Roosevelt Stadium was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

stadium at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey. It opened in April 1937 and hosted high-minor league baseball, 15 major league baseball games, plus championship

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

matches, top-name musical acts, an annual championship drum and bugle corps competition known as "The Dream" Held 1946–1983, important regional high school football and even soccer matches. It was demolished in 1985.

History

Construction

On June 5, 1929, Jersey City Mayor

Frank Hague Frank Hague (January 17, 1876 – January 1, 1956) was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947, Democratic National Committeeman from New Jersey from 1922 until 1949, and Vice ...

announced his plans to construct a 50,000-seat municipal stadium in Jersey City to surround a field long by wide, that would be dedicated to the memory of the city's war dead. It was expected to cost $500,000 and be built by Spring 1930. Mayor Hague planned for the stadium to have 35,000 permanent seats with ground space for an additional 15,000. It would be a multi-purpose stadium for baseball, football, track and field events, and boxing. Roosevelt Stadium was finally built in 1937, as a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

project on the grounds of what was the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport was operated by

Eddie August Schneider Eddie August Henry Schneider (October 20, 1911 – December 23, 1940) was an American aviator who set three transcontinental airspeed records for pilots under the age of twenty-one in 1930. His plane was a Cessna Model AW with a Warner-Sca ...

starting in 1935. It was named for President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, the author of that New Deal agency. It was designed in

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. The ballpark's opening was scheduled for April 22, 1937, with the opening of the 1937 International League season. Mayor Hague declared a half-holiday for the city's schools and employees. New York Giants owner

Horace Stoneham Horace Charles Stoneham ( ; April 27, 1903 – January 7, 1990) was an American Major League Baseball executive and the owner of the New York / San Francisco Giants from 1936 to 1976. Inheriting the Giants, then one of the most prominent franch ...

was expected at the opener along with Senator Harry Moore. Rain washed out the planned events and the opening was moved back to April 23 with Mayor Hague throwing out the first pitch and Sen. Moore and owner Horace Stoneham on hand for the ballpark's dedication. The Grateful Dead played six concerts at Roosevelt Stadium: July 18, 1972; September 19, 1972; July 31, 1973; August 1, 1973; August 6, 1974; and August 4, 1976.

Sports

Initially constructed as a home field for Jersey City's International League affiliate of the New York Giants, the

Jersey City Giants {{about, the baseball team, the football team, American Association (American football) The Jersey City Giants was the name of a high-level American minor league baseball franchise that played in Jersey City, New Jersey, as the top farm system affi ...

, the stadium later saw its most common use for high school football, as Jersey City's William L. Dickinson, James J. Ferris, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Snyder high schools and the city's major parochial schools, Hudson Catholic and St. Peter's Prep, all used the stadium, particularly on Thanksgiving Day, when Dickinson and St. Peter's would sell it out. It was the site, in September 1974, of the game that set the New Jersey state record for consecutive losses by a high school football team at 42, when Dickinson High School lost to Hudson Catholic, 22-0. The Hawks offense was led by quarterback Steven Neri and halfback Tony Cavallo and Dickinson was held to -2 yards rushing and 18 passing by a Hudson defense led by Steve Cuccinelli, Ray Parente and Bruce Bock. Neri, Bock, Parente and Cuccinelli have all been inducted into the Hudson Catholic Football program's Wall of Fame. Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University) played their home football games on Friday nights at Roosevelt stadium during the 1970s. Walter Alston and Mayo Smith at Roosevelt Stadium

Walter Alston and Mayo Smith at Roosevelt Stadium

It was used for 15 "home" games by the Brooklyn Dodgers during their last two seasons in Brooklyn – seven in and eight in . The games were played partly as a negotiating tactic with the Borough of Brooklyn, in pursuit of a new stadium to replace

Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five pro ...

. While it had just 24,000 seats as opposed to Ebbets Field's 31,497, Roosevelt Stadium had 10,000 parking spaces compared to Ebbets Field's 700. The Dodgers' negotiation came to naught, and the team moved to Los Angeles in 1958. It was also the home field of the

, a farm team of the New York Giants in the Triple-A International League from 1937 to 1950, the Jersey City Jerseys of the IL in 1960 and 1961, the Jersey City Indians of the Double-A Eastern League in 1977 and, following a change in minor-league affiliation, the Jersey City A's of the EL in 1978.

On April 18, 1946, Roosevelt Stadium hosted the Jersey City Giants' season opener against the Montreal Royals, marking the professional debut of the Royals' Jackie Robinson. In his five trips to the plate, Robinson got four hits, including a three-run homer, scored four runs and drove in three; he also stole two bases in the Royals' 14-1 victory. The Giants finished first in the IL in 1939 and 1947, but no Jersey City team ever went on to win a pennant in postseason play. Hague routinely hawked opening day tickets for "Little Giants" games, selling 40,000 seats in a stadium that held only 24,000. When asked about the discrepancy, he was reported to have said "Hell of a crowd in the men's rooms." In 1940, former heavyweight champion Max Baer beat "Two Ton Tony" Galento at Roosevelt Stadium. In 1948

Marcel Cerdan Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan (; 22 July 1916 – 28 October 1949) was a French professional boxer and world middleweight champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to ...

defeated

Tony Zale Anthony Florian Zaleski (May 29, 1913 – March 20, 1997), known professionally as Tony Zale, was an American boxer. Zale was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, a steel town, which gave him his nickname, "Man of Steel", reinforced by his reputat ...

in a middleweight championship title fight. In 1950,

Sugar Ray Robinson Walker Smith Jr. (May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989), better known as Sugar Ray Robinson, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is often regard ...

defended his welterweight title. Roosevelt Stadium 1972

In 1971, the stadium was selected to host an NASL and international soccer double-header.

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

were to meet

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

while the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...

were to play the Dallas Tornado in the opener. A week later, Santos (Brazil) were scheduled to meet Bologna with Pelé announced. The first doubleheader was set for

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

in NY but the contract that the Cosmos had with the Yankees allowed for a "weather clause" in which the baseball team could cancel if bad weather conditions posed a potential threat to the field.

Demolition

In November 1982, the Jersey City City Council voted to demolish the stadium. It was finally demolished in 1985, and a gated community named Droyer's Point opened on the site in 1987.

References

External links