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On November 6, 1928, Clevelanders voted to build a stadium with city bonds. It was a great stadium for baseball, footbat, and especially rock concerts. From the article:
"History:
Cleveland Municipal Stadium, since its construction the largest stadium in use in major league baseball, was designed by a progressive city administration as a multipurpose structure to accommodate the great surge in attendance at baseball and football games and other public spectacles that occurred with the rise of the automobile. Its great size was a measure of the confidence that city leaders, such as City Manager William Hopkins and George Bender, chairman of the stadium commission, had in the city's future. Its 80,000 seat capacity can be expanded to over 110,000 with the use of the field and additional seating. Its purpose was to accommodate outdoor gatherings comfortably, including not only baseball and football games, but track meets, boxing matches, concerts, pageants, civic gatherings, skating, hockey, tennis, grand opera and sporting events from professional through high school. Projected in 1925 as part of Cleveland's Group Plan (In 1928, by vote of the citizens, a bond issue of $2,500,000 was provided to cover the cost of the stadium part of the plan), a comprehensive plan for grouping it major public buildings, the stadium was not constructed until 1930-31, after the Depression had struck. (The stadium was built at this time in a failed attempt to play host for the 1932 Olympics; The construction of outdoor megastadiums during the twenties and thirties is an important theme in the history of sports and recreation. The Stadium ranks among the earliest and largest of these multi sports facilities. It was one of only five major league baseball and football stadiums in the United States that have been nominated for National Historic Landmark designation).
The first event of consequence to take place in the completed stadium was the heavyweight boxing bout between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling on July 3, 1931; Schmeling knocked out Stribling and retained the heavyweight championship. This was before a crowd of 37,396. The Shrine held its national convention in Cleveland during the week of July 4, 1931 which included a parade and baseball game at the Stadium (crowd of 26,000). Shifting from sports, Opera Week was held at the Stadium beginning on July 28, 1931. Performers from the Metropolitan and Chicago opera companies appeared on "the largest stage ever constructed for an operatic performance."
A crowd of 70,000 appeared for a prayer service held by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland's Holy Name Society on September 6, 1931. The following day the first soccer match was played at the Stadium. The first football game was held at the Stadium on September 9, 1931 between the Cleveland Indians (trying to be part of the National Football League) and the semi-pro Pennzoil team. The Cleveland Indians won before a crowd of 35,000. John Carroll University began to use the Stadium for its home games beginning in September, 1931 and continued into the 1950s. It was the site for eleven contests between Notre Dame and Navy which began in 1932 and ended in 1978 (Personal Note: I was at the '78 game). In 1931 the Stadium was selected as the site for the annual championship high school football game between the city's East and West Senate titles. The Stadium hosted this event until 1970. During this time, crowds of 40,000 plus entered the Stadium on seventeen different occasions. The largest crowd was 70,955 in 1946.
The largest crowd attendance at the Stadium occurred during the 1935 Seventh Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church. During the Benediction service on September 25, 1935, a crowd of over 125,000 filled the Stadium and all available space.
The Stadium was used in conjunction with the Great Lakes Exposition of 1936, held to promote the story of the steel industry in the region and the contributions it had made to the nation's progress. In 1937, the Exposition continued with the broader theme of the "Making of America," which portrayed the story of the contributions that the Great Lakes region had made in the growth of the cultural, scientific and industrial life of the country.
Only the stadium, which was incorporated into the exposition because of its size and strategic location, and the Donald Gray Gardens, adjacent to it on the north are tangible reminders of the exposition's existence. The gardens were designed by A. Donald Gray, a landscape architect and designer active in Cleveland from 1920 to 1939. The gardens consisted of an expansive rock garden with a vast display of blooming rock plants and shrubs. On the top of the high slope is a pergola that was covered with climbing vines. Bordered by beds of annual flowers, a 500-foot lawn provided a beautiful approach to the A.C. Ernst fountain and reflecting pool enhanced by day and night blooming varieties of water lilies. Japanese, English, Spanish and French gardens displayed different aspects of historical gardening. Although many of these special features are diminished, the basic layout and configuration are intact.
