When the stadium opened in 1938 it was actually sans the roof. The 5000 seat stadium began life as an "open air" ballpark, but was "topped off" before WWII. The first baseball teams to call this home were the semi-pro Cascade League's  Giustina Reds and Eugene Caseys. These teams played throughout the region before the Northwest League took a firm foothold after WWII. When professional baseball came to town however, they would find that their town ballpark would not become easily available to them.
Civic Stadium was owned by the school district, and the relationship between this school district would be a tenuous one at best. Disagreements with the district caused Eugene's new pro baseball team to go play at Bethel Field for almost 20 years, before being allowed to step  foot on this hallowed ground, and  eventually the brittle relationship between the Em's and the bureaucracy of the school district reached the boiling point in 2009 bringing the end to baseball altogether at this beautiful baseball cathedral.