Gasson Hall
After opening the season with a 35-7 home win over FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA) Texas State, Rutgers has since lost 52-3 away to Ohio State, 55-14 away to Kansas, and, yesterday, 42-13 at home to Buffalo.
That's the University of Buffalo. Actually, it's the State University of New York at Buffalo. A Mid-American Conference team.
I didn't like it when Rutgers used to lose to fellow Big East Conference teams, like Syracuse, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Virginia Tech, but I could live with it. This is a disgrace.
Boston College used to be a Big East opponent of Rutgers, and the only Division I-A college football team in New England.
Now, RU is in the Big Ten, while BC is in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and the University of Connecticut (UConn) and the University of Massachusetts (UMass) have become the 2nd and 3rd schools, respectively, in a New England State to be in Division I-A, which is now called the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Several other New England schools are in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), including Ivy Leaguers Harvard, Brown and Dartmouth; also Boston-based Northeastern, Worcester-based Holy Cross, and the Universities of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine. Boston University and the University of Vermont no longer play football.
BC started the 2018 season off with a bang, and while their defense hasn't been great, their offense has been absolutely explosive. They have beaten UMass 55-21 at home, arch-rival Holy Cross 62-14 at home, and have gone away to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to beat Wake Forest 41-34. Yesterday, however, they lost 30-13 away to Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana. Next week, they host Temple, which brings the Boston-Philadelphia rivalry, so common in other sports, into play.
Before You Go. Boston weather is a little different from ours, being a little bit further north. Mark Twain, who lived the last few years of his life in nearby Hartford, said, "If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute."
You should check the websites of the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald before you leave. In early Autumn, you can expect daytime temperatures in the 60s and nighttime in the 50s. But, come mid-October, expect a dip. You will need a jacket by day, and by late October, possibly a jacket by night. Boston can get snow as early as Thanksgiving, but probably not mid-October.
The Berkeley Building, a.k.a. the Old John Hancock Building, has a spire that lights up, and is a weather beacon, complete with poem:
Steady blue, clear view.
Flashing blue, clouds due.
Steady red, rain ahead.
Flashing red, snow instead.
If it flashes red during the baseball season, that doesn't mean snow. It means the game has been called off. Or, as one wag added to the poem:
But if it's baseball time and Boston
and the weather is to blame
if you see the light is flashing red
that means there'll be no game.
Boston is the easternmost city in Major League Baseball (and in the other North American sports leagues, too, and will remain so even if Quebec City returns to the NHL), but it is still in the Eastern Time Zone, so adjusting your watch and your smartphone clock is not necessary. And, of course, despite the silliness of the concept of "Red Sox Nation," you do not need a passport to cross the New Haven City Line, or to change your money.
Tickets. Alumni Stadium officially seats 44,500 people, by BC doesn't always sell it out. Tickets should not be very hard to get, unlike the city's pro teams.
In the lower level, seats are $55 on the sidelines and $35 in the end zones. In the upper level, seats are $45 on the sidelines and $30 in the end zones.
Getting There. Getting to Boston is fairly easy. However, I do not recommend driving, especially if you have Yankee paraphernalia on your car (bumper sticker, license-plate holder, decals, etc.). Chances are, it won't get vandalized... but you never know.
If you must drive, it's 214 miles by road from Times Square to Boston's Downtown Crossing, and 246 miles from Rutgers Stadium to Alumni Stadium.
Take any road that will get you to Interstate 95 North in The Bronx, whether that's the West Side Highway or the FDR Drive (if you're going from Manhattan), the Belt Parkway (if you're going from Brooklyn, Queens or Long Island), or the George Washington Bridge (if you're going from New Jersey). I-95 will become the Cross Bronx Expressway and then, after turning north and moving outside The City, the New England Thruway (or the New England Extension of the New York State Thruway).
Continue on I-95 North into Connecticut to Exit 48 in New Haven, and take Interstate 91 North toward Hartford. When you reach Hartford, take Exit 29 to Interstate 84, which you will take into Massachusetts and all the way to its end, where it merges with Interstate 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike. (And the locals call it "the Mass Pike" – never "the Turnpike" like we do in New Jersey.)
Theoretically, you could take I-95 all the way, but that will take you through downtown Providence, Rhode Island, up to the Boston suburbs. I like Providence as a city, but that route is longer by both miles and time than the route described above.
Instead of taking the Mass Pike all the way to downtown Boston, you'll get off at Exit 17 in suburban Newton, turn right on Franklin Street, right on Waverley Avenue, left on Ward Street, right on Manet Road, left on Commonwealth Avenue, then right on Campanella Way, and then follow the signs for parking.
If all goes well, and you make one rest stop (preferably around Hartford, roughly the halfway point), and you don't get seriously delayed by traffic within the city limits of either New York or Boston (either of which is very possible), you should be able to make the trip in under 5 hours.
But, please, do yourself a favor and get a hotel outside the city. It's not just that hotels in Boston proper are expensive, unless you want to try one of the thousands of bed-and-breakfasts with their communal bathrooms. It's also that Boston drivers are said to come in 2 classes, depending on how big their car is: Homicidal and suicidal.
So my recommendation is that, whenever a Yankee series in Boston approaches on the schedule, whatever your plans are for going, bag them, and make your game ticket and lodging plans for the next series.
For any lodging in Cambridge rather than in Boston proper, take Exit 18 off the Mass Pike and follow the signs for Cambridge, across the Charles River to the north. For lodging in Newton, Exit 15, 16 or 17. For lodging south of the city -- in, for example, Quincy -- take Exit 15 off the Mass Pike, for I-95/495 South (Boston's "beltway," in which case, it might be more convenient to take I-95 all the way up), to Exits 12 to 15; or, if going further, where it flows into Interstate 93, Exits 1 through 12.
Boston, like Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, is too close to fly from New York, and once you factor in fooling around with everything you gotta do at each airport, it doesn't really save you much time compared to driving, the bus or the train. It certainly won't save you any money.
The train is a very good option. Boston's South Station is at 700 Atlantic Avenue, corner of Summer Street, at Dewey Square. (Named for Admiral George Dewey, naval hero of the Spanish-American War, not New York Governor and 1944 & '48 Presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey, and not for former Red Sox right fielder Dwight "Dewey" Evans, either.) It'll be between $153 and $460 round-trip from New York's Penn Station to South Station, and it will take roughly 4½ hours. The Acela Express will take about 3½ hours.
That pointy thing in front of it is a subway entrance.
Once In the City. Named for the town of the same name (a shortened version of "St. Botolph's Stone") in Lincolnshire, in England's East Midlands, Boston is home to a little less than 700,000 people, with a metropolitan area (including the areas of Hartford, Providence, and Manchester, New Hampshire) of a little over 8 million people, making it the largest metro area in the country with only 1 MLB team (Dallas is 2nd; trailing the 2-team areas of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area).
The State House, on Beacon Hill
Boston is easily the largest city not just in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but in all of New England. The next-largest are Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, each with around 180,000. The largest in Connecticut is Bridgeport with 145,000; New Hampshire's largest is Manchester with 110,000; Maine's is Portland with 66,000, and Vermont's is Burlington with a mere 42,000. Of New England's 100 largest cities and towns, 53 are in Massachusetts, 30 in Connecticut, 9 in Rhode Island, 4 in New Hampshire, 3 in Maine and 1, Burlington, in Vermont; only 2 of the top 17 are outside Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Counting New England as a whole -- except for the southwestern part of Connecticut, which tilts toward New York -- there are about 12.8 million people in "Red Sox Nation." This isn't even close to the top, when "markets" are viewed this liberally -- the Yankees have close to 20 million in theirs, and the Atlanta Braves lead with over 36 million -- but it does rank 7th out of 30 MLB markets, and aside from the Yankees none of the pre-expansion teams has as big a market.
Boston is also one of the oldest cities in America, founded in 1630, and was the earliest to have been truly developed. (New York is actually older, 1626, but until City Hall was built and the grid laid out in 1811, it was pretty much limited to the 20 or so blocks from the Battery to Chambers Street.)
It's got the history: The colonial era, the Revolutionary period its citizens did so much to make possible, the abolitionist movement prior to the Civil War, Massachusetts' role in that conflict, the Industrial Revolution, the immigrant experience, the homefront of the World Wars, the Depression, civil rights struggles. Aside from New York, it was the only city on the Eastern Seaboard to have grasped the concept of the skyscraper until the 1980s.
It also has America's 1st college, Harvard University, across the Charles River in Cambridge; and a few other institutions of higher learning of some renown in or near the city: Boston College, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University, Tufts University, College of the Holy Cross, and so on. The particular instance of Harvard, funded by Boston's founding families, resulted in Boston and the surrounding area having a lot of "old money." And then there's all those Massachusetts-based writers.
