Quantico’s Butler Stadium gets facelift

By Julia LeDoux

Published: April 3, 2008

QUANTICO — An improved Butler Stadium was unveiled last week at Quantico Marine Corps base.

The Marine Corps Marathon funded this latest $1 million in renovations to the historic facility, including the installation of a shock-absorbing running track, new drainage system and lighting.

Marine Corps Base commanding officer Col. Charles Dallachie and MCM race director Rick Nealis officially reopened the stadium during a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 28.

Following the ceremony, the track was open for runners and fitness enthusiasts to enjoy.

The stadium also hosted several running events as part of the new Marine Corps Marathon Event Series. On March 29, the Butler Relay took place place. Run Amuck is set for June and features obstacles and plenty of mud, according to a spokesman.

“Just about a year ago, the Marine Corps Marathon office, in conjunction with the base, Marine Corps Community Services and the base facilities department, entered into the renovation project,” explained MCM events manager Jim Jackson.

Back in the early 1920s, Brig. Gen. Smeadly Butler created the stadium as a home for the Quantico Marine Corps base football team. With a budget of only $5,000, just enough to cover the cost of concrete, Marines provided the construction labor. Construction materials were gathered from closed military bases, and local contractors donated sand and gravel. The Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Co. offered worn steel rails to the project.

The stadium was not officially completed until after World War II, and has been used for a variety of sporting events ever since.

The new terra cotta-colored track is made of a synthetic urethane surface and meets standards set by the U.S. Track and Field Association.
“It’s a synthetic rubber product that’s applied over an asphalt surface,” explained Darryl Sears, a civil engineering technician with the base’s public works branch.

“The major challenge we had was the drainage system,” Sears continued. “The drainage system had been put in back in the 1920s through the 1940s, all done by Marine labor. Of course, back then the engineering standards weren’t as advanced as they are today. So that system was totally deteriorated. For this new track system to work, we had to design a way to get the water out of here. That was probably the crucial leg in it.”

The stadium’s new lighting system means that runners will be able to utilize the facility for longer periods each day.

“We’re very excited to bring the lights to Butler Stadium, to make it more accessible so everyone will have access to it earlier in the morning and later in the
evening...I think that’s going to be a great asset for the base, and especially for the families on the base,” said Beth Johnson, MCM public relations coordinator.
While working on the renovation, Sears even found an old set of redesign plans drawn for the stadium in 1976.

“It was not done at that time because it was too expensive,” he explained. “It appears now that the marathon has taken an interest in the stadium and sort of stepped up to the plate that things are beginning to happen here and the facility is gradually becoming what, in my opinion, it should be, one of the focal points of the base.”

Butler was one of the premiere track and field facilities on the East Coast during the 1960s and 1970s, and Sears, who served in the Marine Corps aboard Quantico then, has fond memories of the stadium.

“I can remember coming down here when I was stationed here and watching the Marine Corps football team,” he said.

The latest renovations are phase one of a five- to six-year project whose next component includes upgrades to the stadium’s center field, said Jackson.

“Our hopes in the future are to be able to hold full-blown track and field events here,” he added.
Discussions are under way about whether the natural grass surface in center field should be replaced by artificial turf or remain natural. One thing that won’t change is the stands, which are considered historic.

“When it comes to renovating the stands, we can improve them, but can’t rip them out,” Jackson said. He noted that a new staircase has also been put in that provides access from the upper parking deck to the stadium.

.”We’re also talking about putting in some kind of handicapped accessible ramp from the upper parking deck,” Jackson continued. “We’ve got a lot of plans about what we want to do here.”

Julia LeDoux is a staff writer at the Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger.