SOLDIER FIELD

'Soldier Field' is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, and is currently home to the NFL's Chicago Bears. It reopened on September 27, 2003 after a complete rebuild (the second in the stadium's history).
With the current stadium capacity of 61,500, Soldier Field will become the smallest stadium in the NFL when the Indianapolis Colts move out of the RCA Dome and into Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008.

Contents

History

Renovation

Notable Events

Image Gallery

References

External links

History

Previously it was the site of the former College All-Star Game, an exhibition between the last year's NFL champion (or, in its final years, Super Bowl champion) and a team of collegiate all-star players of the previous season prior to their reporting to the training camps of their new professional teams. This game was discontinued after the 1976 game due to the risk of injury to the all-stars in what was essentially a meaningless exhibition, and the lack of competitiveness of the game, which in its waning years was almost always won by the professional champions.
In its earliest configuration Soldier Field was capable of seating nearly 74,000 spectators, and was in the shape of a U. Additional seating could be added along the interior field, upper promenades and on the large, open field and terrace beyond the north endzone, bringing the capacity to over 100,000. The largest crowd for any event at Soldier Field was 260,000 on Sept. 8, 1954, for the Catholic Church’s Marian Year Tribute.[1]
Although used as the site for many sporting events and exhibitions, it was not until September 1971 that the Chicago Bears first made it their home. Seating capacity was reduced to 57,000 so that spectators would have a relatively good view of the field and beginning in 1978 the plank seating was replaced by individual seats with backs and armrests. By 1994, additional seating was added bringing the capacity to 66,944. [2]
Soldier Field originally had a natural grass surface. AstroTurf replaced the grass in 1971 when the Bears moved to the stadium. Grass returned for the 1988 football season.
The field serves as a memorial to American soldiers who died in wars, hence its name. It was designed in 1919 and completed in the 1920s. It officially opened on October 9, 1924 (the 53rd anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire), as Municipal Grant Park Stadium, changing its name to Soldier Field on November 11, 1925. Its design is modelled on the Greco-Roman architectural tradition, with doric columns rising above the stands. However, after being rebuilt, the modern stands now dwarf the columns. The new stadium seats 61,500 people - 5,444 fewer than the old one.
Mainly thought of as the long-time home of the NFL's Chicago Bears, the 100,000-seat stadium on the shores of Lake Michigan hosted the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney championship fight in 1927, track and field competitions and several major college football games, including Army-Navy and Notre Dame-USC.
The stadium also contained a half-mile oval, which was normally used for midget and motorcycle racing. In 1956, NASCAR swung through for its only race at Soldier Field. Twenty-five cars started the 200-lapper, with Fireball Roberts averaging 61.037 mph to win $850.
The racetrack was torn out in 1970.
In 1984, Soldier Field was listed in the National Register of Historic Places program managed by the National Park Service, and it was later designated a National Historic Landmark.

Renovation

In 2001 the Chicago Park District, which owns the structure, faced substantial criticism from the Chicago Tribune when it announced plans to alter the stadium.
Reaction to the renovation was mixed. The New York Times ranked the facility as one of the five best new buildings of 2003, ^[1]
while the Chicago Tribune architecture critic dubbed it the "Eyesore on the Lake Shore." ^[2]
On September 23 2004, as a result of the 2003 renovation,^[3] a 10-member federal advisory committee unanimously recommended that Soldier Field be de-listed as a Landmark. The recommendation to de-list was prepared by Carol Ahlgren, architectural historian at the National Park Service's Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska. Ms. Ahlgren was quoted in Preservation Online as stating that "If we had let this stand, I believe it would have lowered the standard of National Historic Landmarks throughout the country" and "If we want to keep the integrity of the program, let alone the landmarks, we really had no other recourse." The stadium lost the Landmark designation on February 17 2006, primarily due to the extent of the renovations.
[3][4]

Notable Events

★ Soldier Field (then known as Grant Park Municipal Stadium) hosted its first football game on October 4, 1924 between Louisville Male High School and Chicago Austin High. Louisville Male won 26-0. (Chicago Tribune, October 2, 1924)

★ Three NFC Championship Games held at Soldier Field.
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★ The 1985 NFC Championship Game took place in Soldier Field, where the Bears destroyed the Los Angeles Rams 24-0.
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★ The 1988 NFC Championship Game took place here, where the Bears lost to eventual Super Bowl XXIII champions San Francisco 49ers 28-3.
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★ The 2006 NFC Championship Game granted the Bears their second trip to the Super Bowl, the first in 21 years, with a 39-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

★ Soldier Field played host to the Annual Army-Navy Game in 1926 before an estimated crowd of 110,000.^[4]

★ The Long Count Fight, the second heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, was held at Soldier Field on September 25, 1927.

★ The stadium and all time college football attendance record was set on November 16,1929 when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the USC Trojans 13-12 in front of 112,912 fans. Notre Dame had met USC in 1927 and Navy in 1928 in front of crowds estimated at 120,000 in Soldier Field, but the 1929 number is the highest audited count.⁴

★ Glenn "Fireball" Roberts won the only NASCAR Grand National race held at Soldier Field's short track which ran across the old configuration, in 1956.

★ The Fog Bowl was an NFC Divisional Playoff vs the Philadelphia Eagles on December 31, 1988. Dense fog covered the game reducing visibility down to 15-20 yards. The Bears won the game 20-12.

★ 1994 FIFA World Cup Venue of all matches scheduled to play in Chicago, including the opening match between Germany and Bolivia on June 17, 1994.

★ Legendary rock group the Grateful Dead performed its final concert at Soldier Field on July 9, 1995.

★ The Rolling Stones played the largest concert in the stadium's history on September 10, 2005.

★ On July 21, 2006, rock and roll band Bon Jovi performed in front of 60,000 fans at Soldier Field, for 3 hours straight, making it the stadium's longest running music concert.

★ On September 1, 2007, Northern Illinois University faced the University of Iowa in the first Division I College Football game at Soldier Field since renovations. The game is the second game of a home and home series between the two programs, although NIU's campus is located in DeKalb, 69 miles (111 km) to the west of Soldier Field on Interstate 88. With attendance of 61,500, a Mid-American Conference record for a home football game was set.

★ Soldier Field appears in the Clint Eastwood-directed movie ''Flags of Our Fathers,'' when the survivors of the Iwo Jima flag-raising reenact it for a patriotic rally.

★ Several games of the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup were held in Soldier Field. The final was contested on June 24, 2007 between the United States and Mexico, where the United States won 2-1, fueling an already-growing intense international rivalry.

Image Gallery

References

1. (ARCHITECTURE: THE HIGHS; The Buildings (and Plans) of the Year By HERBERT MUSCHAMP (NYT) Published: December 28, 2003)
2. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-0407250421jul25,1,7977992.story?coll=chi-archspecials-hed
3. http://eculturalresources.com/news/787.html
4. 2002 NCAA Records book - Attendance Records page 494 (PDF)

External links

★ BearsHistory.com Soldier Field page

★ Stadium web site

★ Encyclopedia of Chicago entry

★ National Trust for Historic Preservation online magazine

★ VRML and Google Earth 3D Models of Soldier Field (Click on 'CIS/2 Models in Google Earth' in the What's New section)

★ Local Live (Virtual Earth) Imagery showing Soldier Field under renovation.