Roosevelt Stadium (Union City)

Roosevelt Stadium was a football stadium that stood in Union City, New Jersey. (It is not to be confused with the former baseball park of the same name in neighboring Jersey City, New Jersey.)

Originally the site of the Hudson County Consumers Brewery Company, the property was purchased by what is now Union City for $456,000 USD, and turned it into a gated playground. Later, through the efforts of Director of Public Affairs Harry J. Thorout, the stadium’s construction was funded by the federal Works Progress Administration Project, which awarded the project $172,472 USD, as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Construction began on the stadium in 1936, with 350 men. Built in the art deco style, and modeled after the Colosseum and arenas of ancient Greece and Rome, the ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened it was held on November 25, 1937. [http://www.preservationnj.org/ten_most/ten_most_property_detail.asp?COUNTY=Hudson%20County&PropID=112]

The stadium was bounded on the east by Summit Avenue and on the west by Kerrigan Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard (formerly Hudson Boulevard) between 24th and 26th Streets. Roosevelt Stadium stood 15 rows deep, and initially housed 7,000 people, with subsequent renovations enlarging that capacity to 11,000 and ultimately 18,000. The stadium also featured a tool house, dressing rooms, and a cafeteria.

Pimarily a football stadium, future National Football League greats Lou Cordileone and Frank Winters played during their high school days at Roosevelt Stadium, as did College Football Hall of Famer Ed Franco. However, Roosevelt also housed events in semi-pro baseball, soccer, track, boxing, as well as numerous special events, from tractor pulls, concerts, carnivals and Fourth of July fireworks shows to an exhibition baseball game featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

The stadium’s most noteworthy annual event was the Thanksgiving football “Turkey Game,” held from 1919 - 2004 between long-time rivals Emerson High School’s Bulldogs and Union Hill High School’s Hillers. During a halftime ceremony held during the 1998 Turkey Game, Union City Mayor Raul "Rudy" Garcia dedicated the field of the stadium to the Emerson High School Hall of Fame great Joseph "Pep" Novotny. Novotny had died less than a month prior, and the phrase "Joseph 'Pep' Novotny Field" was later added beneath the words "Roosevelt Stadium" on the Kennedy Boulevard side of the stadium.

On November 25, 2004, following a special breakfast for honored guests and alumni, Roosevelt Stadium held its last Turkey Game, attracting many of Roosevelt’s recent and past veterans, as well as prominent Union City residents such as mayor Brian P. Stack and then-United States congressman Bob Menendez. The game began after a coin toss held by Mayor Stack that had the Hillers receiving the kickoff, and ended with Emerson victorious 21-0.

The stadium was closed to make way for a new $136 million Union City High School and Union City Athletic Complex, which will unite both Emerson and Union Hill High School into one high school. On July 11, 2005, acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey and Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, along with other officials, broke ground in preparation for the new complex. The interior of the stadium was razed and demolished the following month, and the stadium's exterior walls were demolished in that fall. The new complex is currently under construction. It is scheduled for completion in 2007.

In commemoration of Roosevelt Stadium, the students of Union Hill High School, under the direction of business teacher Peter Drozd, began a website dedicated to the history of the stadium and the Turkey Game.

In early March 2006, a large piece of the Hudson Brewery's original brick foundation was found intact, along with the base of a manhole still connected to an original sewer that opened underneath the brewery. The artifacts will be removed, but while construction crews continue to excavate, officials will monitor the excavation for future discoveries of other artifacts for historical preservation.

ources

*"The Union City Reporter" (December 6, 1998)
*"The Union City Reporter" (November 28, 2004)
*"The Union City Reporter" (December 5, 2004)
*"The Union City Reporter" (July 17, 2005)
*"The Union City Reporter" (December 6, 1998)
*"The Union City Reporter" (March 12, 2006)