Nickerson Field
Encyclopedia
Braves Field
Braves Field was a baseball park that formerly stood on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. The stadium was home to the Boston Braves National League franchise from 1915–1952, when the team moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
, in Boston, Massachusetts, the former home of the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
Boston Braves
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves are a professional baseball club based in Atlanta, Georgia. The Braves are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Braves have played in Turner Field since 1997....
baseball team which is now located in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. Parts of Braves Field, such as the entry gate and right-field pavilion, remain as portions of the stadium.
The stadium is now owned by Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, and is the home field for many of the school's athletics programs, including soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
and lacrosse. It was also the home of BU's football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team until the school dropped the sport following the 1997 season.
From the mid-1980s to 1995, the stadium hosted the New England Scholastic Band Association's marching band field show championships.
Use by professional sports
Since its reconfiguration in the 1950s, six professional sports franchises have used this stadium:- The Boston PatriotsNew England PatriotsThe New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
played at Nickerson Field from 1960 through 1962. - In 1975 the Boston MinutemenBoston MinutemenThe Boston Minutemen were a soccer team based out of Boston that played in the NASL. They played from 1974 to 1976. Their home fields included Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy and Sargent Field in New Bedford.Portuguese legend...
of the North American Soccer LeagueNorth American Soccer LeagueNorth American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
called Nickerson home. - The New England Tea MenNew England Tea MenThe New England Tea Men were a soccer team based out of Foxboro, MA that played in the NASL from 1978 to 1980. Their home field was Schaefer Stadium....
of the North American Soccer LeagueNorth American Soccer LeagueNorth American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
made Nickerson Field temporary quarters in 1979 after Bay State RacewayFoxboro RacewayFoxboro Raceway, known for much of its existence as Bay State Raceway, was a harness racing track located in Foxborough, Massachusetts that operated from 1947 until 1997. It stood next to Foxboro Stadium and the site of Gillette Stadium....
filed a temporary restraining order preventing them from using Schaefer StadiumFoxboro StadiumFoxboro Stadium was an outdoor stadium, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts...
. - In 1983, the Boston BreakersPortland BreakersThe Portland Breakers were a professional American Football team that played in the United States Football League in the mid 1980s. Before moving to Portland, Oregon, the franchise was previously in Boston, Massachusetts as the Boston Breakers and New Orleans, Louisiana as the New Orleans...
of the United States Football LeagueUnited States Football LeagueThe United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...
played their home games here. - From 2001 to 2003, the Women's United Soccer AssociationWomen's United Soccer AssociationThe Women's United Soccer Association, often abbreviated to the WUSA, was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the United States...
's Boston BreakersBoston Breakers (WUSA)The Boston Breakers were a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. The team held a "name the team" contest that Laura DeDonato of Easton Massachusetts won with the...
used the stadium. - The Boston CannonsBoston CannonsThe Boston Cannons are a Major League Lacrosse professional men's field lacrosse team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They have played in the MLL since the 2001 season. From 2006 to 2008, they were in the Eastern Conference. From the league's inception in 2001 through 2005, they were in the...
of Major League LacrosseMajor League LacrosseMajor League Lacrosse, or MLL, is a professional men's field lacrosse league that is made up of five teams in the United States and one team in Canada.- History :...
used the stadium as their home from 2004 through 2006. The 2004 and 2005 MLL championshipsSteinfeld CupThe Steinfeld Cup is the trophy given annually to the winners ofthe New Balance Major League Lacrosse Championship. It is named after MLL founder Jake Steinfeld...
were played at the stadium.
Configuration history
Boston University purchased the former home of the Braves on July 30, 1953 and renamed it Boston University Field. The stadium inherited its current name from the school's previous athletic field, which had been in the town of WestonWeston, Massachusetts
Weston is a suburb of Boston located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States in the Boston metro area. The population of Weston, according to the 2010 U.S. Census, is 11,261....
. That field was taken by eminent domain in 1955 for construction of Route 128. BU used the proceeds, in part, to renovate the former baseball park and renamed it for William E. Nickerson, a member of the BU Board of Trustees who had donated the original field in Weston to BU in 1928. According to the previously referenced article, Nickerson "was an MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
graduate who was the principal inventor of the machinery used to manufacture the first Gillette
Global Gillette
Gillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal care products. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was one of several brands originally owned by The Gillette Company, a leading global supplier of products under various brands, which was...
safety razor."
In 1955, the Braves Field Grandstand, Left Field Pavilion, and Jury Box were demolished. The existing Right Field Pavilion was squared off on the west side and filled in on the east side where a section had been removed to accommodate the Braves Field right field foul pole and bullpens. The three buildings overlooking the field coincidentally suggest the outline of the original main grandstand section. The stadium has been the home of BU teams longer (50-plus years) than it was the home of the Braves (parts of 38 seasons).
In 1968, the field underwent a renovation. The four Braves Field light towers were dismantled. That year BU became the second college in the United States to install "Astroturf". The following year, not only did the BU football team practice on that field, so did the Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
football team and the Boston Patriots
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
. Both used the field to prepare for away games they would play on Astroturf fields. In 2001 antiquated turf was replaced with a newer, more player-friendly artificial surface as part of a deal with the Women's United Soccer Association
Women's United Soccer Association
The Women's United Soccer Association, often abbreviated to the WUSA, was the world's first women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000, the league began its first season in April 2001 with eight teams in the United States...
to host the Boston Breakers
Boston Breakers (WUSA)
The Boston Breakers were a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Nickerson Field on the campus of Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. The team held a "name the team" contest that Laura DeDonato of Easton Massachusetts won with the...
games. With a professional soccer team playing at Nickerson the football lines, which had remained on the field even though BU no longer had a football program, were not repainted.
In 1989, to accommodate commencement speakers U.S. President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
and French President François Mitterrand
François Mitterrand
François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...
, a large platform was constructed to Secret Service specifications on one side of the field. The platform, which can be seen in the bottom center of the color picture below, was removed during the summer of 2008 when the field was expanded and given a new turf.
