John F. Kennedy Stadium (Philadelphia)
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| Former names | Sesquicentennial Stadium (1926) Philadelphia Municipal Stadium (1926–1964) John F. Kennedy Stadium (1964–1992) |
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| Location | S Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19148 |
| Coordinates | 39°54′05″N 75°10′19″W / 39.9014°N 75.1719°WCoordinates: 39°54′05″N 75°10′19″W / 39.9014°N 75.1719°W |
| Owner | City of Philadelphia |
| Capacity | 102,000 (for American football) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Opened | April 15, 1926 |
| Closed | July 13, 1989 |
| Demolished | September 19–24, 1992 |
| Architect | Simon & Simon |
| Tenants | |
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Philadelphia Quakers (AFL) (1926) Philadelphia Eagles (NFL) (1936–1939, 1941) Liberty Bowl (NCAA) (1959–1963) Army–Navy Game (NCAA) (1936–1979) Philadelphia Bell (WFL) (1974) |
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John F. Kennedy Stadium (formerly Philadelphia Municipal Stadium and Sesquicentennial Stadium) was an open-air stadium in Philadelphia that stood from 1926 to 1992. The South Philadelphia stadium was situated on the east side of the far southern end of Broad Street at a location that is now part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Designed by the architectural firm of Simon & Simon in a classic 1920s style with a horseshoe seating design that surrounded a track and football field, at its peak the facility seated in excess of 102,000 people. Bleachers were later added at the open (North) end.
Each section of the main portion of the stadium contained its own entrance, which displayed the letters of each section above the entrance, in a nod to ancient Roman stadia. Section designators were divided at the south end of the stadium (the bottom of the "U" shape) between West and East, starting with Sections WA and EA and proceeding north. The north bleachers started with Section NA.
It was built of concrete, stone, and brick on a 13.5-acre (55,000 m2) tract.
JFK Stadium was built as part of the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition. Originally known as Sesquicentennial Stadium when it opened April 15, 1926, the structure was renamed Philadelphia Municipal Stadium after the Exposition's closing ceremonies. In 1964, it was renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium in memory of the 35th President of the United States who had been assassinated the year before.
The stadium's first tenants (in 1926) were the Philadelphia Quakers of the first American Football League, whose Saturday afternoon home games were a popular mainstay of the Exposition. The Quakers won the league championship but the league folded after one year.
The Frankford Yellow Jackets also played here intermittently until the team's demise in 1931. Two years later the National Football League awarded another team to the city, the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles had a four-season stint as tenants of the stadium before moving to Shibe Park for the 1940 season, although the team did play at Municipal in 1941. The Eagles also used the stadium for practices in the 1970s and 1980s, even locating their first practice bubble there before moving it to the Veterans Stadium parking lot following the stadium's condemnation.
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