NFL at 100: From Akron to Alabama, NFL has taken show on the road
Just over 50 years ago, halfway through the history of the NFL, the New York Jets completed one of the most unexpected championship seasons in the history of the sport.
A brash quarterback named Joe Namath helped engineer a Super Bowl victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts.
That now-famous journey by Broadway Joe and the boys through the AFL that ended in triumph in Miami took a lesser-known detour for the second week of the schedule.
Yes, the Jets once landed in Birmingham, Alabama.
Their opponent on Sept. 22, 1968, was the Boston Patriots, who moved their home opener more than 1,000 miles south of Fenway Park even though the Red Sox were playing their game that day on the road. The legend has it that AFL leaders steered the Jets-Patriots game there to test Alabama’s taste for a professional team in the heart of college football country, eyeing a potential new home for the fledgling franchise. Legion Field, built in 1927 and often referred to as “The Old Gray Lady,” has been best known for all those Iron Bowl games over the years between Alabama and Auburn. But for this weekend the big draw was on a Sunday afternoon, not a Saturday.
The AFL-NFL merger was already in the works, eventually completed after the 1969 season, and every team was facing a requirement of a stadium with at least 50,000 seats. Fenway Park wasn’t nearly big enough, so the Patriots were in a tenuous spot.
Just think: Bill Belichick and Tom Brady conceivably could have called Birmingham home during those six Super Bowl title runs.
Instead, the Patriots stayed put in Massachusetts for a suburban site in Foxborough. Thus, Legion Field never hosted another major league game. The Jets, featuring Namath, the former Crimson Tide star, were a natural draw as the opponent. They produced a 47-31 victory in front of an announced crowd of 29,192, with one of Namath’s two touchdown passes that afternoon going to eventual fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member Don Maynard.
The story of the league’s first century has been largely set in classic venues like Lambeau Field and the Polo Grounds or a modern-era building such as the Superdome. But the fabric of the league has been sewn together, too, by dozens of off-the-radar sites forever etched in the record books.
According to the database compiled by research website Pro Football Reference, 166 stadiums have hosted at least one regular season or postseason game since the inception of the NFL in 1920. That includes rival leagues – the All-American Football Conference (1946-49) and the American Football League (1960-69) – that were eventually absorbed. One hundred of those venues have hosted 17 games or more.
That does not factor in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of the NFL where an exhibition game is still annually held around Hall of Fame induction weekend. There are many more of those far-flung locales, from Pendleton, Oregon, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that have staged preseason contests over the years, and can stake a small claim to the history of the league. Here is a glance at some of the other off-the-main-grid sites of NFL games over the years:
TRIANGLE PARK: DAYTON, OHIO
The first game in NFL history took place at Triangle Park in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 3, 1920, to launch what was originally called the American Professional Football Association. The Triangles beat the Columbus Panhandles 14-0. According to the Dayton Daily News, a total of 4,000 fans paid $1.75 for admission, and the players took home $50.
RUBBER BOWL: AKRON, OHIO
One of the numerous Depression-era public works projects to serve as an NFL host, a decrepit version of the Rubber Bowl was demolished in 2018 after 78 years as a source of Rust Belt pride. With a name inspired by the local tire industry, the stadium served as the venue for the only win in Dallas Texans history. This was the 1952 version, a franchise that wound up in Baltimore as the Colts, not the AFL sequel that begat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Well, these Texans played the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving Day in 1952. According to Gil Brandt, the longtime Dallas Cowboys administrator and now an unofficial NFL historian who will enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame next week, the pair of high school games played as the supposed undercard drew about 30,000 people. The announced crowd for the 27-23 victory by the Texans over the Bears was one zero short: 3,000. The actual attendance was likely less than half of that, and players were ordered into the stands afterward to personally thank the fans for coming. The Texans went 1-11 that year.
BROADMOOR STADIUM, COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO
Ticket sales were difficult during the Depression era, so moving around the country was not uncommon. The first NFL game played in a western state was in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at Broadmoor Stadium between the Cleveland Rams and Philadelphia Eagles to close the 1939 season. The Rams, who moved to Los Angeles seven years later, won 35-13.
