Holman Stadium (New Hampshire)

Infobox Stadium
stadium_name = Holman Stadium
nickname = Historic Holman Stadium


fullname =
location = Nashua, NH
coordinates =
broke_ground =
built =
opened = 1937
owner = City of Nashua
renovated = 2002
operator =
surface = Grass
former_names =
tenants = American Defenders of New Hampshire (Can-Am League) ("present")
Nashua Pride (Atlantic League/Can-Am League) (1998-2008)
Nashua Hawks (North Atlantic League) (1995-1996)
Nashua Pirates (Eastern League) (1984-1986)
Nashua Angels (Eastern League)
(1983)
Nashua Dodgers (New England League) (1946-1949)
seating_capacity = Baseball - 4,375
dimensions = Left Field: 307 ft
Center Field: 401 ft
Right Field: 315 ft

Holman Stadium is a baseball stadium in Nashua, New Hampshire. It was constructed in 1937 as a multipurpose stadium by the City of Nashua. The stadium is named for Charles Frank Holman, who contributed $55,000 for the project. Holman Stadium, which also was funded by money made available by the federal government during the Great Depression, was dedicated to the youth and people of Nashua in memory of Holman's parents.

Owned by the city, it became home to the Nashua Pride, a baseball team in the independent Atlantic League, in 1998. (In 2006 the Pride switched to the Can-Am League, and in 2008 the team was sold and renamed the American Defenders of New Hampshire). Another non-affiliated team, the Nashua Hawks of the North Atlantic League, played at Holman Stadium earlier in the 1990s. Prior to that, several major league teams had farm teams based in the stadium, including the California Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Official seating capacity is 4,375. Holman Stadium was upgraded in 2002 from a plain seating bowl to a stadium with luxury boxes and a press box on top of the grandstand. It is located in a residential area of Nashua.

Holman hosted what is considered the first integrated U.S. baseball team in the modern era, when Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe played for the then-Nashua Dodgers in 1946.

External links

* [http://www.nashuapride.com/udp.php?id=106 Nashua Pride: What makes Holman Stadium Historic?]
* [http://www.littleballparks.com/Stadium/2004/Nashua/Nashua.htm Holman Stadium Views - "Ballparks of the Minor Leagues"]

Source

* Daly, Steve. 2002. "Dem Little Bums." Concord, NH: Plaidswede Publishing Co. ISBN 0-9626832-4-8

* Nashua History Committee. 1977. "The Nashua Experience: History in the Making, 1673-1978." Concord NH: Phoenix Publishing (see pp. 230-231).

* Roper, Scott C., and Stephanie Abbot Roper. 1998. "'We're Going to Give All We Have for this Grand Little Town': Baseball Integration and the 1946 Nashua Dodgers." "Historical New Hampshire" 53:1/2 (Spring/Summer 1998) 3-19.