Harvard Stadium is a U-shaped
college football stadium in the northeast
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, located in the
Allston
Allston is an officially recognized neighborhood within the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the American painter and poet Washington Allston. It comprises the land covered by the zip code 02134. For the most pa ...
neighborhood of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
. The stadium is owned and operated by
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and is home to the
Harvard Crimson football
The Harvard Crimson football program represents Harvard University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Harvard's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun ...
program. The stadium's
seating capacity
Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...
is 30,323.
Built in 1903, it was a pioneering execution of
reinforced concrete in the construction of large structures. Because of its early importance in these areas, and its influence on the design of later stadiums, it was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1987.
The stadium is the nation's oldest permanent concrete structure dedicated to intercollegiate athletics. It seated up to 57,166 in the past, as permanent steel stands (completing a straight-sided oval)
were installed in the stadium's northeast end zone in 1929. They were torn down after the 1951 season, due to deterioration and reduced attendance. Afterward, there were smaller temporary steel bleachers across the stadium's open end until the building of the Murr Center (which is topped by the new scoreboard) in 1998.
Harvard Stadium hosted one Boston Patriots season in
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
. It was their first season in the
NFL after the
AFL–NFL merger
The AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, w ...
and their last before becoming the
New England Patriots. The team moved to
Schaefer Stadium
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England Pa ...
in
Foxborough the following season.
History
Harvard Stadium was constructed on of land known as Soldiers Field, donated to Harvard University by
Henry Lee Higginson
Henry Lee Higginson (November 18, 1834 – November 14, 1919) was an American businessman best known as the founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a patron of Harvard University.
Biography
Higginson was born in New York City on November 18 ...
in 1890 as a memorial to Harvard men who had died in the
Civil War The structure, similar in shape to the
Panathenaic Stadium
The Panathenaic Stadium ( el, Παναθηναϊκό Στάδιο, Panathinaïkó Stádio, ), as spelled by Philostratus. or ''Kallimarmaro'' (Καλλιμάρμαρο, , lit. "beautiful marble") is a multi-purpose stadium in Athens, Greece. ...
, was completed in just 4½ months costing $310,000. Much of the funds raised came from a 25th reunion gift by Harvard's Class of 1879. It is the home of Harvard's
football team. The stadium also hosted the Crimson
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
teams until 1984 and was the home of the
Boston Patriots during the 1970 season, until
Schaefer Stadium
Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England Pa ...
opened the following year to fulfill post-
AFL–NFL merger
The AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, w ...
minimum seating requirements requiring a 50,000+ seat venue. Harvard Stadium was the largest concrete stadium in the nation until the construction of
Syracuse University's
Archbold Stadium
Archbold Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Syracuse, New York. It opened in 1907 and was home to the Syracuse Orangemen football team prior to the opening of the Carrier Dome in 1980.
History
After organizing athletics events at various ...
in 1907.
Lewis Jerome Johnson, professor of civil engineering at Harvard, was a consultant to the design team for the stadium. It is historically significant that this stadium represents the first vertical concrete structure to employ reinforced structural concrete. Prior to the erection of the stadium in 1902, reinforced structural concrete was used in horizontal, that is flooring, sidewalks, etc., design only. Prof. Johnson was the engineer of note responsible for incorporating the concept into the vertical structure of the stadium design. There is a plaque dedicating the stadium to his honor on the east end wall outside the stadium.
Harvard installed both
FieldTurf and lights in 2006.
In
2007, Harvard played its first night game at the stadium, winning 24–17 over
Brown University on September 22.
Influence on American Football
In the early 20th century,
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
was an extremely violent sport. 18 players died and 159 were seriously injured in 1905 alone. There was a widespread movement to outlaw the game but U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
intervened and demanded the rules of the game be reformed. In 1906, Roosevelt met with representatives from 62 colleges and universities and formed the Intercollegiate Football Conference, the predecessor of the
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
. The committee's purpose was to develop a uniform set of rules and regulations to make the game safer. A leading proposal, at the time, was widening the field to allow more running room and reduce serious collisions. While it was popular among committee members, Harvard objected. Their recently completed stadium could not accommodate a larger field. Because of the permanent nature of Harvard Stadium, the proposal was rejected and the
forward pass was legalized in April 1906. Harvard Stadium led to the creation of two of the most fundamental aspects of modern American football: standard field dimensions and the legal forward pass.
Other events
Early in its existence two ice rinks were built on the stadium during the winter months for the
men's ice hockey team. The Stadium served as the home for the hockey team until
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Harvard Stadium was the site of the
U.S. Olympic Trials for men's track and field in 1920, 1924, and
1928.
It is also the host of
music festivals like the
Amandla Festival, where
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n reggae legend
Bob Marley performed a historic concert in 1979.
