Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: African American philanthropists, Arnie L. Myers and Ruben L. Wiley, donated this site to the City of Haines City on November 29, 1944, to help establish an athletic and recreational field for people of color living in the community during the era of Jim Crow. The field was named the Oakland Athletic Field and configured for football and baseball. Adjacent to the Oakland High School campus, it served as a dedicated home field for the school’s varsity football program until 1968, the year the school closed. It was also home field for the local Haines City Brahmans, an African American semi-pro baseball team, and functioned in this capacity well into the 1980s. In 1957, the field was renamed to Cook Athletic Field to honor a local citrus contractor who allegedly funded the erection of a cinder block wall on three sides of the field. The wall was subsequently destroyed by a storm. After 76 years, on August 6, 2020, the field was renamed Myers & Wiley Athletic Field in recognition of the African American men who gifted this historical site to the city. Today, the field is a venue for a variety of competitive athletic and sporting events.