All of this gives Boston an importance, and a self-importance, well beyond its interior population. One of those aforementioned writers, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (grandfather of the great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.), named the city "the Hub of the Solar System"; somehow, this became "the Hub of the Universe" or just "The Hub."
Early 19th Century journalist William Tudor called Boston "the Athens of America" -- but, as a Harvard man, he would have studied ancient Greece and realized that, while contributing greatly to the political and literary arts, Athens could be pretty dictatorial, warmongering, and slavery-tolerating at times. Later sportswriters have called the Sox-Yanks (in that order) rivalry "Athens and Sparta." (Remember: If not for Sparta, all of Greece would have fallen to the Persian Empire.)
Well, to hell with that: We are Yankee Fans. New York is the greatest city in the world, and we don't even have to capitalize that.
ZIP Codes in Massachusetts start with 01 in the West, and 020 to 027 in the East. Famously, the 1972-78 PBS kids' show Zoom, taped at WGBH-Channel 2, told its viewers who had ideas for the show, "Write Zoom! Z-double-O-M! Box 350, Boston, Mass 0-2-1-3-4! Send it to Zoom!"
The sales tax in Massachusetts is 6.25 percent, less than New Jersey's 7 percent and New York City's 8.875 percent. However, aside from that, pretty much everything in Boston and neighboring cities like Cambridge, Brookline and Quincy costs about as much as it does in New York City, and more than in the NYC suburbs. In other words, a bundle. So don't get sticker-shock.
Boston has 3 "beltways." Going outward from the city, they are: Interstates 95 and 93 forming one, Interstate 495 forming the next, and Interstates 190 and 195 forming the next.
When you get to South Station, if you haven't already read The Boston Globe on your laptop or smartphone, pick it up. It's a great paper, with one of the country's best sports sections. There's probably no paper that covers its local baseball team better, although the columns of Dan Shaughnessy (who did not coin but certainly popularized the phrase "The Curse of the Bambino" and wrote a book with the title) and Tony Massarotti (who started at the rival Herald and whose style is more in line with theirs) can be a bit acerbic.
You will also be able to pick up the New York papers at South Station, if you want any of them. If you must, you can also buy the Boston Herald, but it's a tabloid, previously owned by William Randolph Hearst and Rupert Murdoch. Although neither man's company still owns it, it carries all the hallmarks of the papers that they have owned (Murdoch still owns the New York Post, the Hearst Corporation owned the New York Journal and its successor, the New York Journal-American, which went out of business in 1966). In other words, the Herald is a right-wing pack of sensationalism, frequently sloppy journalism, and sometimes outright lies, but at least it does sports well (sometimes).
Once you have your newspapers, take the escalator down to the subway. Boston had the nation's 1st subway service, in 1897, along Boston Common on what's now named the Green Line. Formerly known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority, leading to the folk song "MTA," in 1965 it became the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), or "the T," symbolized by the big T signs where many cities, including New York, would have M's instead.
(Here's a link to the most familiar version of the song, done by the Kingston Trio in 1959. Keep in mind that Scollay Square station is now named Government Center, and that the reason Mrs. Charlie doesn't give him the extra nickel along with the sandwich isn't that she keeps forgetting, but that they're acting on principle, protesting the 5-cent exit fare -- my, how times have changed.)
Boston was one of the last cities to turn from subway tokens to farecards, in 2006, a decade after New York's switch was in progress. They cheekily call the cards CharlieCards, after the song character. A ride costs $2.75 with cash, the same as New York's subway, and if you're there for the entire series, it may be cheaper to get a 7-day pass for $21.25. The MBTA 1-day pass is $12, so the 7-day pass is a better option.
There are 4 lines: Red, Green, Orange and Blue. Don't worry about the Silver Line: That's basically an underground bus service designed to get people to Logan International Airport. (General Edward L. Logan was a South Bostonian who became a hero of World War I and then the commander of the Massachusetts National Guard. Boston kept the name on their airport in spite of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, leaving New York to name an airport after that great Bostonian.) Chances are, you won't be using the Blue Line at all on your trip, and the Orange Line might not be used, either.
It's important to remember that Boston doesn't have an "Uptown" and "Downtown" like Manhattan, or a "North Side," "East Side," "South Side" or "West Side" like many other cities. It does have a North End and a South End (which should not be confused with the separate neighborhood of South Boston); and it has an East Boston, although the West End was mostly torn down in the late 1950s to make way for the sprawling complex of the new Massachusetts General Hospital.
Note also that Boston doesn't have a "centerpoint," where all the street addresses start at 1 and move out in 100-segments for each block. It doesn't even remotely have a north-south, east-west street grid like New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, and so on.
So for subway directions, remember this: Any train heading toward Downtown Crossing (where the Red and Orange Lines intersect), Park Street (Red and Green Lines), State Street (Blue and Orange Lines) or Government Center (Blue and Green Lines), is "Inbound." Any train going away from those 4 downtown stations is "Outbound." This led to a joke that certain Red Sox pitchers who give up a lot of home runs have "been taken downtown more than the Inbound Red Line."
Red Line train, crossing the Charles River
via the Longfellow Bridge
South Station is on the Red Line. If you're coming by Amtrak or Greyhound, and are up only for one game and are going directly to Fenway, take the Red Line to Park Street – known locally as "Change at Park Street Under" (or "Change at Pahk Street Undah" in the local dialect) – and then take the Green Line, either the B (terminating at Boston College and having that on its marquee), C (Cleveland Circle) or D (Riverside) train. Do not take the E (Huntington Avenue), because it breaks off before reaching Kenmore Square.
Green Line D Train at Pahk Street Undah
If you're starting your BC voyage from your hotel, take any train that gets you to a transfer point to a Green Line B Train, which terminates at BC. The C, D and E Trains don't. There is no official A train, although I suppose you could call the little spur of the Green Line that crosses the Charles into Cambridge, terminating at Lechmere, the A.
Since 2015, Boston's electric companies have been unified under a company called Eversource Energy. The city's demographics have long fascinated outsiders. In the 2010 Census, for the 1st time, Boston no longer had a majority that was non-Hispanic white: 46 percent. The city has become 23 percent black, 22 percent Hispanic, and 9 percent Asian.
Boston has a reputation as the most Irish city in America, but this has dropped to 16 percent of the population descended from the Emerald Isle, now centered mainly on South Boston, a.k.a. Southie, and neighboring Dorchester.
The Italian presence in the area settled in the North End and across the Charles River in East Boston, a.k.a. Eastie. Nearby Brockton also has a notable Italian population, which produced New England's greatest boxer, 1950s Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano.
Roxbury, the South End and Mattapan are the city's largest black neighborhoods, and, in the weeks before Newark and Detroit did, had a riot in the Summer of 1967. Jamaica Plain, adjacent to the South End, has become the city's largest Hispanic neighborhood.
Roxbury, the South End and Mattapan are the city's largest black neighborhoods, and, in the weeks before Newark and Detroit did, had a riot in the Summer of 1967. Jamaica Plain, adjacent to the South End, has become the city's largest Hispanic neighborhood.
Massachusetts was the birthplace not only of the American Revolution, but America's 1st post-independence insurrection: Shays' Rebellion. Daniel Shays was a farmer near Northampton, who had fought for the Continental Army at Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and Saratoga. But in 1786, the federal government, then under the Articles of Confederation, was deeply in debt. It was then that men who had fought against taxation without representation 10 years earlier found out what taxation with representation was like.
So Shays led 4,000 men to march on the Springfield Armory. The federal government couldn't stop them. The Massachusetts State Militia could, and did. Shays' Rebellion is often considered a tipping point for the formation of the Convention that wrote the much stronger Constitution of the United States the following year.
Massachusetts, and especially Boston, have often been at the forefront of civil rights. Many of the leaders of the pre-Civil War abolitionist movement were based in and around Boston. The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, an all-black unit, was collectively decorated for its heroism fighting on Confederate soil during the Civil War. It was this legacy that led Martin Luther King to Boston University to seek his Ph.D.
This extended to sports. In 1950, the Boston Braves became only the 4th team to integrate, with Sam Jethroe. In 1958, Willie O'Ree was called up to the Bruins, becoming the 1st black player in the NHL. In 1962, Earl Wilson of the Red Sox became the 1st black pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the American League.
In 1966, the Celtics named Bill Russell, while still a player, the 1st black head coach in major league sports. (Unless you count the original NFL of 1920, with Fritz Pollard on the Akron Pros, as "major league.") And the Red Sox embraced diversity enough to have teams of whites, blacks and Hispanics to win the American League Pennant in 1967, 1975 and 1986; and added Asians to the mix to win the World Series in 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018.
But there's another side to the coin: New England, and in particular Boston, have been the site of some terrible bigotry. Even before the Irish Potato Famine of the late 1840s turned Boston into the most Irish city outside of the British Isles, there were anti-Catholic riots in Charlestown in 1829 and 1834. And there was a pro-slavery riot in Boston in 1835.