YALE BOWL, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
Renovations at Yankee Stadium forced the New York Giants to play the 1973-74 seasons Ivy League-style at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut. Crowds were strong in 1973, but during a 2-12 finish by the Giants in 1974, attendance suffered a steep dropoff.
ROGERS CENTRE, TORONTO
The Buffalo Bills staged an ill-fated series of games across the border, playing once per season from 2008-13 at Rogers Centre, the once-space-age stadium built for baseball as the SkyDome just a two-hour drive from the team’s home at New Era Stadium. Attendance was paltry, with the final installment drawing 38,969 on Dec. 1, 2013, for a 34-31 victory by the Atlanta Falcons over the Bills.
Every NFL stadium with a regular-season or postseason game
Here is a list in chronological order of the 166 stadiums that have hosted regular-season or postseason games since the NFL’s inception in 1920, through the 2018 season, according to the database compiled by research website Pro Football Reference. The list includes the All-American Football Conference (1946-49) and American Football League (1960-69), rivals that were eventually merged with the NFL:
Triangle Park (1920-34), 11 games, Dayton, Ohio
Staley Field (1920-21), 3 games, Decatur, Illinois
Douglas Park (1920-25), 24 games, Rock Island, Illinois
Normal Park (1920-28), 28 games, Chicago
Wrigley Field (1920-70), 334 games, Chicago
Bosse Field (1921), 4 games, Evansville, Indiana
Hagemeister Park (1921-22), 9 games, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Swayne Field (1922), 6 games, Toledo, Ohio
Lincoln Park (1922), 1 game, Marion, Ohio
League Park (1922), 5 games, Akron, Ohio
Neil Park (1922-23), 7 games, Columbus, Ohio
Buffalo Baseball Park (1922-23), Buffalo, New York
Edgerton Park (1922-24), 6 games, Rochester, New York
Lakeside Park (1922-26), 25 games, Canton, Ohio
Horlick Legion Field (1922-26), 21 games, Racine, Wisconsin
Nicollet Park (1922-30), 14 games, Minneapolis
Borchert Field (1922-33), 25 games, Milwaukee
Comiskey Park (1922-58), 139 games, Chicago
Wooster Avenue Stadium (1923), 1 game, Akron, Ohio
Parkway Field (1923), 1 game, Louisville, Kentucky
Armory Park (1923), 3 games, Toledo, Ohio
Bellevue Park (1923-24), 12 games, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Duluth Athletic Park (1923-25), 7 games, Duluth, Minnesota
League Park (1923-45), 30 games, Cleveland
Sportsman’s Park (1923-65), 46 games, St. Louis
Nash Employees’ Field (1924), 1 game, Kenosha, Wisconsin
West Side Athletic Club Field (1924-26), 3 games, Columbus, Ohio
Muehlebach Field (1924-26), 6 games, Kansas City, Missouri
General Field (1924-26), 7 games, Akron, Ohio
Bison Stadium (1924-29), 23 games, Buffalo, New York
Frankford Stadium (1924-30), 76 games, Philadelphia
DePaul Field (1925), 1 game, Chicago
Clarkin Field (1925), 1 game, Hartford, Connecticut
Minersville Park (1925-29), 32 games, Minersville, Pennsylvania
Cycledrome (1925-31), 57 games, Providence, Rhode Island
City Stadium (1925-56), 137 games, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Shibe Park (1925-57), 105 games, Philadelphia
Braves Field (1925-62), 31 games, Boston
Polo Grounds (1925-63), 244 games, New York
Tiger Stadium (1925-74), 257 games, Detroit
Turner Field (1926), Hammond, Indiana
East Hartford Velodrome (1926), 8 games, East Hartford, Connecticut
Ebbets Field (1926-48), 115 games, New York
