Braves Field to Nickerson Field: Baseball, Football, Soccer, and Everything In-Between

When Braves Field opened on August 18, 1915, it had the largest capacity of any stadium in professional baseball at 45,000. A century later, with only the right-field pavilion remaining and with just a quarter (10,412) of that overall capacity, Boston University’s Nickerson Field is one of the largest soccer-specific college stadiums in the country.

A total of 2,871 major-league baseball games were played at Braves Field from 1915 to September 21, 1952, including 2,811 by the Braves and 60 by the Boston Red Sox, plus the 1936 All-Star Game, as well as games in the 1915, 1916, and 1948 World Series.

While Braves Field was built to be a cathedral of baseball for Boston’s National League club, it became over its long history a multi-use venue for football, soccer, and nearly every field sport imaginable. Before the ballpark was built, the site hosted a different sport as part of the Allston Golf Club.

The field was home for Boston’s original National Football League franchise, the Boston Braves, who finished with a 4-4-2 record in 1932. The football Braves were evicted after a rent dispute with their baseball brethren. Owner George Preston Marshall moved the team less than two miles down Commonwealth Avenue to Fenway Park, where he renamed the team the Redskins. Four seasons later they relocated to Washington, D.C., where they captured their first NFL championship in 1937.

Even before Boston University took ownership on July 29, 1953, Braves Field hosted local college football games. BU played its first football game there with a 1921 season-opening 52-0 victory over Worcester Tech.

In addition to the Terriers, Boston College also used Braves Field for football games that required a greater capacity than the Eagles’ original Alumni Field. A Braves Field record crowd of 54,000 watched BC edge Holy Cross, 17-13, on December 2, 1922.

Braves Field hosted 70 boxing cards through July 1951, with most occurring during the Depression years as the Braves owners attempted to keep the franchise financially afloat. Boston Garden boxing promoters paid to host evening cards following afternoon Braves games, hoping to retain the baseball crowds, but without much success.

Several Boxing Hall of Famers fought at Braves Field, including Rocky Marciano (The Brockton Bomber), Willie Pep (Willo the Wisp), Jack Britton (The Boxing Marvel), Jack Sharkey (The Boston Gob), Paul Berlenback (The Astoria Assassin), James J. Braddock (The Cinderella Man), Manuel Ortiz, and Tiger Flowers (The Georgia Deacon).

Marciano won his 28th bout en route to the world heavyweight championship at Braves Field, stopping Italy’s Gino Buonvino in the eighth round on July 10, 1950. Only 4,900 paid to see the fight, which took place in a small, dilapidated and tilted ring under poor lighting. Marciano commented that he felt as if he were “fighting uphill all night.”1

In addition to its many sporting uses, Braves Field also was the site of rodeos, circuses, jazz concerts, dancing, movies, political rallies, and religious gatherings while still a baseball venue. Judge Emil Fuchs, the Braves owner, even attempted to bring in dog racing during the Depression, without success.

In the summer of 1953, BU was notified by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that its home field in Weston (also called Nickerson Field) would be taken by eminent domain for the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Boston’s National League franchise had abandoned Braves Field earlier that year and moved to Milwaukee. BU needed a new field and Braves owner Lou Perini had a stadium he no longer had any use for, so a deal was struck. Perini sold Braves Field to BU for $585,000, believed to be only a fraction of what the property was actually worth.

Led by head football coach Aldo “Buff” Donelli, BU coaches and players removed the outfield fences, mowed the grass, and cleaned and refurbished the seats, getting the former ballpark ready for the 1953 football season.

The stadium has undergone numerous changes and refurbishing’s since BU took ownership.

The grandstand, left-field pavilion, and the “Jury Box” were demolished in 1955. The right-field pavilion was squared off on the west side and filled in on the east side where the right-field foul pole and bullpens had been.

The current stadium design, with a press box mounted on top of the old right-field pavilion, came about in 1960, when the university partnered with the Boston Patriots of the fledgling American Football League. New lighting, new sod, and additional seating, costing more than $300,000, became part of the reconstruction project.

The Patriots playing at Boston University Field was homecoming for team owner Billy Sullivan, who was for many years the public-relations director for the Boston Braves.

The first regular-season game in the history of the AFL was played at Boston University Field on September 9, 1960. The Denver Broncos beat the Patriots, 13-10, in front of a Friday night crowd of 21,597. There was no television, tickets cost $5, and the gate receipts were carried to the bank in a shoebox, according to retired Broncos PR director Jim Saccomano.2 The game was played on a Friday night to avoid competing against Harvard and BC home games on that Saturday or the New York Giants television broadcast into New England on Sunday.

