Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig exhibition game
In 1927, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played an exhibition game at the park during their national barnstorming tour. [1]
Kinsley Park was an athletic field, used for professional football, minor league baseball and pro soccer, located in Providence, Rhode Island at the corner of Kinsley Avenue (north, third base) and Acorn Street (west, first base), across Acorn from the Nicholson File Company Mill Complex. The field was used primarily by Providence Steam Roller, Providence Grays and the Providence Gold Bugs. The park was built primarily by Peter Laudati, a prominent Providence real estate developer and a part-owner of the Providence Steam Roller. He also built the Steam Roller's second stadium, the Cycledrome.
In 1927, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played an exhibition game at the park during their national barnstorming tour. [1]
The field is best known for hosting the first night game in NFL history on November 6, 1929, between the Steam Roller and the Chicago Cardinals. [2] The game ended in a 16-0 Cardinals victory behind the running, passing and kicking of Ernie Nevers, who scored all of the games 16 points. He rushed 23 times for 102 yards and a touchdown. He also completed 10 of 15 passes for 144 yards and another touchdown. He also kicked a 33-yard field goal and an extra point.
The game was scheduled for Sunday November 3, however heavy rains made the Cyclodome unplayable. Rather than lose a contest with a high probability for a nice payday, the historic night game was hastily scheduled.
The game was considered a success because at least 6,000 spectators attended. According to newspaper accounts, the ball had been painted white so that it would be easier to see. The floodlights were also described as being just as good as daylight for the players. The Providence Journal , at the time, described the system as “33 giant projectors on poles 53 feet high, and nine poles on top of the grandstand.” Floodlights were then installed the next year at the Cyclodome and other NFL teams began playing at night as well. According to his 1930 contract with the Providence Steam Roller, which is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame archives, Tony Latone was paid $125 for all NFL daylight games and 60 percent of that sum for NFL "floodlight" games. One of the original team's founders Pearce Johnson explained that the pay reduction for night games was arranged to help pay the installation costs of the floodlights at the Cyclodome.
On October 6, 1929, the American Soccer League had suspended operations on October 9, pending a merger with the rival Eastern League of Professional Soccer. Hoping to regenerate fan interest during the situation, the Gold Bugs had cobbled together an exhibition schedule. The team then began playing under the new lights at Kinsley Park. On October 31, 1929, the Gold Bugs defeated the Boston Soccer Club, 2–1.
Kinsley Park was closed by the end of 1931. It was torn down in 1933 and no trace of the field remains.
The Providence Steam Rollers were a professional American football team based in Providence, Rhode Island in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1931. Providence was the first New England team to win an NFL championship. The Steam Roller won the league's championship in 1928, which is the latest NFL championship win by a defunct team to date. Most of their home games were played at the Cycledrome, a 10,000-seat stadium that was built as a velodrome for bicycle races.
The Dayton Triangles were an original franchise of the American Professional Football Association in 1920. The Triangles were based in Dayton, Ohio, and took their nickname from their home field, Triangle Park, which was located at the confluence of the Great Miami and Stillwater Rivers in north Dayton. They were the longest-lasting traveling team in the NFL (1920–1929), and the last such "road team" until the Dallas Texans in 1952, who, coincidentally, descended from the Dayton franchise.
A night game, also called a nighter, is a sporting event that takes place, completely or partially, after the local sunset. Depending on the sport, this can be done either with floodlights or with the usual low-light conditions. The term "night game" is typically used only in reference to sports traditionally held outdoors. Although indoor sporting events often take place after local sunset, these events are artificially lighted regardless of the time of day they take place.
The 1929 NFL Season was the tenth regular season of the National Football League. The league increased back to 12 teams with the addition of the Staten Island Stapletons, Orange Tornadoes and Minneapolis Red Jackets and the re-entry of the Buffalo Bisons. The Pottsville Maroons became the Boston Bulldogs, the New York Yankees folded, and the Detroit Wolverines merged into the New York Giants, with the Giants the surviving partner.
James Gleason Dunn Conzelman was an American professional football player and coach, baseball executive, and advertising executive. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964 and was selected in 1969 as a quarterback on the National Football League 1920s All-Decade Team.
