African American philanthropists Arnie L. Myers and Ruben L. Wiley donated this site to the City of Haines City on November 29, 1944, to help establish an athletic and recreational field for people of color in the community during Jim Crow. Named Oakland Athletic Field and laid out for football and baseball, it stood beside Oakland High School and served as the dedicated home field for the school's varsity football program until the school closed in 1968. It was also the home field of the Haines City Brahmans, an African American semi-pro baseball team, and continued in that role well into the 1980s. In 1957, the field was renamed Cook Athletic Field to honor a local citrus contractor who allegedly funded a cinder block wall on three sides of the field, though the wall was later destroyed by a storm. After 76 years, on August 6, 2020, the field was renamed Myers & Wiley Athletic Field in recognition of the African American men who gave the historic site to the city. Today, the field hosts a variety of competitive athletic and sporting events.