Police brutality in the Roxbury neighborhood made Boston one of the cities stricken by race riots in the Summer of 1967. After Dr. King was killed in 1968, there was a concern that James Brown's concert at the Boston Garden the next night might result in a riot. So the Mayor -- ironically, named Kevin White -- agreed to let the concert be broadcast for free on WGBH-Channel 2, the city's public (and soon PBS) station, and there was no trouble.
But in 1974, after court-ordered desegregation led to white students being bused to previously all-black schools, and black students being bused to previously all-white schools, the largely Irish residents of South Boston threw rocks at the bus taking the black students to South Boston High, and the black students were routinely beaten up in the school's hall. Senator Ted Kennedy went there, hoping to trade on his family's good name, to calm them down. It did him no good: A woman yelled out, "You're a disgrace to the Irish!" Ted had too much class to yell back, "You're a disgrace to the Americans!"
In 1976, a black lawyer, Ted Landsmark, was accosted by white men at City Hall in Boston, and one of them appeared to be attacking him with an American flag. The photograph became known as "The Soiling of Old Glory." The anger of this seemed to have finally shamed the bigots into calming down and letting things happen. Even so, there were riots at the Great Brook Valley housing project in Worcester in 1979, and in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1984.
And in sports? In 1945, before he was told by the Brooklyn Dodgers that they were scouting him, Jackie Robinson was 1 of 3 Negro League players to get a tryout with the Red Sox, along with Jethroe and Marvin Williams. They were observed on the Fenway field by scouts, and told they would be contacted. They never were. Legend had it that someone at Fenway yelled, "Get that (N-word) off the field!" at one of the players. Unlike Robinson and Jethroe, Williams never played in the white majors, although he did play in the white minors.
It took until 1959 for the Red Sox to integrate, the last MLB team to do so, with Elijah "Pumpsie" Green. If you've been paying attention, you've noticed that Boston's hockey team had a black player before its baseball team did.
All through the 1960s, the Celtics were winning NBA Championships, while the Bruins were struggling just to make the Playoffs. But the Bruins sold out every home game, while the Boston Garden would be half-empty for Celtic games until the Playoffs. It was because the Bruins, then being all-Canadian, were all-white; while the Celtics were led by black men like Russell, Sam Jones and K.C. Jones (no relation). Black fans used to sit in the cheapest seats in the house, the "second balcony," which became known as "(N-word) Heaven." (In the early 1980s, these seats were ripped out and replaced with skyboxes.)
After his retirement, Russell said Boston was a racist city. He has been much honored by the city since, but he still lives in Seattle, where he coached after leaving Boston.
In 1975, the Red Sox had 2 exciting rookies. Fred Lynn was white. Jim Rice was black. The fans seemed to love Lynn, but not Rice. In 1985, Tommy Harper was fired as coach, in a racist incident, but later rehired him. Former Minnesota Twins star Torii Hunter reported that, during his career (1997-2015), he heard the N-word shouted at Fenway so many times, he had a no-trade-to-the-Red-Sox clause put into his contract.
Boston College was founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a.k.a. the Jesuits. and outgrew its surroundings in Boston's then highly Irish (now mostly black) South End, and built Gasson Hall as the centerpiece of its Chestnut Hill campus, a.k.a. "The Heights," in 1913.
The school became coed in 1970 -- a detail apparently missed by the writers of the 1980s ABC sitcom Growing Pains, who had the main characters, Dr. Jason (Alan Thicke) and Maggie Seaver (Joanna Kerns), both being BC graduates, but their eldest son, Mike (Kirk Cameron), born in 1970, and there was no mention of Mike being born while they were still students there.
Aside from its football players, whom I'll get to in "Team History Displays," their prominent athletes include:
* Basketball: Bruce Pearl, Class of 19'82 (later head coach at Auburn and Tennessee); and Reggie Jackson, Class of 20'11 (no relation to the baseball star of that name).
* Hockey, with a surprising number of them having played for the Devils and Rangers: Joe Mullen '78, Kevin Stevens '87, Brian Leetch '90, Bill Guerin '91, Brian Gionta '97, Mike Mottau '00, Brooks Orpik '01, Stephen Gionta '06, Brian Boyle '07, Cory Schneider '07 and Chris Kreider '12.
* Soccer: Charlie Davies '07 and Alejandro Bedoya '08.
* Sports Journalism: Bob Ryan '68, Mike Lupica '74, and Lesley Visser '75.
Noted BC graduates in other fields include:
* Arts and Entertainment: Actor Leonard Nimoy '52 (even though the future Mr. Spock was Jewish, not Catholic), author George V. Higgins '61, journalist Julianne Malveaux '74, screenwriter Tom McCarthy '88, talk show host Clinton Kelly '91, actor Chris O'Donnell '92, journalist Alina Cho '93, actress Amy Poehler '93, talk show host Elisabeth Hasselbeck '99 (wife of quarterback Tim).
"Honey Fitz" was also a Mayor of Boston, and grandfather of President John F. Kennedy. Drinan remains the only Catholic priest ever elected to Congress, and was a member of the House Judiciary Committee that drew up Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon in 1974.
Also: U.S. Senators from Massachusetts Ed Markey '68 and Scott Brown '85. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for President and later U.S. Secretary of State, got his law degree from BC, but his undergraduate degree from Yale. (The other way around would seem to make more sense.) Warren Rudman
Also: Governors of Massachusetts Charles F. Hurley 1913, Maurice Tobin '22, Edward J. King '48, Paul Cellucci '70. Also Thomas P. Salmon '54, a Governor of Vermont; Joseph Brennan '58, a Governor of Maine; Dan Malloy '77, current Governor of Connecticut. Tobin was also a Mayor of Boston and a U.S. Secretary of Labor.
Also: Kevin White '55, Mayor of Boston from 1968 to 1983; William Bulger '61, former President of the Massachusetts State Senate and brother of New England crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger; John McLaughlin '61, speechwriter for Nixon and host of The McLaughlin Group from 1982 until his death in 2016 Mike Rawlings '76, a Mayor of Dallas; R.T. Rybak '78, a Mayor of Minneapolis; Marty Walsh '89, the current Mayor of Boston; and Luke Russert '08, political commentator like his father Tim. And, while he wasn't a politician in the traditional sense, he was certainly involved in politics: Richard Cushing 1917, longtime Archbishop of Boston.
Going In. The Green Line's B Train extends to Boston College, with the terminal being in Newton, outside the City of Boston. To get to Alumni Stadium, you cross over Commonwealth Avenue, and walk 10 minutes south on St. Thomas More Road, into Chestnut Hill. If you drive in, the Beacon Street Garage is attached to the East Stand, but parking is $40. So don't drive in.
The official address is 2604 Beacon Street, and, unlike most of the campus which is in Chestnut Hill, is (barely) within the city limits of Boston. But don't let that fool you: That does not mean that it's 26 blocks from Downtown Crossing. Boston doesn't use what I call the century block system, where one block from the starting point is 100 (Name of) Street, the next block over is 200, and so on. Alumni Stadium is 6 miles from downtown. Take the subway.
Stokes Hall, about 2 blocks west of Alumni Stadium, was the site of Alumni Field, where BC played from 1915 until 1956. It seated 25,000, but that was too small once they got good, and they played home games at Fenway Park and Braves Field.
A new home, Alumni Stadium, opened in 1957, with 26,000 seats, which was about all they needed at the time. It was expanded to 32,000 in 1971, but even the Flutie years didn't make them immediately expand it. I guess the building of the new Rutgers Stadium, then at 41,500, making Alumni Stadium the smallest in the Big East, shamed them, because in 1995, it had 44,500, which is has today. The field is aligned north-to-south, and has had artificial turf since 1970.
BC's basketball team has won 4 regular-season conference championships and 3 conference tournaments, but has never gotten to the Final Four, reaching the Elite Eight 3 times, most recently in 1994. Their hockey team, which also uses Conte Forum, has been far more successful, reaching 25 Frozen Fours and winning 5 National Championships: 1949, 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Across the street is a library named for Conte's friend and fellow Congressman from Massachusetts, Cambridge native and 1977-86 House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill. Beacon Street at Chestnut Hill Drive. Green Line B train to Boston College.
BC Dining operates concessions for all home games for the BC Eagles Football, Hockey, and Basketball teams. During an Eagles' home football game there are over 18 stands and carts in operation. Our fare features traditional stadium choices such as hot dogs, ice cream, popcorn, candy, and nonalcoholic beverages. Tickets to future Eagles' home games are available on line through the BC Athletics department.
In addition, we also serve the luxury boxes for both Alumni Stadium and Conte Forum. Luxury box holders can select from such items as lobster rolls, Carolina pulled pork, Italian subs, Buffalo wings, and more. Luxury box holders can place pre-game orders with our online ordering service.
