Fenway’s History of Sub-Letters
Fenway will be the site of the 2010 Winter Classic.
When the Bruins take to the ice at Fenway Park to skate against the Philadelphia Flyers on New Years Day, it will undoubtedly be a curious sight. Trying to envision America’s most beloved ballpark transformed into a hockey barn might stretch the imagination of die-hard Boston sports fans, but the Winter Classic will not be the first time that the city’s hardball cathedral has hosted other types of sporting events. Not by any means.
Fenway Park has been home to an array of unconventional sub-letters during its illustrious history. Between 1963 and 1968, long before Foxboro, Fenway was actually home to the Patriots. Other football teams that hit the field included Boston College, Boston University, the Boston Bears, the Boston Shamrocks, the Boston Redskins (before they moved to Washington) in the 1930s, and the Boston Yanks in the 1940s. (It’s hard to imagine any team named the Yanks playing at Fenway Park and not being booed back to New York, but there you have it.)
Fenway has also hosted another type of football. The ballpark was home to the Boston Beacons of the North American Soccer League in 1968, and in 1931 eight thousand fans cheered on another set of Yankees: this time the New York Yankees of the American Soccer League as they defeated Glasgow Celtic. Incidentally, Yankees goalkeeper Johnny Reder took the field for Fenway’s boys of summer the following year when he joined the Red Sox.
Basketball fans also got their few minutes of fame in Fenway when the stadium
Fenway Park was the home to the then Boston Patriots.
hosted a basketball game in July 1954 between the Harlem Globetrotters and George Mikan’s all-stars. Even professional wrestling was held in the shadows of the Green Monster as George “the Animal” Steele headlined a card on June 29, 1969.
Today, massive rock stars like Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Buffett, and Paul McCartney pack the stadium and are fast becoming an annual tradition at Fenway. But years ago the ballpark was more of a forum for politics than entertainment. Thousands of locals took to the stands and rallied for Irish Independence in 1919. In 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt even gave one of his final campaign speeches in the park.
And now, in a throwback to the days when hockey was played on outdoor rinks across the city, Boston’s beloved Bruins get a chance to skate in the city’s most iconic and cherished sports venue. With football, basketball, soccer, and political sport all having had a shot at it, it seems only fair.
With the holidays approaching, The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston is the perfect gift for your favorite Boston sports fan. You can purchase the book through the Amazon.com link on this page.
You can also test your knowledge and enter to win a copy of the book!
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Keep posting stuff like this i really like it.
Went to a Jets-Pats game in I think '67 and got to walk across the field after the game. Real cool as a kid.