Patriots defensive end Bob Dee, a former Holy Cross star, scored the new league’s first points when he recovered a Broncos fumble in the end zone for a safety. The quarterbacks were Butch Songin (ex-BC) for the Patriots and Frank Tripucka (Notre Dame) for the Broncos.

The vagabond Patriots spent three seasons playing at Nickerson Field before moving on to BC’s Alumni Stadium, Fenway Park, and Harvard Stadium, ultimately settling in Foxboro.

In 1963 University Field was renamed Nickerson Field, in honor of William E. Nickerson, a longtime booster of Terrier athletics and donor of BU’s original field in Weston in 1928.

 

Nickerson Field was also the home of the Boston Breakers of the United States Football League in 1983. The Breakers added temporary stands to three sides of the ground, to bring the capacity back over 20,000. The Breakers, coached by Dick Coury and led by veteran quarterback Johnnie Walton, finished with an 11-7 record but were one of only two teams with average attendance of less than 14,000. The franchise moved to New Orleans after one season in Boston.

Nickerson Field got another facelift in 1968, when the four Braves Field light towers were dismantled and it became the second college field in the United States to install an Astroturf carpet playing surface. The Patriots returned to use it as a practice field whenever they would go on the road to play an Astroturf opponent.

It was refurbished again in 1973, with the additions of a 400-meter turf track, three tennis courts, and the Harold C. Case Physical Education & Athletic Center, including Walter Brown Arena, along with the three high-rise student dormitories — Sleeper, Claflin, and Rich — that overlook the field and give an indication of where the original Braves Field grandstand once stood.

While Boston University’s football team was the primary tenant up to 1997, playing to mixed results in the Yankee Conference, the stadium had become a favored venue for professional soccer.

The Boston Astros of the American Soccer League called Nickerson Field home from 1969 to 1975, with the exception of a few games in ’73 while the new turf was being installed.

“It was a good place for us to play,” recalled Astros owner/coach John Bertos after his 2014 induction into the New England Soccer Hall of Fame. “We had no problem with BU. They were good to us. But at the time, we still had to educate fans about soccer and it was difficult getting them to games at Nickerson Field.”3

Nickerson Field’s capacity was ideal for professional soccer at the time. Bertos remembers only a few times the 10,412 capacity was exceeded.

“When we were doing well, we’d have about 4,500 fans,” he said. “We got some big crowds when we brought in foreign teams. We also got more than 10,000 for a game against the New York Apollos, who were the ASL champions. And the Connecticut Wolves games usually drew a big crowd.”

The Astros brought in extra stands for an exhibition match against the Brazilian club team Santos and its world superstar Pelé, on June 30, 1972.

“We were expecting 15-17,000 fans to see Pelé,” said Bertos. “We raised ticket prices from $5 to $10. We were hoping to make enough money from that one game to keep us going for the whole season.”

The fog rolled in from the Charles River that evening, making it almost impossible to see across the narrow 75-yard field.

“I wanted to postpone the match for a day, but we had to play that day. We ended up taking a bath.”4

The ASL Astros shared Nickerson Field with the Boston Minutemen of the North American Soccer League in 1975. It didn’t work out for either franchise.

“We gave free clinics all over the area, hoping to draw fans to our games,” said Bertos. “The Minutemen, who had moved over from Boston College, gave their tickets away for free. We couldn’t compete with that.”

Bertos, whose team finished in first place in 1975, relocated to Lowell. The Minutemen, featuring Portuguese superstar Eusébio, also finished in first place in ’75 and then moved south and became nomads, playing in Foxboro, Quincy, and New Bedford before dissolving the following year.

“We both had good clubs, and one of us could have made it,” said Bertos, “but the pie was not large enough to share.”5

The Minutemen had one memorable match during their lone season at Nickerson Field that remains part of New England soccer lore, on July 9, 1975. While world superstars Eusébio and Pelé had several high-profile clashes when the “Black Panther” played for Benfica of Portugal and Pelé starred for Santos of Brazil, they also had a few head-to-head battles in the NASL, with Pelé’s New York Cosmos facing Eusébio’s Minutemen.

The official attendance was recorded as 18,598, more than 4,500 over the listed capacity. The real attendance was said to have easily exceeded 20,000, in violation of the stadium’s safety codes.