The Providence Football Club was a member of the American Soccer League. They were renamed the Providence Gold Bugs before the spring half of the 1928–1929 season. In the fall of 1929, the team installed lights at its field, allowing for night games. The club won the American Soccer Association Cup in 1929.
A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibility adequate for safe task performance, ornamental lighting for advertising, façades, monuments, or support perimeter security. Floodlights are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage lighting instrument in live performances such as concerts and plays.
The Boston Bulldogs were a professional American football team that competed in the first American Football League in 1926. Owned by Robert McKirby, the Bulldogs lasted only six games into the AFL season, playing one home game in Braves Field and one in Fenway Park. Coached by player-coach Herb Treat, the majority of the team played their college football in New England, Pennsylvania, and New York. The offense, marked by its inconsistent performance was led by Joe McGlone was inconsistent, scoring a total of 20 points in its existence... 17 of which were tallied in one game. Erwin Gehrke and Carl Etelman shared the kicking duties. Bill Cronin, a tailback, scored the team's only offensive touchdown.
Anthony H. Latone was an American football player of Lithuanian descent who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Although he never attended college, he is unofficially considered the leading rusher of 1920s. During the six seasons he played in the NFL, Latone out-rushed and outscored the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Red Grange, despite playing 30 fewer games. He was also one of the very few known persons to knock Grange out of a game. Grange later said that, "even though George Halas was paying me, 500 bucks to barn storm the nation, it wasn't enough to be hit by the likes of Latone."
The 1925 New York Football Giants season was the franchise's inaugural campaign in the National Football League (NFL). Playing three-quarters of its league games at home in front of substantial crowds at the Polo Grounds, the team finished with a record of 8–4 against National League opponents.
Frank William Kirkleski was an American football player and educator. He played during the early years of the National Football League (NFL) for the Pottsville Maroons, Orange/Newark Tornadoes, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Kirkleski played college football at Lafayette College, in which he graduated from in 1927.
The 1920 Dayton Triangles season was the franchise's inaugural season in the American Professional Football Association (AFPA)—later named the National Football League. The Triangles entered the season coming off a 5–2–1 record in 1919 in the Ohio League. After the 1919 season, several representatives from the Ohio League wanted to form a new professional league; thus, the APFA was created. A majority of the team stayed from the 1919 team, including the coaching staff, while two players left the team.
The Cycledrome was an American football stadium and velodrome located in Providence, Rhode Island. Its name derived from its intended use as a bicycle racing stadium (velodrome) when it was built in 1925.
Gilbert Laverne "Gibby" Welch was an American football player who played college football for the University of Pittsburgh. He broke Red Grange's single season yardage record in 1926 and was an All-American in 1927. He later played professional football for the New York Yankees in 1928 and the Providence Steam Roller in 1929.
Jesse Perry Jackson was a professional American football player who spent three seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the Providence Steam Roller, from 1928 to 1930. Jackson won an NFL championship in 1928 with Providence.
Pearce B. Johnson was a part-time sports editor for the Providence Journal and the general manager of the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League. He was also one of the original founders of the team and served as the team's manager throughout its entire history (1916–1933). He is best known for hosting the very first night game in NFL history. After the team ended play in 1931, Johnson organized a semi-pro version of the Steam Roller in 1932 to play small-scale local teams. He also managed a minor league version of the Providence Steam Roller in the American Association in the 1940s. Later in life, he became a football historian for the Pro Football Researchers Association and was at one time their oldest member.
Peter A. Laudati was a sports promoter and a part-owner of the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League. He was also responsible for the construction of the team's stadium, the Cyclodome. Prior to this, he was a prominent Providence real estate developer.
John Patrick Cronin was an American professional football player who played four seasons with the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Boston College.
Lewis Lawrence Pope was an American football player.
James E. "Ching" Hammill III was an American football back. After playing college football for Connecticut, he played four seasons professionally, for a team in Bridgeport from 1922 to 1924, and both the Providence Steam Roller of the National Football League (NFL) and All-New Britain in 1925 before his death in November of that year.
Former stadiums of the National Football League | |
|---|---|
| Early era: 1920–1940 |
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| Post-War and Pre-Merger era: 1941–1969 |
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| Current era: 1970–present |
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| Stadiums used by NFL teams temporarily |
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†= Team's stadium under construction or refurbishment at time | |
