Harmon Stadium

Entrance to Harmon Stadium on the University of North Florida campus, Mar-2021.

A simple seating bowl holds nearly a thousand fans.

The field faces in the traditional northeast direction.

• Location: Varsity Lane at North Entrance Road, Jacksonville, Fla. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1988
• Home team: University of North Florida Ospreys, Atlantic Sun Conference
• Capacity: 1,000

The baseball stadium at UNF opened the year the program began, and it was finished off in part with contributions by local supporters Doug and Linda Harmon. The field and batting facility are named for the school’s first coach, Dusty Rhodes, who came to the school in 1987 to build the program and promptly led them to the NAIA World Series in 1989, the program’s second year. The stadium structure is simple, with a main grandstand behind home plate that features some stadium seating perched upon an aluminum structure but mostly bleacher seating, along with a small bleacher down the third-base line. There is no shade for day games or shelter from a rainstorm. However, there is a fully enclosed seating area known as the Osprey Nest down the first-base line, available for special functions.

Some folks have mentioned that when the stadium first opened, there were osprey nests on the light towers. These were not in evidence the day I attended, though numerous birds were perched (though not nesting) on a cell tower just beyond the field on the first-base side.