Love's Field Construction

Love's Field construction on Feb. 5.

Mere days before the opening of Love’s Field, the pounding of hammers and the growl of bulldozers shuffling dirt filled the air.

The race to finish OU softball’s new home was on, as Timberlake Construction — the company leading the charge for the Sooners’ new stadium — workers, geared in white hard hats and yellow vests and raced around the facility doing various projects just 72 hours from Oklahoma’s first pitch.

On Friday, No. 1 Oklahoma (14-0) will open play in Love’s Field, its sterling $48 million stadium that’s been under construction since September 2022, against Miami (Ohio) (9-2) at 2 p.m. in the OU Tournament in Norman. Despite the construction company and the university’s earnest attempt, the project will not be fully complete until early to mid-April due to several weather delays.

But for OU’s softball program, that doesn’t matter.

After spending 26 years at Marita Hynes Field, where the Sooners won seven national championships — the third most of any program in the NCAA — 548 games, nine Super Regionals and 17 regionals, OU head coach Patty Gasso is now ready to move to a facility she thinks is “long overdue.”

“There are always going to be delays of some type,” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said.

“It wasn't an option (not to play there). We will play in that stadium on March 1. Period. There wasn't any ifs, ands or buts after that. Now, we’re very aware of the challenges that we face behind the scenes. … In the end, we're gonna have really one of the most special, special venues (in college softball).”

Castiglione says the team offices and locker rooms are not yet finished, but they are “not too far along” from completion. The top priority has been the field and the fan experience, which he says will be finished by the Sooners’ ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. on Friday.

That means specialty concession stands, open seating and the grass playing surface will be ready by game time.

For Gasso, the team and those who have watched college softball grow exponentially, there was no other option.

“We wanted to roll this particular special day out,” Castiglione said. “Then we have plans around everything else. But, in the fact that our stadium isn't fully complete, we have already set a date for more of a grand opening (in the future). Because we're doing this in the season, we can't really have a complete open house.”

Gasso teared up when talking about OU’s new home facility on Tuesday.

For almost 30 years, she has driven the same route to and from Marita Hynes Field. However, as the program moves from the Sooners’ former home, a facility that holds 1,378 fans, to Love’s Field, which seats 4,200, it is the small details — the drive, the memories and even the Oklahoma-shaped scoreboard — that comprise the volume of this moment.

That sentiment rings true for former OU slugger Lauren Gipson, formerly Chamberlain, who toured the facilities earlier this year and referred to it as “badass” in an interview with the OU Daily.

“The level of detail going into the specific stadium is just setting a new standard which OU softball continues to do,” Gipson said. “OU continues to win and that calls everybody else to level up. It brings everybody else and their game to the top of the sport.

“It demands excellence, and it's fitting that OU gets a stadium like this because it continues to set the standard.”

Over the first few weeks at Love’s Field, the Sooners plan to shuttle back and forth between training and practices, as it nears the end of its construction. Even with the small delays, nothing will stop OU’s head coach from playing in the stadium.

“That'll be a little bit challenging,” Gasso said on Tuesday. “They'll dress here (at Marita Hynes Field), they'll come back and change out of their uniforms here. But that doesn’t matter because we're playing on it. So who cares what we have to do. We will walk (if we have to). We'll do whatever we can to get on that field.”

After a two-year wait, Oklahoma will trot onto Love’s Field for the first time in front of a sold-out crowd. It will be a historic moment not only for the entire program but for all of college softball, which saw a peak of 2.3 million viewers tune into the 2023 Women’s College World Series finals on national television.

It is the memories of picking up trash and squeegeeing the fields after it rained at Reaves Park that show just how far the program and the sport have come. Alice Fernando-Ahmie, who grew up on a Navajo reservation in Gallup, New Mexico, was not only one of the first female athletes to receive OU’s Title IX scholarships in 1978, but she also experienced OU’s first softball home.