But considering what a great food city Boston is, you're probably better off eating before and after the game.Team History Displays. BC has been playing football since 1893, so this year marks their 125th Anniversary. They are credited with 1 National Championship, in the 1940 season, in which they went 11-0 and won the 1941 Sugar Bowl under coach Frank Leahy, who having played there under Knute Rockne, was immediately snapped up by Notre Dame. That ended up not hurting BC much, as they continued to have a good team, and nearly won another National Championship in 1942.
They were going to play their arch-rivals at the time, Holy Cross, in Worcester on Thanksgiving Day, and then have a big celebration at the Cocoanut Grove downtown that night. But they got clobbered 55-12, and canceled the party. Good thing they did: The Cocoanut Grove was hit by a fire that night, and nearly 500 people were killed, including noted Western movie actor Buck Jones, who heroically rescued people and went back in to see if he could save anyone else.
Had there been a Big East Conference in 1983 and 1984, when Doug Flutie, all 5 feet, 9 3/4 inches of him, was the Eagles' quarterback, they likely would have been in it and won it. But there wasn't, and BC has never actually won a league title. Since joining the ACC, they have won at least a share of the Atlantic Division in 2005, 2007 and 2008, and been selected for the ACC Championship Game in 2007 and 2008, but they lost to Virginia Tech both times.
Despite the lack of a conference until the formation of the Big East in 1991, the Eagles are not empty-handed when it comes to honors. The Lambert Trophy, given annually to the best college football team in "the East," has been awarded to them 5 times: 1940, 1942, 1983, 1984 and 2004.
BC has won only 2 major bowls, the 1941 Sugar Bowl and the 1985 Cotton Bowl, Doug Flutie's last college game. They've also lost the 1940 Cotton Bowl and the 1943 Orange Bowl.
They've won several minor bowls, some of them with the modern corporate names rather than the local item for which the host area was known for: The 1986 Hall of Fame Bowl, the 1994 Carquest Bowl (1993 season), the 1994 and 2000 Aloha Bowl, the 2001 Music City Bowl, the 2002 Motor City Bowl, the 2003 San Francisco Bowl, the 2004 Continental Tire Bowl, the 2005 MPC Computers Bowl, the 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl, the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl and the 2016 Quick Lane Bowl.
They have 2 retired numbers. As you might guess, one is the Flutie's Number 22, after he won the Heisman Trophy in 1984. He probably would've won it it even if they'd lost that rainy Day-After-Thanksgiving thriller against Miami in the Orange Bowl that still gets talked about as one of the most exciting games ever.
Ruth is not 1 of the 6 BC players in the College Football Hall of Fame. Flutie is. The other 5 were members of the 1940 National Champions: Quarterback Charlie O'Rourke, end Gene Goodreault, center Chet Gladchuk (who helped the Giants reach the 1944 and '46 NFL Championship Games), guard George Kerr, and running back Mike Holovak, who stayed through 1942. A Sports Illustrated profile on Mike Ruth mentioned that he was looking into becoming a priest, but he didn't follow through on it. Kerr did, and became a mentor to inner-city youth until his death in 1983.
Also honored with election to the Hall are coaches Leahy (1939-40), Frank Cavanaugh (1919-26) and Gil Dobie (1936-38). Holovak also served as BC head coach (1951-59), as did Tom Coughlin (1991-93, before taking the Giants to 2 Super Bowl wins). But Jack Bicknell (1981-90), coach of the Flutie era teams, is not yet in the Hall.
Also BC players: 1950s Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer Art Donovan, 1980s Buffalo Bills nose tackle Fred Smerlas, Giants' Super Bowl XXV winner Steve DeOssie, 1990s Jets quarterback Glenn Foley (who, in a 1992 game, famously beat Rutgers and infamously told the media, "The only bowl Rutgers is going to is the one I just got off of," and was right), 1990s Green Bay Packers Super Bowl winner Mark Chmura, 1990s Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Mike Mamula, Denver Broncos Super Bowl winners Bill Romanowski and Tom Nalen, quarterbacking brothers Matt and Tim Hasselbeck, New England Patriots' Super Bowl-winning offensive lineman Damien Woody, Giants' Super Bowl-winners Chris Snee and Mathias Kiwanuka, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, and Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly. And Giants co-owner John Mara '76.
There is no display for any of these titles and players in the fan-viewable areas of Alumni Stadium.
BC has several rivals, some making more sense than others. Their rivalry with the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester is separated by just 40 miles of the Mass Pike (or, in the old days, U.S. Route 20, or before that, the Albany Post Road). They first played in 1896, and it was played in Boston, at either Fenway or Braves Field, every year from 1916 to 1931, and again from 1936 to 1956, including the famous 1942 upset. It was played in Foxboro in 1971 and 1983.
But by that 1983 game, BC was on the rise, and HC was a Division I-AA (now FCS) school. The rivalry was stopped in 1986. This year's game at Alumni Stadium was the 1st since then, and BC's 62-14 win shows that they're far stronger. BC leads the series 49-31-3, including the last 9 and 18 of the last 20. There was never a trophy for the game's winner.
Every hockey season since 1952-53, BC, Boston University, Harvard and Northeastern University have competed in the Beanpot Tournament, held first at the Boston Garden and then, from 1996 onward, at that building's replacement, now named the TD Garden. These teams are now mainly only rivals in hockey, not in other sports. (Neither BU nor Northeastern plays football anymore.) The tournament has been won by BU 30 times, BC 20, Harvard 11 and Northeastern 5.
BC hockey coach Jerry York and 2 of his players,
with the Beanpot trophy
A rivalry that would seem to make no sense is between BC and Clemson. However, each team's 1st bowl appearance was against the other, the 1940 Cotton Bowl in Dallas, which Clemson won 6-3. When BC joined the ACC in 2005, their 1st 3 games against Clemson turned out to be classics. So in 2008, the Boston College Gridiron Club created the O'Rourke-McFadden Trophy, to honor players from that 1940 Cotton Bowl: BC's Charlie O'Rourke and Clemson's Banks McFadden. Clemson leads the all-time series between the teams, 13-9-2.
The game's MVP, depending on whether he plays for BC or Clemson,
gets one of those replica 1940 helmets.
Another one that doesn't make sense geographically is BC's rivalry with Notre Dame. The schools are linked by ND's 1941 poaching of coach Frank Leahy, who went on to win National Championships that BC fans believe their school should have won.
They played each other for the 1st time in 1975, at the 61,000-seat Patriots' home, then named Schaefer Stadium. It had to be moved there because Boston is America's most Catholic city, and there have been times when Notre Dame -- not the Patriots, not BC, not Boston University, not Harvard -- has been the most popular football team in the city. In fact, the teams didn't play each other on the BC campus until 1994. Someone called it "The Holy War," because they were the only 2 Catholic schools then playing Division I-A (now FBS) football. Notre Dame won 17-3.
ND won the 1st 4 meetings, including beating Flutie in the 1983 Liberty Bowl. But on November 20, 1993, fresh off their "Game of the Century" with Number 1-ranked Florida State and rising from Number 2 to Number 1 themselves, ND came back from a 38-17 deficit with 11:13 to play, only to be stunned by BC on a last-play field goal by David Gordon, 41-39. It ruined the Fighting Irish's National Championship dreams, and they've only gotten close once since.
The teams play for the Frank Leahy Memorial Bowl and the Ireland Trophy, but they don't play every year. ND won last year, and also in 2015 when they played each other at Fenway Park, BC's 1st game there since the 1950s. ND leads 15-9. They won't play each other this year, but they will in South Bend in 2019 and 2022, and in Chestnut Hill in 2025. (UPDATE: Through the 2022 season, ND lead 17-9.)
BC players with the Ireland Trophy, left, and the Leahy Bowl, right.
Stuff. There are souvenir stands at Alumni Stadium, but no big team store, which is usually the case at college stadiums as opposed to major league stadiums. A better choice may be the Boston College Bookstore, at 140 Commonwealth Avenue, next to the Chestnut Hill Post Office.
The best book about BC football seems to be The Boston College Football Vault, published by Reid Oslin in 2008. Flutie, Doug's memoir, was published in 1997, before his NFL comeback with the Buffalo Bills. In 2003, Wally Carew wrote A Farewell to Glory: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Football Rivalry: Boston College vs. Holy Cross.
During the Game. This is not a Red Sox game. This is not a Bruins game. This is not a Celtics game. This is not a Patriots game. This isn't even a Beanpot game. Don't make a nuisance of yourself, and no one will care that you're from the New York Tri-State Area, or about what teams you like.
BC's teams have been called the Eagles since 1920, but after several failed attempts at a live eagle mascot, a costumed Baldwin the Eagle ("Bald" as in "bald eagle," and "win") appeared in 1967. Like many college mascots, he wears a current jersey of the football team with the Number 00.
