John F. Kennedy Stadium is a 12,000-seat lighted stadium located at
Central High School in
Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...
,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
.
The stadium is designed for use for
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
,
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
,
lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
games and
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 events ...
meets.
The stadium was built along with the current high school, which was completed in 1964, and named for President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
.
In addition to being home to the CHS Hilltoppers, it was home to the
University of Bridgeport
The University of Bridgeport (UB) is a private university in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. In 2021, the university was purchased by Goodwin University; it retain its own n ...
's football program until it was disbanded in 1975.
The final game of the minor league
Atlantic Coast Football League
The Atlantic Coast Football League (ACFL) was a professional american football minor league that operated from 1962 to 1973. Until 1969, many of its franchises had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams to serve as farm clubs. The league pai ...
was held at the stadium, when the New England Colonials defeated the
Bridgeport Jets
The Bridgeport Jets were a minor league American football team based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They began play in the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1966 as the Waterbury Orbits. The Orbits, already officially affiliated with the New York J ...
by 41–17 in the ACFL championship game. A total of 10,176 fans attended the contest on November 23, 1973—ten years and a day after President Kennedy died, in a stadium named after him.In recent years, the stadium served as the site of the Eastern Marching Band Association and Musical Arts Conference marching band field show finals in early November.
In 2001, the stadium was the host to the first
Major League Lacrosse championship weekend.
In 2001, the stadium was the host to the first
Major League Lacrosse championship weekend.
Lacrosse
See also
*
List of memorials to John F. Kennedy
References
{{FCIAC
Bridgeport Purple Knights football
College football venues
American football venues in Connecticut
Athletics (track and field) venues in Connecticut
Soccer venues in Connecticut
Lacrosse venues in Connecticut
Sports venues in Bridgeport, Connecticut
1964 establishments in Connecticut