Alumni Stadium is a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

on the lower campus of

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is best known for being home to Boston College and a section of the Boston Marathon route. Like all Massachusetts villages, Ch ...

. It is about west of downtown

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, just inside the Boston city limits near the border with Newton. It is the home of the

Boston College Eagles The Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams that represent Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivis ...

football program and also hosts lacrosse games on occasion. Its

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 44,500.

History

Alumni Field,

's first stadium, opened in 1915 and was just south of Gasson Quadrangle on the site of the present Stokes Hall, an academic building for the humanities that opened in 2013. Before the building of Stokes, the area was known as The Dustbowl, a nickname that originated as a description of Alumni Field in the years when it was used as a practice field, a baseball diamond, and a running track. Formally dedicated "as a memorial to the boys that were" on October 30, 1915, Alumni Field and its "maroon goal-posts on a field of green" were hailed in that evening's edition of the ''Boston Saturday Evening Transcript'' as "one of the sights in Boston". The original grandstands, which could accommodate 2,200 spectators in 1915, were enlarged over the subsequent years to 25,000. Nonetheless, Alumni Field often proved too small for BC football games, which were frequently held at

Fenway Park Fenway Park is a ballpark located in Boston, Massachusetts, less than one mile from Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home field of Major League Baseball's (MLB) Boston Red Sox. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantia ...

, and later

Braves Field Braves Field was a baseball park located in Boston, Massachusetts. Today the site is home to Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University. The stadium was home of the Boston Braves of the National League from 1915 to 1952, prior to the ...

, beginning in the 1930s. On September 21, 1957, Alumni Stadium opened on Boston College's lower campus. The new stadium incorporated a football field encircled by a regulation track with a

of 26,000. The dedication game, a match-up with the Midshipmen of the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is the sec ...

, was orchestrated with the help of Boston College benefactor and then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, who received his honorary degree at Commencement Exercises in Alumni Field the previous year, returned to Alumni Stadium on a number of occasions, including to give the 1963 Convocation Address, one of his last public appearances prior to his assassination on November 22, 1963. Alumni Stadium in its present form has hosted 40 sellout crowds of 44,500 or greater, most recently on November 9, 2024 against Syracuse.

Renovations

In 1971, the stadium was expanded to 32,000 seats and artificial turf and lights were installed. The stadium was rebuilt again in 1988, adding near-identical upper decks on each sideline as well as a new press box, built into the new Conte Forum.

References

External links

* {{Massachusetts college football venues American Football League venues Boston College Eagles football venues Boston Patriots (AFL) stadiums Defunct athletics (track and field) venues in the United States Defunct NFL venues Sports venues in Boston 1957 establishments in Massachusetts Sports venues completed in 1957 Boston Minutemen North American Soccer League (1968–1984) stadiums

History

Renovations

See also

References

External links