This field hosted a 1913 game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants, that year’s National League pennant winners, as players from other major league teams joined them on a world tour. Blue Rapids was the smallest town, and the only town in Kansas, to provide the $1000 guarantee needed to bring in major leaguers. More than 3,000 people watched as the White Sox won 8 to 5. Among those present was Jim Thorpe, later a member of the National Football League Hall of Fame, an Olympic gold medallist, and the first president of the National Football League. Other Baseball Hall of Fame figures connected with the game included Giants manager and former player John McGraw, Sam Crawford, who played for Chicago during the 50-game world tour though he was a Detroit Tiger, Bill Klem, the umpire who originated hand signals for calling balls and strikes, and Christy "Big Six" Mathewson, an original Hall of Fame inductee who attended but did not play. During the 1930's many traveling teams, including the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League, played here against local teams. In the early 1950's, Earl Woods, father of professional golfer Tiger Woods, played here for a Blue Rapids team while competing locally; he had played baseball for Kansas State College and was one of the first black players in the Big 7 League.