The Battling Bishop field hockey team won seven consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference titles from 1987-93, and added another in 1995 to extend its string to eight championships in nine years. Ohio Wesleyan won Ohio Association of Intercollegiate Sports for Women state field hockey championships in 1974, 1975, and 1979.
In 1974, under head coach Harriet Stewart, the field hockey team posted a 16-0-2 record — the best in school history — and won the OAISW state title. The field hockey team successfully defended its 1975 OAISW championship, going 13-3-2. In 1979, the field hockey team won its third state title under head coach Harriet Stewart.
Defender Robin Buckingham ’89 became Ohio Wesleyan’s first All-America field hockey player in 1986. She went on to win two more All-America citations. In 1987, under third-year head coach Nan Carney-DeBord, the field hockey team won its first NCAC championship and advanced to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III playoffs for the first time. This season began a four-year span of NCAC titles and NCAA Division III playoff appearances in which the Bishops went 38-1-1 in conference play.
In 1993, Erin Foley ’94 was the first Battling Bishop field hockey player to be named All-America and GTE Academic All-America® in the same season.
The Bishop field hockey team began playing its home games at Selby Stadium during the 2006 season. Prior to 2006, Ohio Wesleyan played its home games at the Henry Street Field, which was located south of Selby Stadium, and is the site of today’s Luttinger Family Tennis Center.
Selby Stadium received a new Field Turf artificial playing surface for the 2014-15 academic year, lights for the 2010-11 academic year, and a video scoreboard in the spring of 2011, making the venue one of the most impressive among NCAA Division III institutions.
Built in 1929, Selby boasts a seating capacity of 9,100, with all seats falling between the 15-yard lines of the field. Its press box was lauded as “the largest in Ohio outside of Ohio Stadium.”
Designed by George Gauthier, Ohio Wesleyan’s Hall of Fame football coach, track & field coach, and athletic director, and constructed by the Osborn Engineering Company (which also built the original Yankee Stadium), the complex was named after George D. Selby, who served the Ohio Wesleyan board of trustees for 24 years. His sons, Mark, Homer, Pearl, and Roger, contributed $100,000 of the project’s $160,000 cost. Selby Stadium recently underwent a restoration project that included a new, 2-level press box, new bleacher seats and refurbished locker rooms.
Selby also houses the George Gauthier Track, an Ameritan FP surface completed for the 2006-07 academic year. The site of 19 of the first 30 NCAC outdoor track & field championships, Selby is believed to be the oldest facility in the nation constructed to Olympic specifications and remaining in its original configuration.
