Balboa Stadium
Encyclopedia
Balboa Stadium is a football and soccer stadium located in San Diego, California
. The original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the many buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition
located in Balboa Park. Originally called City Stadium, and designed by the Quayle Brothers architectural firm, it is located to the East of San Diego High School
. Auto racing took place on a 1/4 mile dirt track in Balboa Stadium from about 1937 through July 4, 1961 when the racing stopped so the facility could be used for pro football. The Stadium was the home of the American Football League
's San Diego Chargers
' from 1961-66. The stadium originally had a seating capacity of approximately 15,000 and was expanded in 1961 to 34,000 to accommodate the Chargers when they moved from Los Angeles. The stadium was used for popular music concerts and other public gatherings though the 1970s.
Balboa Stadium witnessed the Chargers
' glory years, which featured such players as John Hadl
, Lance Alworth
, Jack Kemp
, and Ernie Ladd
, and hosted the 1961, 1963, and 1965 American Football League
championship games, as well as the 1961, 1962, and 1963 AFL All-Star games. In their six seasons here, head coach Sid Gillman
's club finished with a combined record of 28-12-2, winning four Western Division titles and one league crown. In 1967, the team left Balboa for new San Diego Stadium (now Qualcomm Stadium
) in Mission Valley, where the club's glory slowed and the titles stopped (although they did win several American Football Conference
Western Division titles) until they won the AFC championship after the 1994 season.
The stadium also hosted local amateur and professional baseball
contests in the period prior to the establishment of the Pacific Coast League
Padres in 1936.
Balboa Stadium was one of the hotbeds of midget racing starting in about 1937 until the early 1950s (except for the war years). When interest in midget racing started waning, jalopies became popular. The San Diego Racing Association was formed in 1953 and started sanctioning the racing. By 1958 the San Diego Racing Assn had transformed from a jalopy association to more sleek modified sportsman (the forerunners of today's super modifieds). Jalopy champions of the SDRA at Balboa included Glen Hoagland (1953), Jim Wood (1954), Jack Krogh (1955), Harris Mills (1956), Don Ray (1957), and Mondo Iavelli (1958). Don Thomas (1957) was the inaugural modified champion with Art Pratt being a three time titlest (1958 - 1959 - 1960). Rip Erikson took the honors in the 1961 season that was split between Balboa Stadium and Cajon Speedway. Also holding events at Balboa Stadium during the 1950s were occasional visits by the URA midgets and the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Models. During the 1950s it was not unusual for more than 10,000 fans to attend a weekly show at Balboa.
On September 19, 1919, President
Woodrow Wilson
spoke in front of over 50,000 people in Balboa Stadium in support of the creation of the League of Nations
. This was the first presidential speech to use an electronic voice amplification system. This system was invented by Edwin S. Pridham and Peter L. Jensen. They called their invention the "Magnavox" ("Great Voice") moving coil device. The two would go on to found the Magnavox
company.
On September 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh
visited San Diego, where the Spirit of St. Louis
was built by Ryan Aeronautical, and was greeted with a hero's welcome at the stadium. With over 60,000 in attendance (10,000 more than President Wilson) he performed a low-level fly over at 100 feet, dipping his aircraft's wings and circling the stadium 8 times. He landed and was then paraded through the city to the stadium where the crowd had to be held back by 650 U.S. Marines.
The NCAA football Harbor Bowl
was held there from 1947 to 1949. The San Diego East-West Christmas Classic
was held here in 1921 and 1922.
The track at Balboa Stadium has been the site of famous races. In 1965 at Balboa Stadium, high-schooler Jim Ryun from Kansas beat world-record holder and reigning Olympic champion Peter Snell from New Zealand in a mile race in 3:55.3, an American high school record that stood for 42 years. A year later, Tim Danielson
from San Diego area Chula Vista High School
ran 3:59.4 in the same stadium to become only the second high school runner to run a sub-4:00 mile. Only three high school runners have managed to break that barrier since (Marty Liquori
in 1967, Alan Webb
in 2001, and Lukas Verzbicas
in 2011).
On August 28, 1965, The Beatles
performed at the stadium.
The first two major meets of the developing age division of Masters athletics were held in Balboa Stadium, July 19–20, 1968 and July 3–6, 1969.
Also, Babe Ruth
, Lou Gehrig
, Ty Cobb
& Satchel Paige
have played in this stadium.
than at the time it housed the Chargers. Most of its distinguishing architectural features were removed. The remaining seating is made up of simple concrete bleachers, which also form the walls of the canyon the field is built in.
The stadium is currently home to San Diego Boca FC
, one of San Diego's professional outdoor soccer teams. For promotional purposes Boca FC refer to the stadium as "Boca Stadium". San Diego's largest and oldest running club, the San Diego Track Club also calls Balboa Stadium its home. It is also used by San Diego High School
for local high school sporting and other events. During the 1990s and the 2000s, it was also used as the home field (for football only) by St. Augustine High School and San Diego City College
. The stadium is owned by the City of San Diego and leased to the San Diego Unified School District, which is responsible for its maintenance.