The Boston College Marching Band, a.k.a. the Screaming Eagles Marching Band, plays the National Anthem, and the fight song, "For Boston." In the 1980s, to reflect the relatively recent development of women being admitted, certain lines were changed: "For here, men are men" became "For here, all are one"; and "Shall thy sons be found" became "Shall thy heirs be found."
Traditionally, they also play "Mars, Bringer of War," from "The Planets" by Gustav Holst" and "O Fortuna," from "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff. But they also play classic rock like "Build Me Up Buttercup" by the Foundations, "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne, and "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. And Biz Markie's rap classic "Just a Friend." They also play recent stuff, like Coldplay's "Viva la Vida," Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory," and even Psy's "Gangnam Style."
And, like just about everybody in Boston, they play "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys, and, seemingly unaware that Neil Diamond is from Brooklyn, they play "Sweet Caroline." But not, it appears, "Dirty Water" by the Standells.
After the Game. Since Boston College is not in the City of Boston, and this is not a Red Sox game or a Bruins game, you (and, if you drove in, your car) should be safe. The usual Boston advice of, "Win or lose, get out of the ballpark and back to your hotel (or to South Station if you came up just for the day) as quickly and as quietly as possible" will not apply. Although, just to be on the safe side, if you are a Yankee Fan, I would advise not going to a BC football game on a weekend when the Yankees are playing the Red Sox -- home or away.
A Mexican restaurant called El Pelon Taqueria is across the tracks from the Boston College T station. Other than that, there isn't much to eat around the BC campus. You're better off getting on the T and heading back downtown -- or, if you're already familiar with the city, to a place in another neighborhood that you know.
The following establishments were mentioned as being Yankee-friendly, and thus New York-friendly, in a Boston Globe profile during the 2009 World Series: Champions, at the Marriott Copley Place hotel at 110 Huntington Avenue (Green Line to Copley); The Sports Grille, at 132 Canal Street (across from North Station and the Garden, Green Line to North Station); and, right across from Fenway itself, Game On! at 82 Lansdowne Street.
The local Giants fan club meets at The Greatest Bar, 262 Friend Street off Canal, a block from the Garden. The Green Briar Pub, at 304 Washington Street in the Brighton section of town, is one place that has been suggested as the local home of Jets fans. (Green Line to Kenmore, then switch to Number 57 bus toward Watertown Yard, get off at Washington Street at Waldo Terrace.) Another is M.J. O'Connor's, at 27 Columbus Avenue in the Back Bay. (Green Line to Arlington.)
If your visit to Boston is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, there are 2 great area bars at which you could watch your favorite club. The Phoenix Landing in Cambridge is the original Boston-area footie pub, and is still the best. Red Line to Central. The Banshee Pub in Dorchester (which, unlike Cambridge, actually is in the City of Boston) is much more working-class, but if you think you're "hard enough," "come and have a go." (No, I'm not suggesting that anyone will try to fight you: As long as you show respect, you will have that respect returned.) Red Line to JFK/UMass.
On February 3, 2017, Thrillist made a list ranking the 30 NFL cities (New York and Los Angeles each having 2 teams), and Boston came in 8th, in the top 1/3rd. They said:
Have you ever walked through the Public Garden onto the cobblestone streets of Beacon Hill on a crisp fall day, and found a cannoli from Mike's that you didn't even realize you'd purchased hours before, and thought that you were in the greatest city in the world; the Hub, if you will, of the universe?
And then did you get hit in the head by a Sam Adams bottle thrown by a 320lb liquored-up dude wearing a Marchand jersey over a Welker jersey over a Foulke jersey over a Scalabrine jersey, who'd just gotten so fired up rattling off Deflategate conspiracy theories that he missed the last Red Line train to the Quincy Adams station, and thought that you might not care if this city burned to the ground? Then congratulations, you truly understand the ups and downs of the Boston experience.
And then did you get hit in the head by a Sam Adams bottle thrown by a 320lb liquored-up dude wearing a Marchand jersey over a Welker jersey over a Foulke jersey over a Scalabrine jersey, who'd just gotten so fired up rattling off Deflategate conspiracy theories that he missed the last Red Line train to the Quincy Adams station, and thought that you might not care if this city burned to the ground? Then congratulations, you truly understand the ups and downs of the Boston experience.
UPDATE: On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's
25 Most Fun Cities," and Boston
came in 6th.
* Fenway Park. Fenway is one of the most historic sports sites in America. Although, when there's a Sox home game going on, as Alec Guinness put it in Star Wars, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."
In addition to the Red Sox, it was home to the Boston Braves' home games in the 1914 World Series (as they'd abandoned the antiquated South End Grounds and Braves Field wasn't ready yet), and football games were played there by Boston College, Boston University, and the Boston Redskins before they moved to Washington in 1937. It's hosted college hockey and, on New Year's Day 2010, the NHL Winter Classic, with the Bruins beating the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in overtime.
Tours are available year-round, and depart at the top of every hour from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Admission is $17 for the regular tour, and $25 for the Premium Tour that includes allowing children to take pictures with their mascot, Wally the Green Monster. You can also go on the warning track (but not the actual field), see the left field Wall -- the original Green Monster -- up close, and even touch it, and they'll take you to the seats on top of it, where they used to have netting to protect the buildings across the street from being hit by home run balls. That netting, which was the only thing that caught Bucky Dent's October 2, 1978 home run, is now gone. (I wonder where the ball is today. Hopefully, in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.)
I took the regular tour in 2002, before the Sox ended The Curse of the Bambino, kept my Yankee fandom to myself, and enjoyed it a lot. A tip: Stick a dollar bill in one of the Jimmy Fund boxes, as it's a charity raising money to fight pediatric cancer, with which the Red Sox have been involved since 1953 (and the Boston Braves before that since 1948).
4 Yawkey Way -- the address used to be 24 Jersey Street, and a Number 24 can still be seen on the big oak door that used to be the park's main entrance. Green Line B, C or D train to Kenmore Station. (Don't take the E, and, for some weird reason, there is no A.) When you come out of the station, hang a left onto Brookline Avenue, cross over the Mass Pike, and then the 2nd left onto Yawkey Way. (The 1st left is Ted Williams Way, formerly Lansdowne Street, which is fronted by the Monster, although you'll never recognize it from that angle. The field is below street level, so the Wall won't look its famous 37 feet, 2 inches of height.)
* Site of the Huntington Avenue Grounds. The only other home the Boston Red Sox have ever known, from their founding in 1901 to 1911, was this location in Boston's South End. When the Sox won the 1st World Series in 1903, Games 1, 2, 3 and 8 were played here, meaning it both opened and was clinched here.
It seated 11,500, and had faraway fences, typical of the ballparks of the dawn of the 20th Century. So when the World Series had overflow crowds, it was no big deal to plant stakes in the outfield, and tie ropes to them, and let fans stand behind the rope, as seen in this photo, the most familiar photo of the 1903 World Series.
The ballpark was torn down shortly after Fenway Park opened in 1912. In 1954, Northeastern University opened the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Physical Education Center on the site. Solomon Court is an 1,800-seat gym that hosts basketball and volleyball. The Solomon Indoor Track hosts track & field meets. The adjacent Barletta Natatorium hosts NU's swim meets.
Since 1993, a statue of Cy Young, who pitched for the Sox in their 1903 and 1904 World Championship seasons, and ended his career with the 1911 Braves, has stood outdoors, at roughly the spot where the pitcher's mound was. 360 Huntington Avenue at Forsyth Street, with a side street named World Series Way. Green Line E train to Northeastern.
In 1871, the 1st such park was built there, and was home to the Boston Red Stockings of the 1st professional baseball league, the National Association. This team featured half the members of the 1st openly professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings (hence the name). They also had a young pitcher named Al Spalding, who would later co-found the team now known as the Chicago Cubs and the sporting-goods empire that still bears his name.
That Boston Red Stockings team won Pennants in 1872, '73, '74 and '75, and its strength (its domination, really) was one of the reasons the NA collapsed.
When the National League was founded in 1876, the Red Stockings were a charter member. They won Pennants in 1877 and '78, and by the time they won the 1883 Pennant, they were popularly known as the "Boston Beaneaters." No, I'm not making that name up. Their success gave them the money they needed to build a new park on the site in 1888, they won Pennants in 1891, '92 and '93.
But on May 15, 1894, in a game against the NL version of the Baltimore Orioles, a fight broke out, and no one noticed that some kids had started a fire in the right-field seats. (Or maybe it was the ashes of a grown man's cigar. Both have been suggested, and it's likely that nobody knew for sure.) It became known as the Great Roxbury Fire, and the story goes that the park and 117 (or 170, or 200) buildings burned to the ground, and 1,900 people were left homeless – but nobody died. (I don't buy that last part at all.)