Soldier Field (1926-2018), 420 games, Chicago
Luna Park (1927), 5 games, Cleveland
Archbold Stadium (1927), 1 game, Syracuse, New York
Yankee Stadium (1927-73), 169 games, New York
University of Detroit Stadium (1928-39), 33 games, Detroit
Knights of Columbus Stadium (1929), 5 games, East Orange, New Jersey
Kinsley Park (1929), 1 game, Providence, Rhode Island
Breese Stevens Field (1929), 1 game, Madison, Wisconsin
Thompson Stadium (1929-32), 26 games, New York
Velodrome (1930), 2 games, Newark, New Jersey
Newark Schools Stadium (1930), 3 games, Newark, New Jersey
Mills Stadium (1930), 1 game, Chicago
Universal Stadium (1930-34), 26 games, Portsmouth, Ohio
Loyola Stadium (1931), 1 game, Chicago
Crosley Field (1931-34), 7 games, Cincinnati, Ohio
Baker Bowl (1931-35), 16 games, Philadelphia
Philadelphia Municipal Stadium (1931-50), 23 games, Philadelphia
Cleveland Municipal Stadium (1931-95), 387 games, Cleveland
Chicago Stadium (1932), 1 game, Chicago
Forbes Field (1933-63), 161 games, Pittsburgh
Fenway Park (1933-68), 91 games, Boston
Corcoran Field (1934), 1 game, Cincinnati
Temple Stadium (1934-35), 2 games, Philadelphia
Wisconsin State Fair Park (1934-51), 41 games, West Allis, Wisconsin
Point Stadium (1936), 1 game, Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Griffith Stadium (1937-60), 145 games, Washington
Shaw Stadium (1938), 4 games, East Cleveland, Ohio
Laidley Field (1938), 1 game, Charleston, West Virginia
Erie Stadium (1938-42), 2 games, Erie, Pennsylvania
War Memorial Stadium (1938-72), 127 games, Buffalo, New York
Tulane Stadium (1938-74), 60 games, New Orleans
Broadmoor Stadium (1939), 1 game, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Rubber Bowl (1941-52), 3 games, Akron, Ohio
Kezar Stadium (1946-70), 170 games, San Francisco
Orange Bowl (1946-86), 177 games, Miami
Memorial Stadium (1946-97), 261 games, Baltimore
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1946-2018), 402 games, Los Angeles
Marquette Stadium (1952), 3 games, Milwaukee
Cotton Bowl (1952-71), 107 games, Dallas
Milwaukee County Stadium (1953-94), 126 games, Milwaukee
Lambeau Field (1957-2018), 375 games, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Pitt Stadium (1958-69), 55 games, Pittsburgh
Franklin Field (1958-70), 89 games, Philadelphia
Metropolitan Stadium (1959-81), 162 games, Bloomington, Minnesota
Jeppesen Stadium (1960-64), 37 games, Houston
Mile High Stadium (1960-2000), 320 games, Denver
Candlestick Park (1960-2013), 368 games, San Francisco
Balboa Stadium (1961-66), 45 games, San Diego
RFK Memorial Stadium (1961-96), 278 games, Washington
Frank Youell Field (1962-65), 28 games, Oakland, California
Alumni Stadium (1963-69), 9 games, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Kansas City Municipal Stadium (1963-71), 64 games, Kansas City, Missouri
Shea Stadium (1964-83), 150 games, New York
Rice Stadium (1965-73), 22 games, Houston
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (1966-91), 194 games, Atlanta
Busch Memorial Stadium (1966-95), 163 games, St. Louis
Oakland Coliseum (1966-2018), 320 games, Oakland, California
Qualcomm Stadium (1967-2016), 398 games, San Diego
Legion Field (1968), 1 game, Birmingham, Alabama
Nippert Stadium (1968-69), 14 games, Cincinnati
Houston Astrodome (1968-96), 223 games, Houston
Memorial Stadium, 1969, 1 game, Minneapolis
Grant Field (1969), 1 game, Atlanta