Then, softball was a microcosm of what it is now.

Five decades ago, the team only attracted a single media member, according to Fernando-Ahmie. The batting cages and track were under Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, also known as the “Pneumonia Downs” because crews would burn trash that would later cause players to get sick, and OU’s games would have little to no fans in attendance.

It’s why Fernando-Ahmie thinks Love’s Field is more than a stadium unveiling. It’s a stepping stone for female athletes.

“This is like my wildest dream,” Fernando-Ahmie told the OU Daily. “To have a field like that is incredible. That program has developed so much, and they are so deserving.

“The fact that OU has gotten to the level of where they're at right now. It has put softball in people's mouths. It has become common where people didn't really know about it before. Everybody knows about it now.”

That is why, even if the stadium isn’t fully finished, having Friday’s opening contest there was a non-negotiable.

“We could have easily started playing in one facility and switched over in April,” Castiglione said. “It's not a big, big deal to have all the other areas of the stadium finished. Because we can play it in 2024 or if you want everything finished before you play, it probably wouldn’t be open until 2025.

“There's a lot that went into it, and we really made a well informed decision based on our set of priorities. And the other part too, … there are athletes that want to play in it. They won't be here in 2025. We wanted to make this happen as fast as we could.”

1978 womens softball team

The 1978 Sooner softball team led by coach Marita Hynes. Alice Fernando-Ahmie, one of the first recipients of a scholarship through Title IX, is on the far left of the front row. 

‘We suffered through a lot’

Fernando-Ahmie initially wanted to make the 696-mile trip from Gallup to Norman for the Love’s Field grand opening this weekend.

Instead, she will watch her granddaughter play in a softball tournament this weekend in the same town she grew up in.

As a child, Fernando-Ahmie slid past stones and twigs in the dirt of the rock-filled fields of the Navajo Reservation. Now, that is a distant memory as she watches her granddaughter run base paths and play on manicured grass fields.

“The sport is where it should be now,” Fernando-Ahmie said. “We fought really hard and in the beginning, we suffered through a lot. I say 'suffer' because the conditions that we played under weren't that great.”

Before the implementation of Title IX in 1972, the Sooners had 11 sports for men and only a single sport for women, according to The Oklahoman in 1992.

It wasn’t until 1975 that OU softball graced Reaves Park for the first time. Then, it was led by former Sooners head coach Marita Hynes, who was the coach at OU from 1976-84 and later an associate athletics director until retiring in 2003.

It was there where OU's future dynasty, historic win streaks and Jocelyn Alo's home run record, were given the fuel to one day come to fruition.

“It was decent for our time,” Fernando-Ahmie said of Reaves Park. “For me personally it was a step up from where I played back in the day. When I was first playing because we came from the reservation. … We didn't have backstops. We didn't have lined fields.”

The New Mexico native has many memories from the historic field, but one memory sticks out to her the most.

In the bitter cold of winter, Norman received several inches of snow and the Sooners were a day away from hosting the then-Sooners Invitational Tournament at Reaves Park. During that time, Fernando-Ahmie, Hynes and fellow teammates grabbed snow shovels and winter gloves before clearing the fields, so they could host their tournament.

When the shovels weren’t making do, the Sooners rolled the sticky snow into massive snowballs. Stowed away in her house, 46 years later, the former pitcher has pictures of the team standing next to the nearly 6-foot-tall snow monstrosities.

As the field was cleared and the snow melted, the sound of a helicopter landing on Reaves Park to dry the dirt still reminds Fernando-Ahmie of how far female athletes and the sport have come.

“I just think back to those times,” Fernando-Ahmie said, “and I can’t help but feel so proud. I'm so happy to see how women's sports has evolved. I think the world needs to pay attention because for so long it was all about men.

“But, now, the world is taking notice.”

Marita Hynes Field

Marita Hynes Field during the game against UIC on March 4, 2023.

