Durham Athletic Park

In their early days, the Durham Bulls played at Trinity College's Hanes Field,[9]—named for the founder of the clothing company, a Trinity graduate—now called Williams Field and still used for field hockey on Duke's east campus.[10]

From 1913 until early summer 1926 the Bulls played their games at Doherty Park in what was then called East Durham.

On July 7, 1926,[1] the Bulls moved to a new field called El Toro Park, built atop the streambed of Ellerbe Creek, which was re-routed, underground, through a tunnel beneath the pitcher's mound.[11][12][13] The ballpark, originally built with a wooden grandstand, was dedicated by the Commissioner of Baseball, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, on July 26, 1926, who rode a live bull—the team mascot—onto the playing field.[9] In 1932, the Bulls became a farm team for the Philadelphia Phillies, becoming part of the Yankees organization a year later.[4] The facility was renamed Durham Athletic Park during the 1933 offseason, following a $20,000 donation by Annie Watts Hill and her husband, John Sprunt Hill, that enabled the City of Durham to purchase the park.[1][4]

The Bulls sat out the 1934 and 1935 seasons, owing to the Great Depression.[9] For 1936, Cincinnati Reds moved their affiliation (Piedmont League squad) from the Wilmington Pirates to Durham, re-activating the Durham Bulls franchise.[4] On the evening of June 17, 1939, the wooden Durham Athletic Park was destroyed by a fire that followed a 7–3 win over the Portsmouth Cubs, causing more than $100,000 in damage and nearly killing groundskeeper Walter Williams, who was asleep under the grandstand when the blaze began, shortly after midnight.[1][9]

The Bulls were re-activated in early 1945, as the Red Sox's Class-C team in the newly established Carolina League, after sitting out for the 1944 season which was a year-long drought of baseball at the DAP, due to the second World War.[4] Following a realignment to become part of the Detroit Tigers club in 1948, the DAP witnessed an important moment in the civil rights movement, when on August 10, 1951, Percy Miller, Jr., the first black player in the Carolina League made his minor league debut with the visiting Danville Leafs.[3][4]

Attention to baseball waned in the Bull City, through the 1960s, even after the Bulls became the farm club for the Houston Colt .45s expansion team. Attendance numbers were down throughout the region, so much that after the 1967 season, the Bulls acquired a Raleigh baseball team from the nearby city of Raleigh, North Carolina and so the Raleigh club merged into the Durham Bulls, renaming the Durham Bulls the Raleigh-Durham Mets, splitting the season between the DAP and Raleigh's Devereaux Meadow.[3][4] There is no record on if this Raleigh team is a new team or the Raleigh Pirates. The team became the Raleigh-Durham Phillies in 1969 and then the Triangles in 1970, eventually disbanding again after the 1971 season, leaving the stalwart Durham Athletic Park virtually without purpose.[3][4]

As for the Durham Bulls, they came and went over the years in various iterations, par for the course for minor league teams at the time. In 1980, the Bulls were revived as a farm team for the Atlanta Braves by new owner Miles Wolff. Baseball returned to the DAP for the first time in 9 years on April 15, 1980, before a crowd of 4,418.[3][4] The park was repainted in the bright blue and orange team colors. Over the interior entrance was a sign reading El Toro Stadium, a variation of its original name. The team had a successful year, leading the Carolina League in attendance that first season with 175,963 and nearly 30% of the league total of 600,809. This was also well ahead of second-place Salem which drew 102,456.[14]

The team's popularity received a large boost when the ballpark became the primary setting for the film Bull Durham, which also contributed to the end of the DAP as an important baseball venue. Increased attendance at the DAP, with frequent capacity crowds, and an interest in attracting a Triple-A franchise prompted the city to build a new ballpark on the other side of the downtown, adjacent to the former American Tobacco campus. 1993 was promoted as the final season for the DAP, but construction delays compelled the team to play one more season there. In 1994, the club sold T-shirts bearing the legend "2nd Annual Final Season at the DAP". On September 5, 1994, the Bulls played their final game at the DAP, a 6–2 loss to the Winston-Salem Spirits in Game 1 of the Carolina League's South Division playoffs.[2]

In 1995, the Bulls abandoned their home since 1926 and moved to the new Durham Bulls Athletic Park or "D-BAP". Attendance continued to be so good that the Bulls were promoted to the AAA level 3 years later, when Major League Baseball's most recent round of expansion required the addition of two new AAA teams. Despite the relatively small size of the city, they continue to hold their own in attendance figures among the larger member cities of the International League.[2]

In 2008, the City of Durham allocated over $4 million in general obligation bond funds to renovate the DAP; Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles and Rouse was tasked with renovating the historic facility, in the hopes that it will be operated by Minor League Baseball as a training facility for umpires, groundskeepers, and other crew. The DAP will be used for NCCU games and other athletic programming along with concerts, festivals and other events. MiLB is also considering building a Minor League Baseball "fan experience museum" with public-sector support; the buildings at the northeast corner of the ballpark are of the greatest interest for this significant tourist attraction.[15][16] In early 2008, the City of Durham pledged an additional $1 million to the renovation, the money coming from interest earned on unspent bond funds. A ground-breaking ceremony was held on April 30,[17] with reconstruction beginning in late July 2008.[13][18]

The stadium re-opened on August 15, 2009, concluding the renovation with a picnic featuring former Bulls players and local celebrities.[19][20]

On the evening of May 10, 2010, before a crowd of 3,911,[21] the-now Class AAA Durham Bulls returned to The DAP for a single regular-season game against the Toledo Mud Hens. With additional lighting on-hand to raise the field to Triple-A standards, the Bulls fell to the Mud Hens 6–4, mirroring the score of the Single-A club's final game in the stadium 16 years prior.[22][23]

Among other events scheduled for 2011 was another return to the DAP by the Bulls, again on the second Monday night in May. The game was played on May 9 and resulted in a loss to the Indianapolis Indians.

On September 2, 2011, Minor League Baseball announced that it would not renew its contract to manage the DAP. The Durham Bulls announced on December 27, 2011, that they will be assuming the operating agreement from Minor League Baseball.[24]