Harvard Stadium is a horseshoe-shaped football stadium in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Built in 1903, the stadium seats 30,323. [1] The stadium seated up to 57,166 in the past, as temporary steel stands (completing a straight-sided oval) stood in the north end zone until 1951. Afterwards, there were smaller temporary stands until the building of the Murr Center (which is topped by the new scoreboard) in 1998.

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History

Completed in just four and a half months, the structure cost $310,000. It is the home of the football team of Harvard University, whose all-time record (at the end of the 2007 season) at the stadium is 414-220-34 (.653). The stadium also hosted the Crimson track and field teams until 1984 and was the home of the Boston Patriots during the 1970 season. Soccer matches also took place at the stadium during the 1984 Summer Olympics. It is also the host of music festivals like the Amandla Festival, where Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley performed a historic concert in 1979. In 2007, the Boston Cannons, a professional lacrosse team for Major League Lacrosse, moved their home site to the stadium. They previously played at Boston University's Nickerson Field ^[2].

Harvard Stadium was the first permanent stadium for American intercollegiate athletics. When colleges were discussing how to make the game of football less bloody Yale's Walter Camp proposed the field be widened by 40 feet so as to spread out the game and lessen the danger. Harvard Stadium's permanence, however, ensured that the field would not be widened. Instead, the forward pass was legalized. The stadium was also the first massive reinforced concrete structure in the world. Indeed, many were sure at the time of construction that the stadium would not survive the winter. It has survived over a hundred winters so far. The stadium is also the prototype for such other "horseshoe"-shaped stadiums as Ohio Stadium, San Diego's Balboa Stadium and Palmer Stadium, Princeton's former home.

In 2007, Harvard installed lights at Harvard Stadium, and on September 22, 2007, Harvard played its first night game, against Brown University, winning 24-17.

Harvard also recently installed FieldTurf.

Location

Although most of Harvard's campus is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the stadium and most other intercollegiate athletic facilities, along with Harvard Business School, lie in Allston. The stadium is the cornerstone of the Soldiers Field athletic complex, which also includes the baseball stadium, outdoor track, an artificial turf field hockey/lacrosse field, soccer field, pools, Beren Tennis Center (outdoor), the Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis Center, 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.

Gallery

References

1. www.gocrimson.com
2. Boston Cannons News February 21, 2007.