Grandstands and emergency vehicles at Florida State Fairground. 1952. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

Polly and Art Pepin Grandstand and Ed Rood Field, University of Tampa, Tampa, FL. 2021. © Chip Weiner

The area with the grandstands and flat track at the Florida State Fair was known as Plant Field Stadium. It was originally built as a horse track by Henry B Plant, builder of the Tampa Bay Hotel- now the University of Tampa. As early as 1899, there was also a seasonal baseball diamond here, and the most notable game played was on April 4, 1919, when Babe Ruth, in his last year with the Boston Red Sox, hit the longest home run of his career of 587 feet. In 1922, grandstands were added.

Auto racing and daredevil shows were a big part of the festival when this photograph was taken in 1952. Thousands of fairgoers would fill the grandstands to watch acrobatic circus acts, fiery motorcycle and car stunts, and flat track races. In the 1960s, the University of Tampa acquired these grandstands and named them Pepin-Rood Stadium. In 1975, the new Florida State Fair Authority moved the festival to East Tampa, ending the era of the state fair in South Tampa and its former inextricable link to the Gasparilla celebration.

The University of Tampa has replaced the original grandstands with the 1500-seat facility above. The bygone race track and infield are now part of Pepin/Rood Stadium. The grandstand is named for Polly and Arthur Pepin, a Tampa businessman and former owner of the area’s Anheuser-Busch distributorship. The field is named for Edward B. Rood, a Tampa lawyer and major donor to the University of Tampa sports programs.

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again Vol. 2