Janis Joplin performed her last show at the stadium in 1970, shortly before her death. During the
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...
held in Los Angeles, the stadium hosted several
soccer preliminaries. In 2007, the
Boston Cannons, a professional lacrosse team for
Major League Lacrosse
Major League Lacrosse (MLL) was a men's field lacrosse league in the United States. The league's inaugural season was in 2001. Teams played anywhere from ten to 16 games in a summertime regular season. This was followed by a four-team playoff ...
, moved their home site to the stadium. They previously played at
Boston University's
Nickerson Field
Nickerson Field is an outdoor athletic stadium in the Northeastern United States, on the campus of Boston University (BU) in Boston, Massachusetts. The stadium is owned by BU, and is the home field for some Boston University Terriers athletics pr ...
. They have since moved to Quincy, MA.
[ Malcom A. Glenn]
Improved Stadium Scores Pro Team
Harvard Crimson, February 23, 2007.
Harvard installed
FieldTurf and lights in 2006.
Beginning on April 11, 2009, Harvard Stadium became the home field of the
Boston Breakers
The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...
of the
Women's Professional Soccer
Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...
(WPS) league when they beat
Saint Louis Athletica 2–0.
Harvard and the
Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...
have begun talks about making a bid for the stadium to serve as the host of the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
's 2024
NHL Winter Classic to coincide with the Boston Bruins' 100th anniversary year. If awarded the game, the Boston Bruins are expected to ask the NHL to have the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
serve as the opposition.
Soccer
Soccer games played at Harvard Stadium during the
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...
Location
Although most of Harvard's campus is in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, the stadium and most other intercollegiate athletic facilities, along with
Harvard Business School, lie to the south, across the
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
, in the nearby Allston neighborhood of Boston. The stadium is the most iconic piece of the Soldiers Field athletic complex, which also includes the baseball stadium, outdoor track, an artificial turf field hockey/lacrosse field, two soccer stadiums, pools, Beren Tennis Center (outdoor), the Gordon Indoor Track, Dillon Fieldhouse,
Lavietes Pavilion, and
Bright Hockey Center. Newell Boathouse, home of Harvard's men's crew, lies across Soldiers Field Road on the banks of the Charles.
The stadium's horseshoe opens to the northeast, towards the river, and the press box is at the top of the northwest sideline's grandstand.
The running track has been removed; it was non-standard, with long straights and tight turns, and the outside lanes were very near the stadium walls.
Gallery
File:Harvard Stadium Dedication Plaque - 1903.jpg, Dedication Plaque by the Class of 1879–1903
File:Harvard Stadium - 1903 Greek Play.jpg, Performance of Greek Play – 1905
File:Airplane view of Harvard Stadium, Cambridge, Mass.jpg, Aerial view, c. 1930–45
File:President John F. Kennedy Attends a Harvard-Columbia Football Game.jpg, John F. Kennedy attending a game in 1963
File:Harvard Scoreboard - 2006 (1).jpg, Scoreboard – 1984–2007
File:Harvard Stadium - 2000 Ivy exterior.jpg, Exterior ivy, removed in 2006
File:Harvard Stadium - 2006 1.jpg, Aerial view of the 2006 Harvard-Yale game – the Murr Center (built in 1998) now sits across the open end of the stadium
Image:Harvard Stadium, Dudesleeper.jpg, The stadium's southwest-facing exterior, 2006
File:Harvard stadium 2009h.JPG, View of the field in 2009
File:Harvard Scoreboard - 2008.jpg, Scoreboard, 2011
File:Harvard University cheerleaders.jpg, Cheerleaders in Harvard Stadium, 2019
See also
*
Harvard Crimson
The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than ...
*
List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums
The following is a list of current National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) football stadiums in the United States.
Conference affiliations reflect those for the comin ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
References
External links
*
{{navboxes
, titlestyle = background:#ccccff
, list =
{{Harvard Crimson football navbox
{{Harvard Crimson men's soccer navbox
{{Harvard
{{Ivy League football venue navbox
{{New England Patriots
{{Defunct NFL stadiums
{{Boston Breakers
{{National Women's Soccer League stadiums
{{1984 Summer Olympic venues
{{Olympic venues football
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
{{Greater Boston sports arenas
{{Massachusetts college football venues
{{FXFL
American football venues in Boston
Boston Cannons venues
Former Major League Lacrosse venues
Defunct National Football League venues
New England Patriots stadiums
Harvard Crimson football venues
Venues of the 1984 Summer Olympics
Olympic football venues
Lacrosse venues in Massachusetts
National Historic Landmarks in Boston
Sports venues in Boston
Sports venues completed in 1903
Buildings and structures in Boston
Boston Breakers (WPS)
Soccer venues in Massachusetts
Women's Professional Soccer stadiums
Sports venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Boston Brawlers
National Register of Historic Places in Boston
1903 establishments in Massachusetts