Address
Stadium Dr,
Slippery Rock, PA,16057
Get Directions
Parking
Parking is adjacent to the
park.
About Critchfield Park
Jack Critchfield Park, arguably the finest on-campus baseball
facility in the country, is the home of the nationally recognized
Slippery Rock University baseball program.
Grand opening ceremonies for "The Jack" were held on April 20, 2002. The
event attracted 1,256 fans – which at the time was the second largest
crowd to attend an NCAA Division II regular-season baseball game.
Jack Critchfield Park, which has a seating capacity of 1,500, is named
in honor of Dr. Jack Critchfield, a 1955 Rock graduate and former Rock
baseball pitcher.
Dr. Critchfield and his wife, Mary, in appreciation for the opportunity
he received to attend college, made a $500,000 donation to the
University in May 2000. That donation initiated the project that
culminated in the construction of the state-of-the-art, 1,500-seat,
on-campus baseball facility that bears his name.
Dr. Critchfield’s ties to baseball go beyond his playing days at The
Rock, though. He was an integral part of the community effort that led
to the successful awarding of a Major League Baseball franchise – the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays – to the Tampa Bay area of Florida in 1996.
Dr. Critchfield’s involvement in the formation of the Devil Rays was but
one reason the St. Petersburg Times stated in a 1998 feature story that
he was "one of Tampa Bay’s dominant civic leaders."
Dr. Critchfield is a retired president and CEO of Florida Progress,
Corp., a utility company.
Prior to joining Florida Progress, he served as president of Rollins
College; president of Winter Park (Fla.) Telephone and as a teacher.
Dr. Critchfield received his bachelor’s degree from The Rock and later
earned a master’s degree in psychological counseling and a doctorate in
education from the University of Pittsburgh.
A native of western Pennsylvania, Dr. Critchfield now resides in
Clearwater, Fla., with his wife and daughter, Austi Cecelia. |