The limestone wall surrounding Quincy University’s baseball and football stadium has stood since 1938, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was serving his second term as president. The stadium, known as The Rock, was built through a Works Progress Administration project, a New Deal program created during the Great Depression to provide jobs and stimulate the economy. Since then, the stadium has been the home of collegiate, amateur, and minor league baseball teams while producing Major League Baseball (MLB) players, including two members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The stadium’s professional baseball history began in 1946, when the Quincy Gems joined the Three-I League as a New York Yankees affiliate. Following World War II, Yankees Vice president George M. Weiss sought opportunities for returning servicemen to resume their baseball careers. Eight players on the Gems inaugural roster had received Purple Hearts or medals for valor during the war.

One of these players was former U.S. Marine Sgt. Hank Bauer, whose promising baseball career was interrupted by his enlistment following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bauer earned a Bronze Star Medal for valor in the Battle of Guam, where he was wounded in the back by enemy shrapnel. During the Battle of Okinawa, he was one of six survivors from his platoon that was struck down by enemy artillery fire. His wounds forced him to be sent back to the United States.

After recovering, Bauer ran into a New York Yankees scout who remembered him from before the war. He convinced Bauer to give baseball another chance and arranged a tryout with the Class B Quincy team, where Bauer made the roster. In the inaugural 1946 Quincy Gems season that saw an average of 1,500 fans per home game, Bauer quickly established himself as one of the league’s top hitters before going on to win seven World Series titles in 10 years with the Yankees while setting a record with a hit in 17 consecutive World Series games. Following his 14-year playing career, he went on to spend eight more seasons as a manager and won the World Series with the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.

Along the left-field line, right next to the entrance from the parking lot, stands the Wall of Honor. Installed by the Quincy Gems in 2016 during upgrades to the concessions and restroom area, the display consists of black granite plaques engraved with the names of local veterans who served in conflicts ranging from World War II through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many entries note branch of service and include “AO” for Agent Orange exposure. Designed by Harrison Monuments and sponsored by Refreshment Services Pepsi, Gully Transportation, and Quincy Firefighters Local 63, the wall was dedicated on a Military Night that featured an exhibition game against the U.S. Military All-Stars.

The Rock’s history also includes a connection to the Negro Leagues. On Aug. 4, 1947, the Chicago American Giants defeated the New York Black Yankees, 12-8, in an exhibition game at what was then known as Q Stadium. 

Quincy freshman Jeremy Thompson has quickly made a positive impact on the QU baseball team as a pitcher and a hitter.

“It’s awesome that we once held a Negro Leauge game and were part of baseballs integration in a way,” Thompson said.

Once the Gems left the Three-I League following the 1956 season, professional baseball in Quincy experienced a hiatus until the Midwest League Class D San Francisco Giants affiliate Quincy Giants came to town in 1960. In 1962, the New York Mets replaced the Giants with the Quincy Jets. The Quincy Gems made a return in 1964, though the independent Midwest League Class A Gems were short-lived, only lasting one year.

Quincy’s most sustained stretch of professional baseball was occupied by the Quincy Cubs, the Midwest League Class A minor league team for the Chicago Cubs. The Quincy Cubs remained in Quincy from 1965-73, while winning the Midwest League Championship in 1970.  During these eight years, a few MLB greats came through Quincy.

In the third round of the 1966 MLB draft, the Chicago Cubs selected Joe Niekro, who logged 25 innings and posted a 1.08 ERA for the Quincy Cubs in 1966. The following year, he made his MLB debut with the Chicago Cubs and went on to earn 221 wins with a career 3.59 ERA across 22 seasons while playing for seven teams, highlighted by a World Series win with the Minnesota Twins in 1987.

Five years later in September 1971, Cubs scout Ralph DiLullo discovered Bruce Sutter playing semi-professional baseball in the Lebanon Valley League and signed him as an undrafted free agent. After battling injuries, Sutter made his way to the Quincy Cubs in 1973. In that season, he threw 85 innings with 76 strikeouts. He continued to work through the Cubs farm system until he made his MLB debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1976. He proceeded to accumulate over 300 saves in his career, win the National League Cy Young Award in 1979 and help the St. Louis Cardinals win the 1982 World Series. Sutter made MLB history as he was the first and only undrafted player to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame since the MLB draft began in 1965.