Houlihan’s Stadium (1969-97), 176 games, Tampa
Harvard Stadium (1970), 7 games, Boston
Dyche Stadium(1970), 1 game, Evanston, Illinois
Cinergy Field (1970-99), 234 games, Cincinnati
Three Rivers Stadium (1970-2000), 254 games, Pittsburgh
Foxboro Stadium (1971-2001), 242 games, Foxborough, Massachusetts
Veterans Stadium (1971-2002), 257 games, Philadelphia
Texas Stadium (1971-2008), 313 games, Irving, Texas
Arrowhead Stadium (1972-2018), 374 games, Kansas City, Missouri
California Memorial Stadium (1973), 1 game, Berkeley, California
Yale Bowl (1973-74), 12 games, New Haven, Connecticut
New Era Field (1973-2018), 363 games, Orchard Park, New York
Pontiac Silverdome (1975-2001), 212 games, Pontiac, Michigan
Mercedes-Benz Superdome (1975-2018), 354 games, New Orleans
Rose Bowl (1976-1992), 5 games, Pasadena, California
Seattle Kingdome (1976-99), 187 games, Seattle
Giants Stadium(1976-2009), 492 games, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Anaheim Stadium (1980-94), 118 games, Anaheim, California
Mall of America Field (1982-2013), 261 games, Minneapolis
Stanford Stadium (1984-89), 2 games, Stanford, California
RCA Dome (1984-2007), 199 games, Indianapolis
Hard Rock Stadium (1987-2018), 265 games, Miami Gardens, Florida
Sun Devil Stadium (1988-2005), 145 games, Tempe, Arizona
Georgia Dome (1992-2016), 208 games, Atlanta
Husky Stadium (1994-2001), 19 games, Seattle
Memorial Stadium (1995), 8 games, Clemson, South Carolina
TIAA Bank Field (1995-2018), 191 games, Jacksonville, Florida
Edward Jones Dome (1995-2015), 168 games, St. Louis
Bank of America Stadium (1996-2018), 191 games, Charlotte, North Carolina
Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (1997), 8 games, Memphis, Tennessee
FedExField (1997-2018), 179 games, Landover, Maryland
Vanderbilt Stadium (1998), 8 games, Nashville, Tennessee
Raymond James Stadium (1998-2018), 172 games, Tampa, Florida
M&T Bank Stadium (1998-2018), 174 games, Baltimore
Nissan Stadium (1999-2018), 164 games, Nashville, Tennessee
FirstEnergy Stadium (1999-2018), 159 games, Cleveland
Paul Brown Stadium (2000-18), 155 games, Cincinnati
Broncos Stadium at Mile High (2001-18), 153 games, Denver
Heinz Field (2001-18), 157 games, Pittsburgh
Memorial Stadium (2002), 8 games, Champaign, Illinois
NRG Stadium (2002-18), 143 games, Houston
Gillette Stadium (2002-18), 158 games, Foxborough, Massachusetts
Ford Field (2002-18), 139 games, Detroit
CenturyLink Field (2002-18), 147 games, Seattle
Lincoln Financial Field (2003-18), 137 games, Philadelphia
Tiger Stadium (2005), 4 games, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Alamodome (2005), 3 games, San Antonio, Texas
Azteca Stadium (2005-18), 3 games, Mexico City
State Farm Stadium (2006-18), 110 games, Glendale, Arizona
Wembley Stadium (2007-18), 21 games, London
Rogers Centre (2008-13), 6 games, Toronto
Lucas Oil Stadium (2008-18), 94 games, Indianapolis
AT&T Stadium (2009-19), 85 games, Arlington, Texas
TCF Bank Stadium (2010-18), 18 games, Minneapolis
MetLife Stadium (2010-18), 146 games, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Levi’s Stadium (2014-18), 41 games, Santa Clara, California
U.S. Bank Stadium (2016-18), 26 games, Minneapolis
Twickenham Stadium (2016-18), 3 games, London
StubHub Center (2017-18), 15 games, Carson, California
Mercedes-Benz Stadium (2017-18), 17 games, Atlanta
AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in New York contributed to this report.