A new park was hastily built on the site, while the Beaneaters temporarily played at the home of the city's team in the 1890 Players' League. This last South End Grounds hosted the Braves' 1897 and '98 Pennant winners, and lasted until 1914, when, with the team now called the Braves (owner James Gaffney had been a "Brave," or officer, in New York’s Tammany Hall political organization), decided it was too small for the crowds the team was now attracting.
So he moved the team to Fenway, and played their 1914 World Series games there, and opened Braves Field the next season. Overall, 13 Pennants were won here, in a 44-year span -- as many as the Red Sox have won at Huntington Avenue Grounds and Fenway Park combined in 103 seasons.
Parking for Northeastern University is now on the site -- and save your Joni Mitchell jokes. Columbus Avenue at Hammond Street. Orange Line to Ruggles.
* Third Base Saloon. There's some question as to what was the first "sports bar": St. Louis Brown Stockings (the team now known as the Cardinals) owner Chris von der Ahe's place on the grounds of Sportsman's Park, or Michael T. McGreevy's establishment that opened just outside the South End Grounds, both in the 1880s.
"I call it Third Base, because it's the last place you go before home," McGreevy would tell people, adding, "Enough said." McGreevy used that phrase, usually accompanied by contributing tobacco to a spittoon or the ground, to settle any and all arguments. Not "Nuf Ced" become his nickname, but he had it (spelled that way) laid in mosaic tile on the bar's floor.
Third Base Saloon became the headquarters of the Royal Rooters, a Beaneaters' booster club, founded during the Pennant-winning season of 1897. In 1901, when the American League and the team that became the Red Sox was formed, Beaneaters founder-owner Arthur Soden made one of the dumbest mistakes in sports history: Despite competition practically next-door to his team, he raised ticket prices.
This infuriated the working-class Irish fan base of the NL club, and they immediately accepted Nuf Ced's suggestion of switching to the AL outfit. (I wonder if they built their park near Nuf Ced's place for just that reason, to get his customers?)
Nuf Ced and the Rooters stayed with the Sox after their 1912 move to Fenway, until 1920 when Prohibition closed him down. He died in 1930, and to this day, no Boston baseball team has ever won a World Series without him being present at all home games. (Not legitimately, anyway.)
A park with a bike trail is now on the site, so the address, 940 Columbus Avenue, is no longer in use. The approximate site is the east corner of the X intersection of Columbus Avenue and Melnea Cass Blvd. (Roxbury and the South End are now mostly black, and Cass was a local activist, essentially Boston's answer to Jane Addams, as well as a suffragette and a union leader.) As with the site of South End Grounds, take the Orange Line to Ruggles.
A tribute bar, named McGreevy's Boston, was founded by Dropkick Murphys member Ken Casey, with "an exact replica of McGreevy's original barroom." A sign proclaims that the bar is "1200 Steps to Fenway Park." 911 Boylston Street. Green Line B, C or D train to Hynes-Convention Center.
* Site of Congress Street Grounds. Built in 1890, this was the home of the Boston Reds, who won the only Pennant of the Players' League that year, and moved to the American Association in 1891 and won that league's Pennant. Both leagues folded. Does that make the Reds the original "cursed" baseball team in Boston?
The ballpark still stood in 1894, so when the South End Grounds burned down, the Beaneaters moved in, playing 26 "home" games there before the South End Grounds reopened on July 20. One of those games featured the 1st time a player hit 4 home runs in a major league game. It was May 30, 1894, the player was Beaneaters 2nd baseman Bobby Lowe, and all 4 were down the left field line, where the fence was very close. It was a Decoration Day (Memorial Day) doubleheader, and the Beaneaters swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, the teams scoring a combined 54 runs in one day. (Lowe hit only 71 home runs in his career, counting those 4. He was better known for his fielding: When he retired in 1907, he had the highest fielding percentage for his position in baseball history.)
It's not clear when the ballpark was demolished. Office buildings now occupy the site, and a scene for The Departed was filmed in an alley there. A bar named simply "Drink" is at 348 Congress Street, between Farnsworth Street and Thomson Place, across the Fort Point Channel from downtown. A 10-minute walk from South Station, past the Boston Tea Party Ship & Museum and the Boston Children's Museum.
* Matthews Arena. Opened on April 16, 1910 as the Boston Arena, this is the oldest currently-used multi-purpose athletic building in use in the world. Northeastern still uses it, while BC, BU, Harvard, MIT and Tufts all once played home games here.
The Celtics played the occasional home game here from 1946 to 1955, on occasions when there was a scheduling conflict with the Garden. In 1985, the Celtics played an alumni game here, with the opposing teams coached by Red Auerbach (his players wearing the white home jerseys) and Bill Russell (who didn't play, his players wearing the road green).
A gift from NU alumnus George J. Matthews led the school to rename the arena for him. In spite of its age, the building is fronted by a modern archway. 238 St. Botolph Street at Massachusetts Avenue. Green Line E train to Symphony. Symphony Hall, Boston's answer to Carnegie Hall, is a block away at Massachusetts and Huntington Avenues.
* Site of Braves Field/Nickerson Field. Although Boston University no longer has a football team, it still plays other sports at Nickerson Field, which opened in 1957. Its home stand is the surviving right field pavilion of Braves Field, where the Braves played from 1915 until they left town.
In return for being allowed to play their 1914 World Series games at Fenway, the Braves invited the Sox to play their Series games at Braves Field, which seated 40,000, a record until the 1st Yankee Stadium was built. The Sox played their home Series games there in 1915, '16 and '18. The Braves themselves only played 1 World Series here, in 1948, losing to the Indians, who had just beaten the Sox in a one-game Playoff for the AL Pennant at Fenway, negating the closest call there ever was for an all-Boston World Series.
The Braves' top farm team was the Triple-A version of the Milwaukee Brewers, and, with their team in decline after the '48 Pennant and the Sox having the far larger attendance, they gave up the ghost and moved just before the start of the 1953 season, and then in 1966 to Atlanta.
But they already had Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews, and, ironically, if they'd just hung on a little longer, they would have had Hank Aaron (they'd already integrated with Sam Jethroe in 1950, 9 years before the Sox finally caved in to the post-1865 world and added Pumpsie Green). They could have played the 1957 and '58 World Series in Boston instead of Milwaukee.
If this had happened, once Ted Williams retired in 1960, interest in the declining Sox would have faded to the point that Tom Yawkey, not a Bostonian, could have gotten frustrated, and the Red Sox could have moved with the Braves staying. If so, while the 1967, '75, '86, 2004, '07 and '13 World Series would have been played somewhere else, Boston would have gained the 1957, '58, '91, '92, '95, '96 and '99 World Series. Or, to put it another way: Since 1953, Boston would have appeared in 7 World Series instead of 6 -- although they would have won 1 instead of 3. (But who knows? Maybe having a ballpark other than Fenway, or Milwaukee County Stadium, or Fulton County Stadium, or Turner Field, changes a result or two.)
And, because of the proximity, there would still have been a big New York-Boston rivalry in baseball, but it would be Mets-Braves. (Of course, this would have meant the Yankees' main rivals would be the Baltimore Orioles -- who are, after all, the closest AL team to them, closer than the Red Sox.)
Instead, the Braves moved, and BU bought the grounds and converted it into Nickerson Field. The NFL's Boston Redskins (named for the Braves) played their 1st season, 1932, at Braves Field, before playing 1933-36 at Fenway and then moving to Washington.
The AFL's Boston Patriots played at Nickerson 1960-62, and then at Fenway 1963-68. A team called the Boston Bulldogs played the 1929 season at Braves Field. A team called, yes, the Boston Yanks played a few NFL games at Braves Field, but Fenway was its main home in its existence, 1944 to 1948. And the Boston Breakers of the USFL played there in 1983.
The field, sadly, is now artificial, so it can stand up to having several sports played on it. The former Braves Field ticket office still stands, converted into the BU Police headquarters. Agganis Arena is across the street from the BUPD HQ. Harry Agganis was one of several athletes of the era nicknamed The Golden Greek, a a BU quarterback who briefly played for the Red Sox, before getting sick and dying at age 24 in 1955. The extension of Pleasant Street that separates the stadium from the arena is now named Harry Agganis Way. Commonwealth Avenue at Babcock Street. Green Line B train at Pleasant Street.
* TD Garden and site of Boston Garden. The TD Garden, formerly the Shawmut Center, the FleetCenter and the TD Banknorth Garden (TD stands for Toronto-Dominion Bank), opened in 1995, atop Boston's North Station, as a replacement for the original Boston Garden, home to the NHL's Bruins starting in 1928 and the NBA's Celtics starting in 1946.
