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Don Sanders Stadium
Capacity: 1,163
Dimensions (L-R): 330-375-400-375-330
First Game: Feb. 11, 2006 (16-3 win over Texas Southern)
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Physical Address
620 Bowers Blvd.
Huntsville, TX 77340
For rental information contact Ryan Carroll
Phone: 936-294-2521 Email: crc026@shsu.edu
Sam Houston baseball caught the nation’s attention in February of 2006 when it opened Don Sanders Baseball Stadium, with a 16-3 win over Texas Southern.
The $5.5-million facility is named to honor Houston entrepreneur and philanthropist Don Sanders who donated $1 million to establish an endowment fund to enhance the baseball program at Sam Houston State, his alma mater.
Sanders is founder and chairman of the investment firm Sanders Morris Harris. He is a former owner of the Houston Sports Association and the Houston Astros Baseball Club and currently, along with Nolan Ryan, is co-owner of Ryan-Sanders Baseball. Ryan-Sanders Baseball owns the Houston Astros' Class AAA Round Rock Express and the Astros' Class AA Corpus Christi Hooks.
Sanders is a leading figure in Houston in a variety of civic, corporate and financial enterprises. He was the founder and chairman of the Houston Police Foundation and was a member of the University of Houston System Board of Regents and Houston Police Pension System. In 2001, he was named Houston Interfaith Charities' "Sportsman of the Year." His has held board affiliations with the Nolan Ryan Foundation, the DePelchin Children's Center, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
The facility is located east of the Bowers Stadium football facility and includes not only the stadium, but also spacious dressing areas, indoor hitting cages, lights, and coaches' offices. To this day It is still the newest baseball complex in the Southland Conference.
"Our first-class baseball facility will enable our programs to recruit quality student-athletes and provide an excellent atmosphere to watch college baseball," SHSU director of athletics Bobby Williams said upon the stadium’s opening. "The facility upgrade was long overdue and can compete with any of the top baseball programs in the nation."
Sam Houston's Don Sanders Stadium was the site of the 2008 Southland Conference postseason tournament and each spring hosts numerous high school state playoff games and junior college showcases.
In 2013, thanks to the generous donations from Don Sanders and Bud Haney, Sam Houston began the installation of a top-of-the-line $300,000 video board for the 2014 season. The board is 31 feet, 10.4 inches tall by 36 feet wide and features a 20mm video display with 198 lines of resolution by 360 columns of resolution. The feature plays a tremendous role in enhancing the game day experience for players and fans, showing replays, highlights, player info and more during the course of a game.
The stadium got another big upgrade prior to the 2016 season when Sam Houston began the installation of a new 183,030 square foot AstroTurf surface. The $1.4-million project took roughly 2.5 months to complete and includes 105,340 square feet of green turf, 12,750 square feet of skin area and a warning track of 19,560 square feet. The entire surface is made up entirely of turn, including areas of the infield, warning track and foul territory where dirt used to lie.