Fast forward to 1998 — nearly two decades later — the Sooners were able to break through the first of many glass ceilings in college softball. Marita Hynes Field, named for OU’s first legendary head coach, was constructed, giving OU its own stadium just south of the Sooners’ football stadium.

“It was such a great facility for building a new field,” Hynes told the OU Daily, while making her trip from New Mexico to Norman for the Love’s Field home opener. “They kind of asked me to draw some ideas for it and I did. It was wonderful. Some old lady didn’t build a big enough stadium, though. But it got us seven national championships.”

In the leadup to the construction of Marita Hynes Field, Hynes, then an associate athletics director, was tasked with moving the softball program to its new home. Then Gasso, who, like her predecessor, was still practicing in other facilities, throwing away trash at Reaves Park and coaching players who “just loved softball,” entered the beginning stages of her career with the Sooners.

Finally, in 1998, the Sooners opened up their home complex and Gasso built a legacy in the house that Hynes created.

Nearly decades removed from the sport, Fernando-Ahmie was able to tour Marita Hynes Field like former OU alums are currently doing with Love’s Field, and can remember being amazed by the grass and large stands.

For nearly three decades, the Sooners’ then-home field was the stomping grounds for OU legends like Alo, Keilani Ricketts and Gipson, who ended her career as the NCAA’s previous all-time home run leader with 95 home runs.

For many, Marita Hynes Field was the first time they played in front of a crowd of 1,000-plus fans, and eventually, the program added temporary bleachers due to the growing demand of the sport.

Former Oklahoma pitcher Paige Parker, who played under Gasso from 2015-18 and recorded 968 strikeouts in her career, can’t help but feel prideful about their old stadium.

“Without those things at Marita Hynes Field, Love’s Field wouldn't really be possible,” Parker, who is now Utah’s pitching coach, told the OU Daily. “All the sold-out crowds and all the hype that happens with each and every home game has created a legacy. Without that at Marita Hynes Field, Love’s Field wouldn't be possible today.”

Jessica Shults, a former Sooners catcher, was able to tour Love’s Field with Gasso while it was under construction last November. Gasso, like Hynes, has had a hand in designing the facility that her program helped build. On Tuesday, she even described the process as “building a dream home” but has left most of the designing up to the experts.

“Even if it's not completely finished, I think this is just a surreal moment for every alumni,” Shults said. “When we stepped onto the field to me, the stands were just so grand. I felt the wow factor of being in that field. It's like you're playing in the World Series every game.”

On Friday, that dream will become a reality for OU’s past and present players, while expanding the legacy pioneered by Gasso. Reaves Park, Marita Hynes Field and Love’s Field are within a three-minute walk of each other. However, decades have passed from one field to the next, and that time serves as a daily reminder of where the sport was and what it is now.

“This will be the premier softball stadium in the United States,” Hynes said. “I think that's so important for OU’s future and Patty's success. I’m really happy about that.”

Patty Gasso

OU softball head coach Patty Gasso during the Big 12 softball championship against Oklahoma State on May 14, 2022.

‘The place they dream of’

Patty Gasso couldn’t believe her eyes.

As construction roared around her, OU’s head coach stepped onto Love’s Field and felt astonished during her first visit to the completed field. She’s been on several trips, previously, with Gipson and other alums, imagining what the complex would look like in completion.

This time, however, it was real.

“Until the first pitch is when I will really pinch myself,” Gasso said. “I go by every day. I try to look over and see a new ground floor. … I think we all feel a little anxious about it.

“I'm not going to let this be chaos and panic. We're going to try to take it as slow as we can to take it all in because there's so much to see. There's so much to look at. There's some things that are so new and bigger and better and it's gonna take us some time to get used to all of it.”

This moment is new for Gasso and her current team, for the players she’s previously coached and the recruits that intend to join the Sooners program.

