The stadium was primarily used for high school football, as a secondary home field for the Washington State Cougars, and for minor league soccer.

On Saturday, November 25, 1950, Memorial Stadium was officially presented to the city by attorney Joseph A. Albi, leader of the Athletic Round Table (ART), and dedicated by Governor Arthur Langlie.

As a result of the turf being beyond its useful life in early 2006 and deemed unsafe, the Spokane Shadow discontinued its usage of Joe Albi Stadium, citing that the playing surface was too dangerous for PDL soccer games.

[39] A short time later, the playing surface dilemma was solved when the Spokane and Mead school districts agreed to share the cost of replacing the tired AstroTurf with infilled FieldTurf, which was installed in August 2006 for under $700,000.

[51][52] Some of the salvaged bleachers will be donated to the Cheney and Chewelah school districts, while the statue of Albi will be relocated to the new stadium in Downtown Spokane.

[52] Prior to 1984, the WSU Cougars played several home games each season at Joe Albi Stadium, usually before classes began in Pullman in late September.

In 1970 and 1971, the Cougars played their entire home schedule at Joe Albi, after the south grandstand at the wooden Rogers Field stadium on the Pullman campus was damaged by fire in April 1970.

[53] The neighboring Idaho Vandals played their home games at Rogers Field in 1969 & 1970 (after the fire), as its wooden Neale Stadium in Moscow had been condemned during the summer of 1969.

On September 19, 1970, WSU and Idaho met up in their annual "Battle of the Palouse," which became known as the "Displaced Bowl" (since neither team was able to play on their home field); the Cougars dominated the second half (38–0) to win 44–16 at Joe Albi in their only victory of the season.

[56] Following the revision of the WSU academic calendar in 1984 (the fall semester starting a month earlier in late August),[57][58][59] the Cougars have played all of their eastern Washington home games at Martin Stadium in Pullman.

In 1953, the stadium hosted the first-ever NFL preseason game in the state of Washington when the Chicago Cardinals defeated the Green Bay Packers 13–7 on August 29, before about 17,000 spectators.

The expansion Seattle Seahawks of the NFL played their second preseason game in franchise history at Joe Albi on August 7, 1976, a 27–16 loss to the Chicago Bears.

[69][70] A few weeks later, the American Football League (AFL), embarking on its second year, held a pre-season game on August 19;[71][72] the Denver Broncos defeated the Oakland Raiders 48–21.

[78][79] In 1982, evangelist Billy Graham drew a total of 223,500 in eight nights in late August during his Inland Empire Crusade,[80] which was at the time more people than the population of Spokane.