The Naming of Grant Field

Each fall, thousands of fans file into Bobby Dodd Stadium to root for the Yellow Jackets on Grant Field, a symbol of Tech football for almost a century. But few may know the story behind the field’s name.

Hugh Inman Grant, who died in 1906 at age 10 after a bout of appendicitis, was a typical boy who loved playing outdoors, picking vegetables from his family’s garden and riding in his goat-drawn cart.

He was the son of John Grant and Annie Inman, whose marriage brought together two of Atlanta’s most powerful families. In the years after the Civil War, the Grants made their mark in real estate and railroads. The Inmans had established business in the cotton trade, then invested in real estate, banks, railroads, street cars and insurance. (Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood is one of the many local spots that still bear the family name.)

The summer of Hugh’s death, Georgia Tech received $17,500 from the state legislature to enlarge the campus. Most of these funds were used to purchase the plot of land that stretched between Fowler Street and Techwood Drive and Kimball Street and North Avenue—the area that now is home to the football field.

In 1913, when Hugh would have been nearing college age, his father (a University of Georgia alumnus) donated $15,000 for the construction of concrete stands on the west side of Tech’s new athletic field.

The field served both the football and baseball teams and was unequaled in the South at the time. The following year, Grant donated another $20,000 to complete the stands on the west side to accommodate 5,600 more spectators.

The field was then known as The Flats, but the Board of Trustees soon opted to rename the facility to show their appreciation for Grant’s support. On Nov. 18, 1916, before football kickoff, it was dedicated as The Hugh Inman Grant Field. It was three days shy of what would have been Hugh’s 21st birthday.

The Grant family’s support of the field did not end there. In 1920, the relationship between Tech and the Peters Land Company became strained when the Institute failed to purchase what is now the northern half of Grant Field. John Grant, then a member of Tech’s Board of Trustees, came through once again, donating $50,000 to end the school’s obligation to Peters Land Company. (Grant served on the Board of Trustees from 1918 to 1928, then as chairman from 1930 until 1932, when the trustees were superseded by the state Board of Regents.)

After Grant’s second donation, it was another eight years before the east side concrete stands were completed. At that point, the stadium and field together was one of the largest gathering places for crowds in Atlanta and hosted such events as Lindbergh Day in 1927 and the dedication of Techwood Homes, the first public housing project in the nation, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935.

So as the hot days of summer give way to cooler autumn breezes and the cheers of the gridiron clash, take a moment to remember the namesake of Grant Field—not a star player or winning coach, but a young boy who was gone too soon.

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