Cleveland Stadium

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Cleveland Stadium under construction in 1931

Cleveland Stadium (also known as Lakefront Stadium and Cleveland Municipal Stadium) was a baseball and American football stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. In its final years, the stadium seated 74,000 for baseball or 78,000 for football.

In November, 1929, Cleveland voters passed (by 112,448 to 76,975, a 59% passage rate with 55% needed to pass) "a $2.5 million levy for a fireproof stadium on the Lakefront, however when finished exceeded that total by 500,000 dollars".^[1] Built under the watch of city managers William R. Hopkins and Daniel E. Morgan, it was designed by the architecture firm of Walker and Weeks and Osborn Engineering, and featured an early use of structural aluminum. The stadium was dedicated on July 1, 1931, and hosted a boxing match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling two days later. Schmeling retained his title by a t.k.o-victory in the 15th round (attendance: 37,000). The Donald Gray Gardens were installed on the stadium's north side in 1936 as part of the Great Lakes Exposition.

While some have said the stadium was built in a failed bid to attract the 1932 Summer Olympics, which went to Los Angeles, that is false. The 1932 Games were already awarded to Los Angeles long before ground was broken on the stadium.^[2] The Stadium was built for football and for the Cleveland Indians, who played their first game there on July 1, 1932, losing to the Philadelphia Athletics' great pitcher Lefty Grove 1-0 while attracting a then major league record crowd of 80,184.^[3] The Indians played all their games at the stadium from the middle of the 1932 season through 1933. However, players and fans complained about the huge outfield and in 1934, the Indians moved most of their games back to their old home, League Park.

However, in 1936, the Indians began playing Sunday and holiday games at Municipal during the summer months. Beginning in 1938, they also played selected important games there. Starting in 1939, they played night games there as well (since League Park didn't have lights). By 1940, the Indians played most of their home slate at Municipal, abandoning League Park entirely after the 1946 season. They played there until the end of the 1993 season, when they moved to Jacobs Field which was later named Progressive Field.^[4]

The stadium's original baseball playing field was so large that an inner fence was constructed in 1947 to cut down the size of the spacious outfield. Even after it was put in, the distances to the bleachers remained visible for many years; it was 470 feet from home plate to the bleachers in straightaway center field. No player ever hit a home run into the center field bleachers. Ted Williams hit the only inside-the-park home run of his career at Cleveland Stadium before the inner fence was installed. According to his own autobiography, Veeck - As in Wreck, Indians' owner Bill Veeck would move the fence in or out, varying by as much as 15 feet, depending on how it would favor the Indians, a practice that ended when the American League specifically legislated against moving fences during the course of a given season.

Like some other facilities built before warning tracks became standard, the stadium had an earth berm in front of the center field wall. After the inner fence was installed, the berm was still visible during football season.

The facility, located just south of Lake Erie, was known for the biting cold winds that would blow into the stadium in winter and, for that matter, during much of the spring and fall. Hot summer nights would compensate by its lights attracting swarms of midges and mayflies. Game 2 of the 2007 American League Division Series, in Jacobs Field on October 5, 2007, brought back memories of the old stadium, as swarms of midges (mischaracterized by the television announcers as Canadian Soldiers) infested the field.

In 1948, when the Indians won the American League pennant and World Series behind pitcher Bob Feller and shortstop/player-manager Lou Boudreau, the Indians set three attendance records: they had the highest season attendance, 2,620,627, which was not eclipsed until the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers,^[5] greatest regular season night game attendance of 72,434 for the first major league start of Satchel Paige,^[6] and biggest World Series game attendance of 86,288 for game 5 on October 10, 1948.^[7] In 1949, after the Indians lost the pennant to the New York Yankees, as a black humor themed promotion they buried their 1948 flag in the outfield. In 1954 the Indians again won the American League pennant, winning a then-record 111 games, under manager Al Lopez and behind an outstanding pitching staff led by Bob Lemon. They were swept, however, by the New York Giants in the World Series. On four separate occasions, it hosted the 1935, 1954, 1963 and 1981 All-Star Games. On May 15, 1981, it was the site of Len Barker's perfect game. On its last day as home of the Indians on October 3, 1993, the team's fans, led by comedian Bob Hope, who grew up an Indians fan and was once a part-owner. He sang a version of his signature song "Thanks for the Memory" with special lyrics for the occasion.

