Kezar Stadium

Kezar Stadium is an outdoor athletics stadium in San Francisco, California, located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park. It is the former home of the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders (first AFL season only) of the National Football League (NFL) and of the San Francisco Dragons of Major League Lacrosse. It serves as the home of San Francisco City FC of USL League Two. Kezar also hosts amateur and recreation sports leagues, as well as numerous San Francisco high school football games (including the city championship, known popularly as the "Turkey Bowl"). In 1920, Jack Spaulding proposed an athletics stadium for San Francisco, seating 50,000. Many business leaders in the city backed him, as it would keep San Francisco level with other cities with large stadiums. Areas under consideration for the stadium were 7th & Harrison Streets, Ocean Shore, and the Central Park grounds. In 1922, the San Francisco Park Commission accepted a $100,000 gift from the estate of Mary Kezar to build a memorial in honor of her mother and uncles, who were pioneers in the area. After the City and County of San Francisco appropriated an additional $200,000, the stadium was built in a year. Dedication ceremonies were on May 2, 1925, and featured a two-mile (3.2 km) footrace between Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi of Finland, two of the great runners of the era. A little over a month later, the new stadium hosted the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The stadium had many uses in the 1930s. In addition to track and field competitions, Kezar Stadium hosted motorcycle racing, auto racing, rugby, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, boxing, cricket, and football. In September 1932, the Australian Cricket Team played a North California all-star team in the Australians' 56-game tour of the U.S. and Canada. The stadium was also home to several colleges (Santa Clara, USF, St. Mary's), Lowell High School, and the now-defunct San Francisco Polytechnic High School. In 1926, the stadium also became the home of the East–West Shrine Game. In 1928, the city high school championship game between cross-town rivals San Francisco Polytechnic and Lowell drew more than 50,000—still the record for a high school football game in northern California. Local Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory plays most of their home games at Kezar. The annual Bruce-Mahoney rivalry football game between St. Ignatius College Preparatory and Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory is held at the new (smaller) stadium. The annual East-West Shrine Game of 1931 was replaced by a raucous Knights of Columbus game featuring the Savoldi All-Stars. Prescott Sullivan, a San Francisco News Call Bullentin sportswriter, recounted the day's events in his January 26 column. " "Jumping Joe" Savoldi gave some very sound reasons why Knute Rockne calls him "modern football's greatest fullback" yesterday when he led a team composed largely of California and U.S.C. stars to a 13–0 victory over Ernie Nevers and a supporting cast of St. Mary's players at Kezar Stadium. More than 30,000 customers put the Knights of Columbus’ grid finales over in a big way and saw “Jumping Joe” and his playmates cinch their victory with two spectacular fourth period touchdowns. These runs, end to end, constituted a very sizable day's work for "Jumping Joe," and the crowd showed it's [sic] deep appreciation by mobbing him at the finish of the ball game. Savoldi managed to escape by throwing his headgear to the milling throng, and long after the players had left the field of action, Joe's helmet was still at the center of a battle royal. More than 200 enthusiastic souvenir hunters joined in the fight, which continued to rage unabated outside the stadium after police had managed to chase the combatants from the big bowl. Numerous black eyes were exchanged before mounted police finally quelled the uprising. Such is Savoldi's fame!" Stanford University played four of its home football games at Kezar: one in 1928 and three in 1942. Stanford was also part of the first-ever major college football double header in 1940, which featured Stanford–San Francisco and Santa Clara–Utah. Kezar Stadium was the first home of the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, as well many NFL Hall of Famers, historical NFL games, and the first "alley-oop." The Raiders played at Kezar for their first four home games in 1960, and at Candlestick Park during the remainder of their first two seasons, before Frank Youell Field was built as a temporary facility in Oakland. Defensive end Jim Marshall of the visiting Minnesota Vikings had his famous "wrong way run" at Kezar in 1964, against the 49ers on October 25. The 49ers played the final NFL game at Kezar in early 1971, losing the 1970 NFC Championship Game to the Dallas Cowboys 17–10 on January 3.

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