“No Quarter: The History of East Carolina Football and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium”

Explore the rich history of Pirate football and passion of Pirate Nation with “No Quarter: The History of East Carolina Football and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.” The exhibit featured in the ECU main campus library on the second and third floors opens Aug. 1 and will remain into November. 

VIDEO: ECU football players, coaches visit exhibit and have high praise. 

The ECU football team visited “No Quarter: The History of East Carolina Football and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium” during its 2023 preseason camp – (ECU Advancement Facebook photo by George Crocker). In the photo above, a crowd gathers in the Janice Hardison Faulkner Gallery for the official exhibit reception. (Photo by Heather White)

NEWS STORY: Library exhibit details decades of Pirate football moments, memorabilia

An exhibit reception was held Sept. 7, two days before the Pirates’ first home game of the season against Marshall.

About the exhibit:

There is no shortage of facts and artifacts to enjoy about ECU football in Academic Library Services’ exhibition “No Quarter: The History of East Carolina Football and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.”

Panels filled with photos and facts detail ECU football’s history. Items on display include the 1963 Eastern Bowl trophy, from the Pirates’ first bowl win, and a 1964 preseason playbook that featured plays to memorize preceded by a list of wide-ranging player expectations from coach Clarence Stasavich. Also, as recent as a coach Mike Houston-signed game ticket from the Pirates’ 53-29 win over Coastal Carolina at the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 27, 2022, is highlighted. One of the interactive components is game video from the 1970 ECU-Marshall matchup in Greenville.

More bowl trophies, championship rings, helmets, jerseys, game programs from the 1930s and 1940s, items from the 1992 Peach Bowl and more are available in a comprehensive display of ECU football memories and memorabilia.

Ted Salmon, one of the 1970 East Carolina football players, looks at a panel in the “No Quarter: The History of East Carolina Football and Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium” exhibit. (ECU Photo by Rhett Butler)

Manuscripts curator Patrick Cash is lead on the project and first got the idea in 2020 while working in university archives researching ECU football. Targeting this year was appropriate as ECU approaches the 60-year anniversary of the dedication of James Skinner Ficklen Memorial Stadium on Sept. 21, 1963.

“This will be the largest exhibit special collections has done in recent years, and most likely will be the largest one we will be doing going forward,” Cash said. “There’s a lot of individuals working behind the scenes and it takes a lot of us to get it up and running. I always enjoy having the chance to put our best foot forward with events and exhibits and programs. I think this is going to be a really great opportunity for people from the community to come in and not only see the football exhibit, but also see everything else we have to offer and hopefully fall in love with it.”