As reported in People magazine: “After a scoreless first half, Eusébio booted a free kick into the Cosmos’ goal to give Boston a 1-0 lead. Then, moments later, Pelé threaded through the Boston defense like a sapper, darted in front of the goalie with a defender right on his back and lofted a push shot for what appeared to be a score. With a fearful roar the mob poured onto the field and swarmed over the Brazilian wonder. Fortunately his instincts told him to fall limp on the ground, but by the time Cosmos general manager Clive Toye, Boston police and other soccer officials were able to get to him with a stretcher, Pelé had suffered a pulled knee muscle and a sprained ankle, had his shoes and uniform ripped — and learned that his goal had been disallowed on a technicality. He was hustled into the Cosmos’ dressing room, and a semblance of order was restored. Boston went on to win 2-1 in overtime, but that didn’t matter. What did was that Pelé’s very precious life had been risked.”6

Nickerson Field also played host to the New England Tea Men (1979) of the NASL, as well as the Boston Beacons and Boston Bolts (1988-90). It was the site of the ASL championship match in 1989, when the Bolts fell to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, 2-1, in another match played in rain and fog.

BU’s men’s soccer team has been a successful tenant at Nickerson Field. The Terriers’ 1994 squad finished 19-1-1 and was ranked No. 1 in the nation.

A large gray platform was added to the field in 1989 to accommodate commencement speakers President George H.W. Bush and French President Francois Mitterand, and remained until 2008.

The Astroturf was replaced in 2001 with a newer, safer FieldTurf surface as part of a deal that brought the Boston Breakers of the Women’s United Soccer Association to Nickerson Field. Individual seats were also added to the lower area of the old right field pavilion, replacing the aluminum bleachers.

Nickerson Field was the first in the country to have its FieldTurf surface certified for international play by FIFA, world soccer’s governing body.

With BU no longer playing football (it dropped the sport after the 1997 season), Nickerson Field became a soccer-specific venue and football lines were not repainted. That also ended it as a host site for Massachusetts High School Football Super Bowl Games.

The Breakers lasted for three years until the WUSA shut down for a couple of years before restarting.

The stadium was also home to BU field hockey for many years, including hosting an international match involving the US National Team in 1980. It also played host to the 2006 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Tournament.

It was also home of the Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse from 2004 to 2006.

The field was expanded and given a new turf in 2008.

In addition, Nickerson Field annually plays host to BU’s extensive intramural program, including sports like softball, flag football, ultimate Frisbee, and anything else that can be played outdoors on a turf field.

Braves Field’s old parking lot area on Babcock Street became home to the $27 million New Balance Field in 2013, a university sports complex that houses women’s field hockey and other university club and intramural sports. The space under the elevated field is still used for parking, as a garage instead of an open lot.

Boston University has taken great care to ensure the historical connection between Nickerson Field and its Braves Field origins. A plaque commemorating its Braves Field origins (courtesy of SABR and the New England Sports Museum) sits outside the entrances to the former right-field pavilion at Nickerson Field. The alleyway between Harry Agganis Way (formerly Gaffney Street, named after former Braves owner and Braves Field builder James Gaffney) and Babcock Street is named Braves Field Way, with signage at both ends courtesy of the Boston Braves Historical Association. There are also three large panoramic photos of Braves Field construction in 1915 prominently located in the Walter Brown Arena lobby inside the Case Athletic Center.

BU students participating in recreational activities are often surprised to learn they are treading the same ground where Babe Ruth completed his baseball career after seeing the signage.

There is a statue of Agganis, nicknamed the Golden Greek, outside the arena that bears his name on Commonwealth Avenue and the entrance to Agganis Way, leading to the former Braves Field offices, which now house BU campus police. There are twin ironies at work here, as Agganis, a football and baseball star at BU before signing with the Red Sox, never played a game at Braves Field. Nor did he play ice hockey or basketball, the sports the Terriers play at Agganis Arena.

Boston’s NL baseball team spent 38 of their 81 seasons at Braves Field. It has now been the home of BU’s Terrier teams for considerably longer (60-plus years).

DOUG CHAPMAN spent 19 years as a sports writer at the Providence Journal, covering the Boston Bruins for 11 of them, and has been a high school (Somerset Berkley) and college tennis coach (UMass Dartmouth, Roger William, and Bridgewater State) for more than 35 years. While a journalism student at Boston University, he hit home runs into the old right-field pavilion at Braves Field in intramural softball games. He is a season ticket holder for BU men’s hockey and had a season ticket to the USFL’s Boston Breakers. He resides in Somerset, Massachusetts.

 

Sources

Boston Braves Historical Association newsletter.

Boston University sports information archives.

New York Daily News (First AFL game).

Seamheads.com.

SoccerStats.us.

 

Notes

1 Saul Wisnia, Boston Braves Historical Association Newsletter, Fall 2008.

2 Hank Gola, “Broncos and Patriots have come a long way since playing first AFL game 53 years ago,” New York Daily News, January 18, 2014.

3 Interview with John Bertos, November 29, 2014.

4 Bertos interview.

5 Bertos interview.

6 Mark Goodman, “The Peerless Pele Comes to Gotham to Put US Soccer on the Map,” People, August 4, 1974.