The Celtics finally ended their drought in 2008, winning their 17th NBA Championship, 22 years after winning their 16th in the old Garden. The Bruins ended a drought in 2011, winning their 6th Stanley Cup 39 years after winning their 5th. (However, they still haven't clinched at home since Bobby Orr's "Flying Goal" in 1970, 2 days after Willis Reed limped onto the court and gave the Knicks their 1st title).
The new Garden is also home to the Sports Museum of New England. The Democratic Convention was held there in 2004, nominating home-State Senator John Kerry for President.
Elvis also sang in Massachusetts at the Springfield Civic Center (now the MassMutual Center) on July 14 and 15, 1975; and July 29, 1976.
NCAA basketball tournament games have been held at the TD Garden, the Hartford Civic Center (now the XL Center), the Providence Civic Center (now the Dunkin Donuts Center), the Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center), and the University of Rhode Island's Keaney Gymnasium in Kingston. But no New England building has ever hosted a Final Four, and none ever will, due to attendance requirements, unless the Patriots put a dome on Gillette Stadium.
No school within the city limits of Boston has ever reached the Final Four. One Massachusetts school has: Holy Cross, in Worcester, winning the National Championship in 1947 with George Kaftan, another "Golden Greek," and reaching the Final Four again in '48 with Bob Cousy, a freshman in '47 and ineligible under the rules of the time. (Kaftan is also the last surviving member of the Knicks teams that reached the NBA Finals in 1951 and '52.)
The University of Massachusetts, with its main campus in Amherst, made the Final Four in 1996, under coach John Calipari, but had to vacate the appearance when later Knick Marcus Camby admitted he'd accepted money and gifts from agents. The University of Connecticut (UConn, in Storrs, closer to Boston than to Manhattan) has made it 5 times, winning it all in 1999, 2004, 2011 and 2014, and losing in the Semifinal in 2009.
The only New Hampshire school to make it is Dartmouth, in Hanover, in 1942 and 1944, losing in the Final both times. The only Rhode Island school to make it is Providence, in 1973 and 1987 (coached by future Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt and future preening schmo Rick Pitino, respectively). No school from Maine or Vermont has ever reached the Final Four.
* Garden Bars. Several noted drinking emporiums are near TD Garden. Perhaps the most famous, and once rated the best sports bar in America by Sports Illustrated, is The Fours, at 166 Canal Street. It's named for "the Miracle of the Fours": 1970 Stanley Cup Finals, Game 4, overtime (therefore the 4th period), winning goal scored by Number 4, Bobby Orr, while tripped up by Noel Picard, Number 4 of the St. Louis Blues, to clinch the Bruins' 4th Stanley Cup. (Some people like to point out that it was Orr's 4th goal of the Finals, but it was actually his 1st.)
As mentioned, the Sports Grille Boston is at 132 Canal Street. McGann's is at 197 Portland Street; while The Greatest Bar – a name, if not an apt description – is at 262 Friend Street.
* Harvard Stadium. The oldest continually-used football stadium in America – the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field is on the oldest continually-used football site – this stadium was built in 1903, and renovations (funded by those wealthy Harvard alums) have kept it in tip-top condition, if not turned it into a modern sports palace.
Today, the stadium is best known as the site of the 1968 Harvard-Yale game, where the two ancient rivals both came into the game undefeated, and a furious late comeback from 29-13 down led to the famous Harvard Crimson (school newspaper) headline "HARVARD BEATS YALE 29-29" and a tie for the Ivy League Championship. (Actor Tommy Lee Jones, then listed as "Tom Jones," started at guard for Harvard in that game. His roommate at Harvard was future Vice President Al Gore.) The Patriots played 1970, their 1st season in the NFL and their last season under the name "Boston Patriots," at Harvard Stadium.
Olympic Trials for track and field were held there in the 1920s. The stadium hosted 6 soccer games of the 1984 Olympics, even though the Games were held all the way across the country in Los Angeles. It's held concerts, including what turned out to be Janis Joplin's last on August 12, 1970, and Bob Marley in 1979. The Boston Bruins are working with the University and the NHL to have the 2024 Winter Classic played there, to celebrate their 100th Anniversary.
Although its mailing address is 79 North Harvard Street in "Allston, MA," and the University is in Cambridge, the stadium is actually on the south, Boston side of the Charles River. Harvard Street at Soldiers Field Road. Unfortunately, it's not that close to public transportation: Your best bet is to take the Red Line to Harvard Square, and walk across the Anderson Memorial Bridge.
A short walk down Soldiers Field Road, at 65 N. Harvard Street, is Jordan Field, the 4,000-seat home of the Harvard men's and women's soccer teams. It was also the home of the Boston Breakers -- not a descendant of the USFL team, but the local XI in the National Women's Soccer League. The Breakers previously (2009-11) played at Harvard Stadium. They announced they were folding this past January.
In 2013, the Revolution and the Red Bulls played a U.S. Open Cup game at Jordan Field, the only time the Revs have actually played a competitive match within the city limits of Boston. (The Revs won, 4-2.)
Boston College has won the NCAA Championship in hockey in 1949, 2001, 2008 and 2010; Boston University in 1971, 1972, 1978, 1995 and 2009; Harvard in 1989. Northeastern has never won it.
* Gillette Stadium. The NFL's New England Patriots and MLS' New England Revolution have played here since 2002. It also hosts some "home games" of the University of Massachusetts, even though UMass is 95 miles west in Amherst. The stadium was built next-door to the facility known as Schaefer Stadium, Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium, which was torn down and replaced by the Patriot Place mall.
The Pats played at the old stadium from 1971 to 2001 (their last game, a Playoff in January 2002, being the Snow Bowl or Tuck Game against the Oakland Raiders). It was home to the New England Tea Men of the North American Soccer League and, from 1996 to 2001, of MLS' Revs. Games of the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 Women's World Cup were played there.
Although its mailing address is 79 North Harvard Street in "Allston, MA," and the University is in Cambridge, the stadium is actually on the south, Boston side of the Charles River. Harvard Street at Soldiers Field Road. Unfortunately, it's not that close to public transportation: Your best bet is to take the Red Line to Harvard Square, and walk across the Anderson Memorial Bridge.
A short walk down Soldiers Field Road, at 65 N. Harvard Street, is Jordan Field, the 4,000-seat home of the Harvard men's and women's soccer teams. It was also the home of the Boston Breakers -- not a descendant of the USFL team, but the local XI in the National Women's Soccer League. The Breakers previously (2009-11) played at Harvard Stadium. They announced they were folding this past January.
Boston College has won the NCAA Championship in hockey in 1949, 2001, 2008 and 2010; Boston University in 1971, 1972, 1978, 1995 and 2009; Harvard in 1989. Northeastern has never won it.
The Pats played at the old stadium from 1971 to 2001 (their last game, a Playoff in January 2002, being the Snow Bowl or Tuck Game against the Oakland Raiders). It was home to the New England Tea Men of the North American Soccer League and, from 1996 to 2001, of MLS' Revs. Games of the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 Women's World Cup were played there.
The statue was there at least as far back as 2010, before his death in 2014. It has now been moved to Lusitano Stadium, 400 Winsor Street, in Ludlow, 81 miles west of downtown Boston and 8 miles northeast of downtown Springfield, in a heavily Portuguese area of Western Massachusetts.
The U.S. national soccer team played 10 games at Foxboro Stadium, winning 7. They've now played 12 at Gillette as well, winning 7. The most recent game was on September 8, 2015, a 4-1 loss to Brazil. Games of the 2003 Women's World Cup were played there. So was the 2016 NHL Winter Classic, a 5-1 Bruin loss to the Montreal Canadiens. It has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup. (UPDATE: FIFA accepted it as a venue.)
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60 Washington Street (Route 1) – or "1 Patriot Place," Foxboro. It's actually closer to downtown Providence, Rhode Island than to downtown Boston. Adjoining is the Patriot Place mall.
UPDATE: On
November 19, 2018, Moneywise compiled
a list of their Worst
College Football Stadiums, the bottom 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. UMass' Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium, built in 1965 and seating just 17,000, came in 17th.
* Suffolk Downs. Opened in 1935, this is New England's premier horse-racing track. On their last tour, on August 18, 1966, the Beatles played here. However, as horse racing has declined, so has the track, to the point that New England's best known race, the Massachusetts Handicap (or the Mass Cap) hasn't been run since 2008. Previously, it had been won by such legendary horses as Seabiscuit, Whirlaway, Riva Ridge and Cigar.
So, unless you really loved the film Seabiscuit or are a huge Beatlemaniac, I'd say that if you don't have the time to see everything on this list, this is the 1st item you should cross off. 525 McClellan Highway, at Waldemar Avenue, in the East Boston neighborhood, near Logan Airport. Blue Line to Suffolk Downs station.