Cleveland Municipal Stadium was the first home of the Cleveland Rams, which became a charter member of the second American Football League in 1936. After finishing second in the AFL, the Rams left the league for the National Football League in 1937, but stayed in their original home for one more year before moving to Shaw Stadium.

The NFL's Cleveland Browns began playing at the facility in 1946, and played there until 1995. The Stadium was the site of the AAFC Championship game in 1946, 1948 and 1949, and of the NFL Championship Game in 1945 (Washington Redskins v. Cleveland Rams), 1950 (L.A. Rams vs Browns), 1952 (Detroit vs. Browns), 1954 (Detroit vs. Browns), 1964 (Baltimore Colts vs. Browns) and 1968 (Baltimore Colts vs. Browns). It was also the site of the Denver Broncos and John Elway's famous (or infamous, if you were a Browns fan) The Drive in the January 11, 1987 AFC Championship Game.

The center field bleachers at the east end of the Stadium were home to many of the club's most avid fans and became known during the 1980s as the Dawg Pound after the barks that fans made to disrupt opposing teams' offensive plays. The fans were copying Browns players Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield, who frequently appeared to bark to each other and to the opposition. Some of the fans even wore dog masks and threw dog biscuits at opposing players.

The only Great Lakes Bowl was held there in 1947.

The Stadium hosted the annual Notre Dame/Navy college football game 11 times, in 1932, 1934, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1976 and 1978, with an average attendance of 69,730 and a high of 84,090 fans for the 1947 game, which was won by Notre Dame 27-0. Local colleges Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University used the field from time to time as well. The Illinois Illini played the Penn State Nittany Lions there in 1959. The Ohio State Buckeyes played in the stadium four times. The first was in a 1942 win over Illinois before 68,656, the second a 1943 loss to Purdue and the third a 1944 victory over Illinois. The final college football contest played there was October 19, 1991 when the Northwestern Wildcats played a "home" game against the Buckeyes. While Northwestern received the home team's share of the gate receipts the crowd was mostly Ohio State fans.^[8]

In addition to sporting events, the stadium hosted a number of other events. It hosted rock concerts, including a 1966 concert by The Beatles and 2 concerts by Michael Jackson in 1984. A series known as the World Series of Rock was held in the 1970s, featuring big-name acts, including The Rolling Stones. Their July 1, 1978 concert had a record of 82,238 attendees and was reportedly the first concert to gross over $1,000,000. ^[9] It hosted the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in September 1995. On an entirely different note, also hosted religious services. Its most heavily attended event was the Roman Catholic Church's Seventh Eucharistic Congress, hosted by the Diocese of Cleveland in 1935, which attracted 75,000 to a midnight mass on September 24, 1935 and an estimated 125,000 to Eucharistic service the following day. ^[10] One of the stadium's last events was a Billy Graham crusade.

The Stadium was an economic drain on the City of Cleveland, which owned it and originally operated it. In the mid 1970s the Browns owner Art Modell agreed to lease the facility for $1.00 per year. Modell's company, Stadium Corporation, assumed the expenses of operations from the City and invested in improvements, including then new electronic scoreboards and luxury suites. The suites and scoreboard advertising were quite lucrative for Modell and generated substantial revenue for him. Modell refused to share the suite revenue with the Indians baseball team, even though quite a bit of the revenues were generated during baseball games. Eventually the Indians prevailed upon the local governments and voters and convinced them to build them their own facility where they would control the suite revenue. Modell, believing that his revenues were not endangered, refused to participate in the Gateway Project that built Progressive Field for the Indians and Quicken Loans Arena for the Cavs. Modell's assumptions proved incorrect and the suite revenues declined when the Indians moved from the stadium to Jacobs Field in 1994. The following year, Modell decided to move the football team to Baltimore, Maryland after the 1995 season.

Modell's move of the Browns breached the team's lease and so the City of Cleveland sued. After the suit was settled the Stadium was demolished the next year and the pieces were literally taken across the street and dumped in the lake, so as to create an artificial reef for fisherman and divers.

Cleveland Browns Stadium now stands on the site.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Cleveland Stadium

• Cleveland Municipal Stadium at Ballparks.com
• Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry

Coordinates: 41°30′21.19″N, 81°41′59.00″W