A series of five fields in Cleveland were used by the city's professional baseball teams through the years until Municipal Stadium was chosen as the home field. The first team (The Cleveland Forest City's) began playing on June 2, 1869. The name of the team and its association with either the National or American League changed several times until 1915 when the team was renamed the Indians after Luis Francis Sockalexis, a team member in the 1890's, who was the first Native American to play professional baseball.
Cleveland Municipal Stadium
The field used just prior to the Stadium was League Park (Named to the National Register on 8/8/79), located at the corner of Lexington and East 66th Streets in East Cleveland. League Park, with a capacity of 27,000, had certain limitations which prohibited this park from serving professional baseball in Cleveland. (Note: League Park was home to several significant moments in baseball history: The only unassisted triple play in World Series history [1920]; the first World Series Grand Slam [also 1920, Elmer Smith], Babe Ruth's 500th home run on 8/11/29) In addition to the limited seating, surrounding buildings prohibited expansion, parking facilities were absent and there were no lights for night baseball (Note: First night game was held in the Stadium on June 27, 1939). The Indians first game at the Stadium was July 31, 1932, hand the largest crowd to date (80,184) to watch professional baseball.
The Cleveland Indians used the Stadium during the 1933 season, but thereafter until 1946, generally played weekday games at League Park and weekend and doubleheaders at the Stadium. In 1946, Bill Veeck, the new president of the club, moved the games permanently to the Stadium.
Use of the Stadium for professional football began with the exhibition game played by the Cleveland Indians in 1931. The Cleveland Rams formed in 1936 within the American Football League. They used League Park for their home games until it became apparent that crowd attendance demanded use of the Stadium. They made the Stadium their home field from 1939 to 1943 when the team was folded for two years. When it was reactivated in 1945, it moved back to League Park, but they played their first championship game at the Stadium against the Washington Redskins. The team moved the next year to Los Angeles.
The creation of the All-American Football Conference led to the formation of the Cleveland Browns in 1946. A record crowd of 60,135 (largest crowd to date to watch a professional football game) attended the Browns' opener against Miami. In their first four seasons (1946-1949), the Browns won the league championship and repeated the feat in 1950 when the All-American Football Conference merged with the National Football League."
"History:
Cleveland Municipal Stadium, since its construction the largest stadium in use in major league baseball, was designed by a progressive city administration as a multipurpose structure to accommodate the great surge in attendance at baseball and football games and other public spectacles that occurred with the rise of the automobile. Its great size was a measure of the confidence that city leaders, such as City Manager William Hopkins and George Bender, chairman of the stadium commission, had in the city's future. Its 80,000 seat capacity can be expanded to over 110,000 with the use of the field and additional seating. Its purpose was to accommodate outdoor gatherings comfortably, including not only baseball and football games, but track meets, boxing matches, concerts, pageants, civic gatherings, skating, hockey, tennis, grand opera and sporting events from professional through high school. Projected in 1925 as part of Cleveland's Group Plan (In 1928, by vote of the citizens, a bond issue of $2,500,000 was provided to cover the cost of the stadium part of the plan), a comprehensive plan for grouping it major public buildings, the stadium was not constructed until 1930-31, after the Depression had struck. (The stadium was built at this time in a failed attempt to play host for the 1932 Olympics; The construction of outdoor megastadiums during the twenties and thirties is an important theme in the history of sports and recreation. The Stadium ranks among the earliest and largest of these multi sports facilities. It was one of only five major league baseball and football stadiums in the United States that have been nominated for National Historic Landmark designation).
The first event of consequence to take place in the completed stadium was the heavyweight boxing bout between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling on July 3, 1931; Schmeling knocked out Stribling and retained the heavyweight championship. This was before a crowd of 37,396. The Shrine held its national convention in Cleveland during the week of July 4, 1931 which included a parade and baseball game at the Stadium (crowd of 26,000). Shifting from sports, Opera Week was held at the Stadium beginning on July 28, 1931. Performers from the Metropolitan and Chicago opera companies appeared on "the largest stage ever constructed for an operatic performance."