Sutter leaving the Quincy Cubs in 1973 coincided with the end of the team. The Quincy Rivermen, members of the Central Illinois Collegiate League, called The Rock their home in the summers from 1974-87. The most notable Rivermen was Kirby Puckett in 1981. He was selected with the third pick of the first round by the Minnesota Twins in the 1982 MLB draft. After debuting in 1984, Puckett spent his entire 12-year career with the Twins as their center fielder and won six Gold Gloves, six Silver Sluggers, two World Series titles, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001. In 1996, Puckett was forced to retire due to severe vision loss in his right eye. The Twins retired his number 34 jersey one year later in 1997.

In 2026, Sophomore Ari Fivelson played 30 games in the outfield for QU during the spring and 34 games in the outfield for the Quincy Doggy Paddlers during the summer. 

“It’s so cool that I get to play in the same outfield that a hall of famer used to play in,” Fivelson said. 

From 1988-93, Quincy College was the only team to play home games at The Rock. In 1993, the school adopted the name Quincy University to reflect its expanded academic offerings. Summer-collegiate baseball returned to Quincy in 1996 with the Quincy Gems, members of the Central Illinois Collegiate League that became the Prospect League in 2008. The Gems’ 27-year run in Quincy ended after the 2023 season due to the owner’s publicly cited desire to reduce summer commitments.

Junior catcher Taran Rose hails from Australia where baseball is in the shadows of Australian Rules Football.

 “It amazes me how deep the baseball tradition is in Quincy and I am honored to be a part of it,” Rose said.

After youth baseball tournaments hosted by Q-Town tournaments were the stadium’s primary summer activity in 2024, the Prospect League announced that Golden Rule Entertainment and Tim Hoker would be the owners of the new team in Quincy. The Quincy Doggy Paddlers name came out of a community contest that received more than 1,000 suggestions. The name reflects Quincy’s Mississippi River connection and German heritage as seen in the choice of a German Shorthaired Pointer as the mascot. The logo shows the mascot, Barkley, wearing a gem around its neck as a tribute to the Quincy Gems and Quincy being referred to as the Gem City.

The arrival of the Quincy Doggy Paddlers brought new investment into the stadium. In partnership with Quincy University, the team helped replace the dugouts, which were more than 20 years old, and upgrade stadium seating. The need for further improvements became clear on July 19, 2025, when the light tower above the bullpen along the third-base side stopped working during a night game against the Alton River Dragons. This was no new issue, as the NCAA had not been allowing QU baseball to play night games due to the poor lights. This, and the light outage helped push the agenda for improved stadium lighting. 

In March 2026, the Quincy City Council approved $25,000 in city funding toward the $175,000 lighting project. According to Quincy Mayor Linda Moore, the cost of the renovations will pay itself off over the next few years as it opens opportunities to bring tourism and money to the Gem City. The new lights at The Rock are much brighter and cover a larger area than the previous ones. They also feature a light show mode used when a Quincy player hits a home run.

The stadium has undergone other major upgrades over the years. In 2014, Shaw Sports Turf replaced the natural infield with its Truhop signature line of baseball turf that was uniquely created to be the closest thing to natural grass for baseball fields of all levels. Recently, the stadium installed a pitch clock system, an AWRE camera system that captures all plays from five different angles and allows for in-game challenges, and Trackman, a 3D Doppler radar that tracks a baseball from the moment it leaves the pitcher’s hand until it’s caught, hit, or bounces. It records up to 48,000 measurements per second while capturing ball trajectory (vertical and horizontal movement), spin rate and spin axis, release point, exit velocity, launch angle, and distance and spray direction.

While professional and summer-collegiate teams have come and gone, Quincy University baseball has been a constant at The Rock, building a program with an all-time record of 1,525 wins, 1,198 losses and four ties through the 2026 season. The program has also helped players reach professional baseball, with 18 hawks drafted by a MLB organization. Some of these players have banners hanging on the outside of The Rock recognizing their accomplishment of being drafted. Of the 18, five have appeared in MLB: El Tappe, Jim Finigan, Josh Kinney, Josh Rabe and Riley Martin. Martin became the fifth when he was called up to the Chicago Cubs in April 2026, a fitting organization with historical ties to Quincy University where Martin dominated from 2017-2021. 

Since opening in 1938, The Rock has witnessed nearly 90 years of change in Quincy baseball. The stadium has been home to the Quincy Gems, Quincy Giants, Quincy Jets, Quincy Cubs, and the Quincy Rivermen. Today, the Quincy Doggy Paddlers and Quincy University Hawks continue the long standing tradition of baseball in Quincy while continuous improvements to the stadium help boost the experience for players and fans.