There’s no on-campus stadium like Love’s Field in all of college softball. In the SEC, Alabama’s John and Ann Rhoads Softball Stadium — built in 2000 — was the largest stadium prior to Love’s completion, with a capacity of 3,940 and two premium suites. The Sooners beat the Crimson Tide’s margin by over 200 seats, not including standing-room areas.

The only greater complex lies 22.9 miles due north at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, the home of the WCWS since 1990. Fernando-Ahmie has visited the complex during several of the Sooners’ national championship runs in the past two decades.

Even with those experiences, she can’t imagine the spectacle of Love’s Field and the statement that it’s making for female athletes, let alone the type of reaction she’ll have when she visits the finished complex on her former stomping grounds.

“This has an overarching effect, by letting the world know that women are competitive,” Fernando-Ahmie said. “We’re not just good athletes, it shows that they can be excellent athletes. That's what I see with Oklahoma softball. You see that level of devotion to the game, the ability to make themselves better and to be on top and to stay on top.

“To me, Love’s Field is an acknowledgment of how much ground the sport has gained, not just softball, but women's sports in general because that's showing that women are at a level to where they can bring in the spectators.”

On a smaller scale, the investment into new facilities is not only a recruiting advantage for the Sooners, but it shows women that they can garner attention on a national scale.

According to OU’s social media accounts, while en route to its third straight championship, the Sooners generated 26,000-plus posts and almost 100 million impressions on X, formerly known as Twitter, during the WCWS championship series.

“Love’s Field is the heart project for so many people that have been through that program and are still at that program,” Gipson said. “It's pretty cool to see the dream of this field and the stadium for coach Gasso and, really, for the program come to life.”

And this is just the start.

Castiglione hinted at the unveiling of Gasso’s statue and the future of Marita Hynes Field, which will host two contests during the OU Invitational on Friday.

“Let us roll one surprise out after the other,” Castiglione said. “That's the answer. We'll get to that soon, believe me. We know where that (statue) is going. But, we want to roll out this special project first.”

While OU softball alums and fans gather for the grand opening on Friday, Fernando-Ahmie will be sitting in a different stadium, watching the same game.

Her granddaughter and her teammates often dream about being the next players to join the Sooners’ softball dynasty. In their world, Oklahoma is the new empire of athletics. OU stars such as Kinzie Hansen and Jayda Coleman are filling the previously empty shoes of role models that those such as Michael Jordan and Tom Brady have filled in men’s sports for generations.

“Anybody that is interested in softball and the young girls coming up that want to play softball, it catches their attention. That's where they want to be. OU’s the place they dream of being at,” Fernando-Ahmie said.

And it hasn’t stopped there.

Just this week, Fernando-Ahmie’s brother-in-law, who is an avid college football fan, shared his growing and surprising love for the sport during a phone call. Like many football fans, the spring is usually a dreaded dead period.

Softball has changed that for him.

“I used to have this dry spell between football seasons, and I can't wait till the next football season,” he told her in a recent phone conversation. “I've come to replace it with women's softball.”

It’s in those moments that Fernando-Ahmie feels and sees the growth of a sport that she helped pioneer.

For her, projects like Love’s Field are just one step closer to establishing equality in men’s and women’s sports.

“Women are starting to get noticed,” Fernando-Ahmie said. “It's opening the world's eyes to what women can do. We've always been able to do this.

“It's just that people hadn't noticed before.” 

This story was edited by Louis Raser, Gracie Rawlings and Grayson Blalock.

OU Daily standards

See an error? Earning trust is our duty. We correct errors atop stories. Identify an error, request a takedown or get in touch.

Independent and free since 1916: OU is committed to our editorial independence. You can help ensure our reporting remains strong and accessible to all invested in OU and Norman.

Want to comment? We value dialogue on issues we cover. On our social media accounts, we moderate disparagements, arguments and attacks, including those directed at our staff — and ban those repeatedly failing civility. The editor considers guest column submissions.