The Occidental softball field, located south of the main athletic fields and west of the Mary Norton Clapp Library, was originally laid out in the late 1920s with the simple designation of "Play Field." By 1930, due to the generosity of Alphonzo E. Bell, Class of 1895, in providing acreage for the campus and funding upgrading of vacant land, the field was given his name, and in recent years has been known as Bell Field. In April 2004, a complete renovation and expansion of the field, with bleachers, was dedicated.

Alphonzo Bell, whose name is recognized also in the designation of Bell-Young Hall, a student residence, had a career in real estate and land development, along with oil production when oil was discovered on one of his properties in Santa Fe Springs. He was a member of Occidental's Board of Trustees from 1921 until his death in 1946, serving from 1938 on as president of the Board. He was generous to the College in gifts of land and in projects relating to buildings and grounds. He is especially remembered for the funds given in the mid-1930s for landscaping the Central Quadrangle, a project undertaken under the direction of Beatrix Farrand, nationally known landscape architect.

By Jean Paule