Pirate Nation:
As we prepare for the scheduled demolition of W.M. Scales Field House, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the history of the building, and its significance in the story of East Carolina athletics.
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Any history of W.M. Scales Field House would be incomplete without mention of the building's namesake, Waightstill "Booger" Morehead Scales, Jr. A Greenville native, Scales' legacy is superlative in the fundraising history of East Carolina athletics.
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After graduating from Fishburne Military Academy in Waynesboro, Va. in 1942, Scales went on to work for John Flanagan's Buggy Company and the Ford Distributor in Greenville before entering the insurance business. From there, he became one of the leading fundraisers—"The Untouchables"—both in the community and at ECU, spearheading a fundraising effort which led to construction of Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in the early 1960s, during which he was the chairman of the stadium committee.
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Scales later served as the first president of the East Carolina College of the Century Club, which fans will better recognize by its current name: the Pirate Club.
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Scales with Chancellor Leo Jenkins (left) and Willie Mays
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In the later 1960s, Scales raised $100,000 to fund the construction of the building which would eventually bear his name. The final donation, a $25,000 contribution from the Minges family—the largest ever for East Carolina College at the time—put the project over the top and on Nov. 24, 1965, confirmation of completed fundraising was sent to State Budget Officer G.A. Jones Jr. On April 8, 1966, the State of North Carolina approved the building for construction with architectural planning done by Dudley & Shoe, Architects.
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And so it was that not two years later, W.M. Scales Field House was dedicated on January 7, 1968.
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Built conveniently adjacent to the Pirates' playing fields and under the shadow of the stadium Scales helped to fund, the building contained 8,000 square feet of floor space, originally with locker rooms, athletic training rooms, an athletic library, a meeting room, a study and storage space for athletics equipment.
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"I never went to a college football game until I dressed out for one," said ECU letterwinner and former Board of Trustees Chair Vern Davenport. "So, the stadium and college football and going into Scales, those were very impressive experiences. I can still remember what the locker looked like and where the helmet went, where the shoes went, where the jerseys went, and all that kind of stuff—and how close they were together and it was this kind of a miniature version of what the guys have now, but it didn't have glitz and glamour and all that kind of stuff. It was pure function."
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The first major change to the building came in 1971 with the addition of offices for ECU's head coaches and secretaries. Coaches began moving to other facilities beginning with the completion of the Ward Sports Medicine Building in 1989 and continuing with the building of the Teams Building and sport-specific facilities for baseball and basketball. Still, even until it went offline, the building continued to house at least one Pirate coach.
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Scales Field House during the 1971 expansion
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Just over a decade on from that original expansion, the building was renovated again to include a large laundry room, equipment storage, more offices, and a reception room. It was also at this time when the building first saw the addition of a heating and cooling system.Â
It was that 1983 renovation which transformed the Field House into the stalwart facility it remained until it closed for good earlier this year.
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Over the years, the building housed many East Carolina athletics employees, from coaches to trainers, marketing to equipment, external media to game operations. It is not unfair to say that until its demolition, W.M. Scales Field House was most critical to the functioning of ECU athletics as we know it.
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Pat Dye in his office in Scales Field House
"Any time you look at the history of a facility, the first thing that you have to look at is the people who went through that facility," said longtime ECU football assistant coach Steve Shankweiler. "If you look at the history of East Carolina football, obviously the Scales family put money into that facility and it stood the test of time for an awful lot of really, really good coaches and really, really good players. I never looked at it as a facility so much as the people who inhabited it."
It is a memory which won't be soon forgotten as plans are in place for a commemorative plaque to be installed in the place where the building once stood.
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Go Pirates!
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Jon
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