A crowd of 70,000 appeared for a prayer service held by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland's Holy Name Society on September 6, 1931. The following day the first soccer match was played at the Stadium. The first football game was held at the Stadium on September 9, 1931 between the Cleveland Indians (trying to be part of the National Football League) and the semi-pro Pennzoil team. The Cleveland Indians won before a crowd of 35,000. John Carroll University began to use the Stadium for its home games beginning in September, 1931 and continued into the 1950s. It was the site for eleven contests between Notre Dame and Navy which began in 1932 and ended in 1978 (Personal Note: I was at the '78 game). In 1931 the Stadium was selected as the site for the annual championship high school football game between the city's East and West Senate titles. The Stadium hosted this event until 1970. During this time, crowds of 40,000 plus entered the Stadium on seventeen different occasions. The largest crowd was 70,955 in 1946.
The largest crowd attendance at the Stadium occurred during the 1935 Seventh Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church. During the Benediction service on September 25, 1935, a crowd of over 125,000 filled the Stadium and all available space.
The Stadium was used in conjunction with the Great Lakes Exposition of 1936, held to promote the story of the steel industry in the region and the contributions it had made to the nation's progress. In 1937, the Exposition continued with the broader theme of the "Making of America," which portrayed the story of the contributions that the Great Lakes region had made in the growth of the cultural, scientific and industrial life of the country.
Only the stadium, which was incorporated into the exposition because of its size and strategic location, and the Donald Gray Gardens, adjacent to it on the north are tangible reminders of the exposition's existence. The gardens were designed by A. Donald Gray, a landscape architect and designer active in Cleveland from 1920 to 1939. The gardens consisted of an expansive rock garden with a vast display of blooming rock plants and shrubs. On the top of the high slope is a pergola that was covered with climbing vines. Bordered by beds of annual flowers, a 500-foot lawn provided a beautiful approach to the A.C. Ernst fountain and reflecting pool enhanced by day and night blooming varieties of water lilies. Japanese, English, Spanish and French gardens displayed different aspects of historical gardening. Although many of these special features are diminished, the basic layout and configuration are intact.
A series of five fields in Cleveland were used by the city's professional baseball teams through the years until Municipal Stadium was chosen as the home field. The first team (The Cleveland Forest City's) began playing on June 2, 1869. The name of the team and its association with either the National or American League changed several times until 1915 when the team was renamed the Indians after Luis Francis Sockalexis, a team member in the 1890's, who was the first Native American to play professional baseball.
Cleveland Municipal Stadium
The field used just prior to the Stadium was League Park (Named to the National Register on 8/8/79), located at the corner of Lexington and East 66th Streets in East Cleveland. League Park, with a capacity of 27,000, had certain limitations which prohibited this park from serving professional baseball in Cleveland. (Note: League Park was home to several significant moments in baseball history: The only unassisted triple play in World Series history [1920]; the first World Series Grand Slam [also 1920, Elmer Smith], Babe Ruth's 500th home run on 8/11/29) In addition to the limited seating, surrounding buildings prohibited expansion, parking facilities were absent and there were no lights for night baseball (Note: First night game was held in the Stadium on June 27, 1939). The Indians first game at the Stadium was July 31, 1932, hand the largest crowd to date (80,184) to watch professional baseball.
The Cleveland Indians used the Stadium during the 1933 season, but thereafter until 1946, generally played weekday games at League Park and weekend and doubleheaders at the Stadium. In 1946, Bill Veeck, the new president of the club, moved the games permanently to the Stadium.
Use of the Stadium for professional football began with the exhibition game played by the Cleveland Indians in 1931. The Cleveland Rams formed in 1936 within the American Football League. They used League Park for their home games until it became apparent that crowd attendance demanded use of the Stadium. They made the Stadium their home field from 1939 to 1943 when the team was folded for two years. When it was reactivated in 1945, it moved back to League Park, but they played their first championship game at the Stadium against the Washington Redskins. The team moved the next year to Los Angeles.
The creation of the All-American Football Conference led to the formation of the Cleveland Browns in 1946. A record crowd of 60,135 (largest crowd to date to watch a professional football game) attended the Browns' opener against Miami. In their first four seasons (1946-1949), the Browns won the league championship and repeated the feat in 1950 when the All-American Football Conference merged with the National Football League."
Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Posted from football.ballparks.com
Football
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Cleveland
Posted 5 y ago
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