George Wright, of the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings and the 1872-75 Boston Red Stockings dynasty that grew out of it, is buried at Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline. So is Francis Ouimet, the young Bostonian who shocked the world by beating British golf superstars Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at The Country Club in Brookline in 1913. So are Joseph and Rose Kennedy, parents of Jack, Bobby and Teddy. So is their daughter Rosemary. Heath Street & Tully Street. Green Line D Train to Chestnut Hill. (The Country Club, if you can get in, is at 191 Clyde Street, but is not really reachable by public transit.)
Legendary Boston Beaneaters catcher Mike "King" Kelly, often (but erroneously) called the 1st baseball superstar, is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, 355 Walk Hill Street in Mattapan. Also buried there is George Dixon, the 1st black (and the 1st Canadian-born) boxing champion in any weight class (bantamweight, then featherweight, off and on from 1890 to 1901). Eddie Collins, one of the best 2nd basemen ever and GM of the Red Sox when he died in 1951, is buried at Linwood Cemetery, at U.S. Route 20 and Linwood Avenue in Weston. Jack Chesbro, a native of Western Massachusetts and the 1st great Yankee pitcher, is buried at Howland Cemetery on Shelburne Falls Road in Conway, 120 miles to the west. None of these is easily reached without a car.
* Museum of Fine Arts. This is Boston's equivalent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I'm not saying you have to visit, but you should see one major Boston tourist site that doesn't involve sports, and it's a 10-minute walk from Fenway and a 5-minute walk from the sites of the Huntington Avenue and South End Grounds. 465 Huntington Avenue at Parker Street. Green Line E train to Museum of Fine Arts station.
* Museum of Science. Boston's answer to the Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the MoS has just completed a major renovation to update its exhibits. 1 Science Park, on the Monsignor O'Brien Highway, as part of a dam on the Charles River. Green Line to Science Park/West End.
* Freedom Trail. Boston's most familiar tourist trap is actually several, marked by a red brick sidewalk and red paint on streets. Historic sites include Boston's old and new City Halls, Massachusetts' old and new State Houses (old: Built 1711, with the State Street subway station somehow built into it; "new": 1798), the Old North Church (where Paul Revere saw the two lanterns hung) and the Old South Meeting House (where Samuel Adams started the Boston Tea Party and would be horrified at the right-wing bastards using the "Tea Party" name today), Revere's house, the Boston Tea Party Ship, the U.S.S. Constitution, and the Bunker Hill Monument.
The Trail starts at Boston Common, at Park and Tremont Streets. Green or Red Line to Park Street.
* Cambridge. Home to Harvard and MIT, it is not so much "Boston's Brooklyn" (despite the name, that wouldn't be Brookline, either, but would be South Boston or "Southie" and neighboring Dorchester) as "Boston's Greenwich Village," particularly since Harvard Square was the center of Boston's alternative music scene in the Fifties and Sixties, where performers like Joan Baez and the aforementioned Kingston Trio became stars. Later, it would be rock acts like Aerosmith and the J. Geils Band that would make their names in Cambridge.
The city is also home to the Longfellow House, home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And while Harvard Yard is worth a visit, it does not allow motorized vehicles, so, no, you cannot, as the old saying demonstrating the Boston accent goes, "Pahk yuh cah in Hahvuhd Yahd." Centered around Harvard Square at 1400 Massachusetts Avenue. Red Line to Harvard Square.
* Beaches. Despite being noticeably north of New York, Long Island and the Jersey Shore, there are beaches not just near but in Boston. L Street Beach and M Street Beach are in South Boston, 2 1/2 miles southeast of downtown. Red Line to Broadway, then Bus 9 to East Broadway and L Street, then walk 7 blocks south -- no further from the closest transit than the beach is from the train station at Point Pleasant Beach and the bus station at Ocean City, New Jersey.
Revere Beach is the oldest public beach in America, opening in 1896. 350 Revere Beach Blvd. in Revere, 7 miles northeast of Downtown Crossing. Blue Line to Wonderland.
But the best-known New England beaches are quite a trip. Cape Cod runs from Sandwich (57 miles) to Provincetown (119 miles). The island of Martha's Vineyard (90 miles), famed as a rich man's playground, but also the stand-in for Amity Island in Jaws), can be accessed by the Woods Hole-Vineyard Haven Ferry, about 50 minutes; while the separate island of Nantucket (100 miles) uses the Hyannis-Nantucket Ferry, about 2 hours.
Other notable New England beach towns include Newport, Rhode Island (74 miles); Mystic, Connecticut (98 miles); and Old Orchard Beach and Boothbay Harbor, Maine (97 and 164 miles).
* John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Ask now what a visit here can do for you, ask what you can do on your visit here (or "heah").
Unlike the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, which is a 2-hour drive north of Midtown Manhattan in Hyde Park, closer to Albany, the JFK Library is much more accessible – not just to drivers and non-drivers alike, but to anyone. Maybe it's because it's more interactive, but maybe it's also because FDR is a figure of black-and-white film and scratchy radio recordings, while JFK is someone whose television images and color films make him more familiar to us, even though he's been dead for over 50 years now. (Incredibly, he's now been dead longer than he was alive.)
Sometimes it seems as though his Library is less about his time than it is about our time, and the time beyond. While I love the FDR Library, there's no doubt in my mind that this is the best Presidential Library or Museum there is. Columbia Point, on the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts. Red Line to JFK/UMass, plus a shuttle bus.
Also on the UMass-Boston campus is the Clark Athletic Center, which hosted one of the 2000 Presidential Election's debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush. 100 Morrissey Blvd., 4 blocks from the JFK Library.
Salem, home to the witch trials, is to the north: MBTA Commuter Rail Newburyport/Rockport Line out of North Station to Salem. A statue of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched
was put there by the nostalgia network TV Land, instead of in Westport, Connecticut, where the show was based, because she's the most famous witch in American pop culture. Well, except maybe for Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.
Plymouth, where the Pilgrims landed and set up the Massachusetts Bay Colony, is to the south: MBTA Kingston/Plymouth Line out of South Station to Kingston, then switch to FreedomLink bus. And Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in downtown Boston on March 10, 1876, at his house at 109 Court Street. The Government Center T station is there now.
Lexington & Concord? Lexington: Red Line north to its terminal at Alewife, then switch to the 62 or 76 bus. Concord: MBTA Fitchburg/South Acton Line out of North Station to Concord. Bunker Hill? 93 bus on Washington Street, downtown, to Bunker Hill & Monument Streets, across the river in the Charlestown neighborhood, then 2 blocks down Monument.
The Bull & Finch Pub, which was used for the exterior shot and the basis for the interior shot of Cheers, was at 84 Beacon Street at Brimmer Street, across from Boston Common and near the State House. It's since been bought and turned into an official Cheers, with the upstairs Hampshire House (the basis for the show's Melville's) also part of the establishment. Green Line to Arlington.
A version designed to look more like the one on the show, complete with an "island bar" instead of a "wall bar," is at Faneuil Hall. Congress & Market Streets. Orange or Blue Line to State, since Government Center is closed for renovations.
The Suffolk County Court House, recognizable from David E. Kelley's legal dramas Ally McBeal, The Practice and Boston Legal, is at the Scollay Square/Government Center complex. The official address is 3 Pemberton Street, at Somerset Street. Again, use State, due to the closure of Government Center.
The Prudential Tower, a.k.a. the Prudential Center, at 749 feet the tallest building in the world outside New York when it opened in 1964, contains a major mall. 800 Boylston Street. The finish line of the Boston Marathon, and the site of the bombing, is at 755 Boylston at Ring Road. Green Line B, C or D to Copley, or E to Prudential.
There are two John Hancock Buildings in Boston, although neither one officially carries the name anymore. The older one, at 200 Berkeley Street at St. James Avenue, went up in 1947 and is better known as the Berkeley Building. As I said earlier, it is 495 feet high counting a spire that lights up, and is a weather beacon, complete with poem:
Steady blue, clear view.
Flashing blue, clouds due.
Steady red, rain ahead.
Flashing red, snow instead.
Blue. Whether steady or flashing
is not obvious in this photo.
If it's flashing red during baseball season, when snow is not expected (except maybe in April), that means that day's Red Sox game has been postponed. When the Sox won the Series * in 2004, '07 and '13, it flashed red and blue: "Flashing blue and red, the Curse of the Bambino is dead!"
The glass-facaded newer building, at 200 Clarendon (which is now its official name as well) across from the old one, was completed in 1976 and is 790 feet tall, making it not just the tallest in Boston, in Massachusetts, or in New England, but the tallest in North America east of Manhattan. Green Line to Copley.
*
College football should be played in sleepy little towns that come alive on Saturday afternoons, on cool days with a slight breeze, in old stadiums with leaves changing around them.
Well, no one can guarantee New England weather, and Alumni Stadium isn't especially old, and certainly doesn't look it. But Boston College, within reach of, but well outside the core of, a great city, otherwise fits the bill of a great college football experience.
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