An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune from November 27, 2006, highlighted the stadium's state of disrepair. The field was covered in artificial turf
installed in 2001 that was torn and rippling, and the track surrounding the field had some dangerous depressions thought to be able to cause injury. However, both the turf and the track have since been completely renovated and the information about the stadium's state provided in the article is now obsolete.
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
. The original stadium was built in 1914 as part of the many buildings erected for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition
Panama-California Exposition (1915)
The Panama-California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California between March 9, 1915 and January 1, 1917. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first U.S. port of call for ships traveling north after passing westward...
located in Balboa Park. Originally called City Stadium, and designed by the Quayle Brothers architectural firm, it is located to the East of San Diego High School
San Diego High School
San Diego High School is an urban public educational complex comprising six small schools located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School District and one of the...
. Auto racing took place on a 1/4 mile dirt track in Balboa Stadium from about 1937 through July 4, 1961 when the racing stopped so the facility could be used for pro football. The Stadium was the home of the American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
's San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
' from 1961-66. The stadium originally had a seating capacity of approximately 15,000 and was expanded in 1961 to 34,000 to accommodate the Chargers when they moved from Los Angeles. The stadium was used for popular music concerts and other public gatherings though the 1970s.
Balboa Stadium witnessed the Chargers
San Diego Chargers
The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
' glory years, which featured such players as John Hadl
John Hadl
John Willard Hadl is a former collegiate and professional football player.Hadl was born in Lawrence, Kansas. After playing halfback on both offense and defense at the University of Kansas as a sophomore, Hadl played quarterback for his last two years at Kansas, and was selected as the school's...
, Lance Alworth
Lance Alworth
Lance Dwight Alworth is a former American collegiate and Professional Football wide receiver. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame...
, Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp
Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...
, and Ernie Ladd
Ernie Ladd
Ernest "Ernie" Ladd , nicknamed "The Big Cat" was an American collegiate and professional football player and a professional wrestler.-Pro Football career:...
, and hosted the 1961, 1963, and 1965 American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
championship games, as well as the 1961, 1962, and 1963 AFL All-Star games. In their six seasons here, head coach Sid Gillman
Sid Gillman
Sidney "Sid" Gillman was an American football player, coach, executive, and innovator. Gillman's insistence on stretching the football field by throwing deep downfield passes, instead of short passes to running backs or wide receivers at the sides of the line of scrimmage, was instrumental in...
's club finished with a combined record of 28-12-2, winning four Western Division titles and one league crown. In 1967, the team left Balboa for new San Diego Stadium (now Qualcomm Stadium
Qualcomm Stadium
Qualcomm Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium, in San Diego, California, in the Mission Valley area....
) in Mission Valley, where the club's glory slowed and the titles stopped (although they did win several American Football Conference
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference is one of the two conferences of the National Football League . This conference and its counterpart, the National Football Conference , currently contain 16 teams each, making up the 32 teams of the NFL....
Western Division titles) until they won the AFC championship after the 1994 season.
The stadium also hosted local amateur and professional baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
contests in the period prior to the establishment of the Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...
Padres in 1936.
Balboa Stadium was one of the hotbeds of midget racing starting in about 1937 until the early 1950s (except for the war years). When interest in midget racing started waning, jalopies became popular. The San Diego Racing Association was formed in 1953 and started sanctioning the racing. By 1958 the San Diego Racing Assn had transformed from a jalopy association to more sleek modified sportsman (the forerunners of today's super modifieds). Jalopy champions of the SDRA at Balboa included Glen Hoagland (1953), Jim Wood (1954), Jack Krogh (1955), Harris Mills (1956), Don Ray (1957), and Mondo Iavelli (1958). Don Thomas (1957) was the inaugural modified champion with Art Pratt being a three time titlest (1958 - 1959 - 1960). Rip Erikson took the honors in the 1961 season that was split between Balboa Stadium and Cajon Speedway. Also holding events at Balboa Stadium during the 1950s were occasional visits by the URA midgets and the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Models. During the 1950s it was not unusual for more than 10,000 fans to attend a weekly show at Balboa.
On September 19, 1919, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
spoke in front of over 50,000 people in Balboa Stadium in support of the creation of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. This was the first presidential speech to use an electronic voice amplification system. This system was invented by Edwin S. Pridham and Peter L. Jensen. They called their invention the "Magnavox" ("Great Voice") moving coil device. The two would go on to found the Magnavox
Magnavox
Magnavox is a US electronics company founded by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, who invented the moving-coil loudspeaker in 1915 at their lab in Napa, California. They formed Magnavox in 1917 in order to market their inventions....
company.
