A compelling story about the sad disrepair of Oklahoma City's historic Taft Stadium is told in the July 7, 2007 issue of The Oklahoman (www.newsok.com).

By Justin Harper

Staff Writer

In March 1949, R.W. Smilie was fed up with Taft Stadium. Most likely, if the venerable old stadium was in the state of disrepair it currently is, Smilie might have walked a half block down the street from his home and gave it a good strong push so that it might go ahead and crumble.

But back in those days, Taft Stadium was a mighty structure both in structure and status.  Truth be told, Smilie didn't have a problem with the stadium itself. He was just sick of all the noise produced by midget cars racing around the track inside, often, he claimed, past the 10 p.m. cutoff time. So Smilie took his cause to district court. When his application was denied there, he went up the ladder to the state supreme court.

Even empowered with a petition signed by 58 neighbors of the venue situated along May Avenue between NW 23rd and NW 27th, Smilie was left with no reason to smile. In suggesting, rather imposingly, not to file an appeal, a judge overlooking the material wrote that no action would be taken and the grounds would not be disturbed.

Fifty-eight years later, that mandate is being followed as if it was a court order. And as for ol' R.W. Smilie, it took a long time, but Taft Stadium, which in its prime was place for sports in Oklahoma City, has for a while now been virtually silenced.

"I hate to see it like this," said Darrell Palmer, business manager of the Taft Stadium Board.  "I remember Midwest City-Putnam City football games where 14,000 people would fill it to the brim in the '60s. I went to it when my dad took me to the stock car races when I was a kid. I saw it in its heyday when it was a great place. And it's been a little spark in my heart for years."

To read the entire story, visit http://newsok.com/article/3078384 (free registration is required)