School played its home games at Enlow for decades as well. Harrison eventually received its own stadium, Romain Stadium, in 2011.
That history made Enlow something more than simply Bosse’s football stadium. Generations of athletes from different Evansville schools played under its lights.
The stadium also has hosted track and field competitions and other school and community events.
A Classic Evansville Stadium
Perhaps Enlow Field’s most recognizable feature is its old-fashioned covered grandstand.
Unlike modern high school stadiums dominated by exposed aluminum bleachers, Enlow retained the look of an early-20th-century football stadium, with brick architecture that visually connects the athletic complex with historic Bosse High School.
Bosse itself is part of the Lincolnshire Historic District, and Enlow Field is historically as