On September 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
visited San Diego, where the Spirit of St. Louis
Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis is the custom-built, single engine, single-seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles Lindbergh on May 20–21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris for which Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize.Lindbergh took off in the Spirit from Roosevelt...
was built by Ryan Aeronautical, and was greeted with a hero's welcome at the stadium. With over 60,000 in attendance (10,000 more than President Wilson) he performed a low-level fly over at 100 feet, dipping his aircraft's wings and circling the stadium 8 times. He landed and was then paraded through the city to the stadium where the crowd had to be held back by 650 U.S. Marines.
The NCAA football Harbor Bowl
Harbor Bowl
The Harbor Bowl was a college football bowl game played at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, California. The game was held from 1947 through 1949.-Game results:...
was held there from 1947 to 1949. The San Diego East-West Christmas Classic
San Diego East-West Christmas Classic
The San Diego East-West Christmas Classic was an annual series of two post-season college American football bowl games played at Balboa Stadium in San Diego, California, in 1921 and 1922.-Game results:...
was held here in 1921 and 1922.
The track at Balboa Stadium has been the site of famous races. In 1965 at Balboa Stadium, high-schooler Jim Ryun from Kansas beat world-record holder and reigning Olympic champion Peter Snell from New Zealand in a mile race in 3:55.3, an American high school record that stood for 42 years. A year later, Tim Danielson
Tim Danielson
Timothy Ralph "Tim" Danielson is a former American middle distance runner. He is one of only five U.S. high school athletes to ever run the mile in under four minutes.-High school:...
from San Diego area Chula Vista High School
Chula Vista High School
Chula Vista High School in Chula Vista, California, was founded in 1947. It is part of the Sweetwater Union High School District. The school colors are "spartan" blue and white, and the mascot is Sammy Spartan. CVHS underwent a renovation to several classrooms and received a new ASB building in...
ran 3:59.4 in the same stadium to become only the second high school runner to run a sub-4:00 mile. Only three high school runners have managed to break that barrier since (Marty Liquori
Marty Liquori
Martin Liquori is an American middle distance athlete.Liquori first rose to fame when he became the third American high schooler to break the four-minute mile by running a 3:59.8 in 1967, three years after Jim Ryun first did it.He grew up in Cedar Grove, New Jersey and attended Essex Catholic...
in 1967, Alan Webb
Alan Webb (athlete)
Alan Webb is an American athlete. He holds the American record in the mile, with a time of 3:46.91. He competes professionally for Nike.-High school:...
in 2001, and Lukas Verzbicas
Lukas Verzbicas
Lukas Verzbicas is a Lithuanian long-distance runner and triathlete. He won the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 2009 and in 2010 , and the Nike Cross Nationals invitational in 2010 , becoming the first runner to win both FLCC and NXN in the same year, and only the third to win FLCC...
in 2011).
On August 28, 1965, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
performed at the stadium.
The first two major meets of the developing age division of Masters athletics were held in Balboa Stadium, July 19–20, 1968 and July 3–6, 1969.
Also, Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
, Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
, Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...
& Satchel Paige
Satchel Paige
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...
have played in this stadium.
Modern stadium
The original stadium was demolished, and was rebuilt in 1978 with a much smaller seating capacitySeating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...
than at the time it housed the Chargers. Most of its distinguishing architectural features were removed. The remaining seating is made up of simple concrete bleachers, which also form the walls of the canyon the field is built in.
The stadium is currently home to San Diego Boca FC
San Diego Boca FC
San Diego Boca FC is an American soccer team based in San Diego, California. Founded in 2009, the team plays in National Premier Soccer League , a national amateur league at the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northwest Division....
, one of San Diego's professional outdoor soccer teams. For promotional purposes Boca FC refer to the stadium as "Boca Stadium". San Diego's largest and oldest running club, the San Diego Track Club also calls Balboa Stadium its home. It is also used by San Diego High School
San Diego High School
San Diego High School is an urban public educational complex comprising six small schools located on the southern edge of Balboa Park, in San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District. It is the oldest high school in the San Diego Unified School District and one of the...
for local high school sporting and other events. During the 1990s and the 2000s, it was also used as the home field (for football only) by St. Augustine High School and San Diego City College
San Diego City College
San Diego City College is a public, two-year community college located in San Diego, California. City College is part of the San Diego Community College District along with San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College and San Diego Continuing Education...
. The stadium is owned by the City of San Diego and leased to the San Diego Unified School District, which is responsible for its maintenance.
An article in the San Diego Union-Tribune from November 27, 2006, highlighted the stadium's state of disrepair. The field was covered in artificial turf
Artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
installed in 2001 that was torn and rippling, and the track surrounding the field had some dangerous depressions thought to be able to cause injury. However, both the turf and the track have since been completely renovated and the information about the stadium's state provided in the article is now obsolete.