Veterans Memorial Stadium (Long Beach)

Veterans Memorial Stadium (also known as Veterans Stadium, Vets Stadium or simply The Vet) is a stadium located south of the Liberal Arts Campus of Long Beach City College in Long Beach, California. It is the home stadium to a number of local area high school football teams, as well as Long Beach City College's football team. It was also home to Long Beach State's football team until the program disbanded in 1991.

The stadium is also popular as a movie set for a number of Hollywood motion pictures. It also hosted the 1985 and 1988 Motorcycle Speedway World Team Cup Finals.

Veterans Stadium opened in 1948, and was owned by the City of Long Beach for a number of decades. The City of Long Beach used the stadium as a temporary location for Fire Station 19 (now located on Clark Avenue, a few blocks away). The fire station was housed at the south end of the stadium under the bleacher area; the large door that was installed for the fire engine to exit can still be seen. The actual "station", or living quarters area, is now used as an office for stadium personnel.

Soon after the stadium opened, the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Professional Football League became the Long Beach Bulldogs for the 1948 season. But the minor-league PCPFL was on its last legs by this time, and so were the Bulldogs -- a legendary West Coast team that had fallen on hard times since the NFL Los Angeles Rams and the AAFC's Los Angeles Dons moved to town. After drawing just 850 fans for a Bulldogs game in Long Beach, the team promptly cancelled the rest of their schedule, and the PCPFL folded soon after.

Two decades later, in 1967, the Vet hosted professional football again. The Long Beach Admirals were admitted to the Continental Football League as part of the league's expansion to the west coast. But the Admirals wouldn't last long: they drew only 2,475 fans for an exhibition game, then just 950 customers for their regular season opener, a 37-13 loss to the Seattle Rangers. After the disastrous gates, the Admirals applied for an immediate transfer to Portland, Oregon; this was denied, and the Admirals faded into history.

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