Former names | Union Park 3A Park [lower-alpha 1] Coliseum |
---|---|
Location | Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (pre-1907) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania [lower-alpha 2] (post-1907) |
Coordinates | 40°27′17″N80°01′07″W / 40.4547°N 80.0186°W |
Capacity | 17,000 |
Surface | Grass |
Opened | 1865 (as skating rink) 1867 (as ballpark) |
Tenants | |
Baseball Pittsburgh Enterprises, Xanthas and Olympics (circa. 1876–circa. 1887) Pittsburgh Allegheny (IA) (1877–1878) Pittsburgh Alleghenys (AA) (1884–1886) Pittsburgh Alleghenys (NL) (1887–1890) Football Western University of Pennsylvania (1898–1904) Pittsburgh Stars (NFL) (1902) | |
Official name | First Professional Football Game |
Designated | November 3, 1992 [1] |
Recreation Park (known at various times as Union Park, 3A Park, and the Coliseum) was a sporting grounds and stadium that stood from 1865 to 1905 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which was annexed in 1907 and became the North Side region of Pittsburgh. The park was bounded by Allegheny Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Grant (now Galveston) Avenue, and Boquet (now Behan) Street.
The field was the first National League home for the Pittsburgh Pirates (at the time referred to as the Alleghenys) [2] of Major League Baseball. It also hosted many football games of the Western University of Pennsylvania (today's University of Pittsburgh). In November 1892, the park hosted the first known American football game that included a professional player.
Only one known photograph, taken from a very distant vantage point, shows the grounds in its longtime baseball configuration. It was discovered in 2015 in a time capsule left by scientific instrument maker John Brashear. [3] A much-altered facility appears in later photos, including several newspaper shots of football games.
Opened in 1865 as a skating center, the park was adapted for baseball use in 1867. [3] Known until 1885 as Union Park, [3] the stadium had an early capacity of 2,500, [2] and was later expanded with wooden grandstands to allow up to 17,000 spectators. [4] After the Alleghenys moved a few blocks south in 1890, the main tenant became the Allegheny Athletic Association, and the grounds would eventually be referred to as 3A Park. [lower-alpha 1] After the turn of the 20th century, it was converted to a velodrome called the Coliseum.
In 2001, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates built stadiums not far from this site.
In the late 1860s and early 70s, Pittsburgh was home to three local amateur baseball teams—the Enterprise Club, the Xanthas, and the Olympics—which played most of their games Union Park. In 1876, the professional Allegheny club played its first game against Xantha at Union Park, winning 7–3. [2] Allegheny lasted for three years, playing mostly other squads from the northeast within the International Association, but occasionally taking on National League teams in exhibition games. One long-remembered match took place in early May 1877, when Pud Galvin threw a shutout and hit a home run in a 1–0 victory over the Boston Red Stockings. In 1884, the two-year-old Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the American Association moved from Exposition Park II to Union Park. [5] The team posted a record of 18–37 at home that season, finishing 11th in the league. [6]
The ballpark was used as a neutral site for one game in the 1885 World Series and for one game in the 1887 World Series.
In 1887, owner William A. Nimick transferred the club into the National League, [4] and on April 30, the Alleghenies defeated the Chicago White Stockings, 6–2 in front of 10,000 spectators. This was the first officially recognized contest of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise. [7] Legend has it that, before opening game of the 1887 season, Pittsburgh's catcher Fred Carroll buried his pet monkey beneath home plate. [4] Also during that season, local businessman Walter Brown organized an early attempt of a league for African American ballplayers, with his Pittsburgh Keystones taking up residence at the park.
In 1891, after the collapse of the Pittsburgh Burghers baseball franchise and the Players' League, the Alleghenys moved to the third incarnation of Exposition Park, which had been constructed for the Burghers. [8]
On November 12, 1892, the Allegheny Athletic Association football team defeated the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in the first known American football game to feature a professional player. [9] The team had hired Pudge Heffelfinger, an all-American guard from Yale, for $500. [10] Decades later, the Pro Football Hall of Fame discovered a page torn from an 1892 account ledger prepared by Allegheny manager O. D. Thompson with the line item: "Game performance bonus to W. Heffelfinger for playing (cash) $500." [11]
In 1902, a Pirates-backed football team, the Pittsburgh Stars of the first National Football League, played its home games at the field. The Stars would win the league's only championship against the Philadelphia Athletics, 11–0, at the field. [12]
The Western University of Pennsylvania (WUP) football team played their first game of the 1898 season at Recreation Park, defeating Westminster 5–0. [13] Though WUP played some games at Exposition Park as early as 1900, [14] games were hosted at Recreation Park until the University signed an exclusive contract with Exposition Park in 1904. [15]
Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss secured a lease on the park in 1901 to block the upstart American League from establishing a competing baseball franchise in Pittsburgh. To monetize the grounds, Dreyfuss installed a modern bicycle track to be used for motor-paced races featuring the stars of the sport. [16] Baseball umpire and boxing referee Tim Hurst managed the facility, [2] which opened in May 1902 under a name variously spelled as "Colosseum" or "Coliseum." The track, a smooth wooden oval with 20-foot (6 m) bankings, encompassed a multipurpose field. Surrounding the track was new seating for 7,000 spectators, including covered grandstands on the north and south sides and open bleachers. [17] The venture proved a failure: Cycling did not catch on as a spectator sport, and although the stadium found alternative use as a football venue, there was not enough football to bring sufficient revenue. [16] No longer fearing an invasion by the American League, [18] Dreyfuss let the lease expire in April 1904. The track was torn down and the grounds turned back over to the owners. [16]
Beyond simply major sporting events, the park often also doubled as a venue for circuses, carnivals, various ethnic and holiday celebrations, and track meets. Before the Exposition grounds were used for major gatherings, Union Park was a main local gathering place that could easily and closely accommodate large crowds for exhibitors. Popular national figures such as Adam Forepaugh and P. T. Barnum would hold their shows here, spending up to three days before moving off to one-night shows in smaller towns. The park sat next to the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway.
Recreation Park has a reference in the city directory as late as 1914, but the open land was soon covered over by various industrial buildings, since the early 1900s.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central Division. Founded as part of the American Association in 1881 under the name Pittsburgh Alleghenys, the club joined the National League in 1887 and was a member of the National League East from 1969 through 1993. The Pirates have won five World Series championships, nine National League pennants, nine National League East division titles and made three appearances in the Wild Card Game.
Forbes Field was a baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1909 to June 28, 1970. It was the third home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) team, and the first home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the city's National Football League (NFL) franchise. From 1909 to 1924, the stadium also served as the home football field for the University of Pittsburgh "Pitt" Panthers. The stadium sat on Forbes Avenue, named for British general John Forbes, who fought in the French and Indian War and named the city in 1758.
Three Rivers Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, from 1970 to 2000. It was home to the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL).
PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth location to serve as the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates. Opened during the 2001 MLB season, PNC Park sits along the Allegheny River with a view of the Downtown Pittsburgh skyline. Constructed of steel and limestone, it has a natural grass playing surface and can seat 38,747 people for baseball. It was built just to the east of its predecessor, Three Rivers Stadium, which was demolished in 2001.
Exposition Park was the name given to three historic stadiums, located in what is today Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The fields were used mainly for professional baseball and American football from c. 1879 to c. 1915. The ballparks were initially located on the north side of the Allegheny River in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. The city was annexed into Pittsburgh in 1907, which became the city's North Side, located across from Pittsburgh's downtown area. Due to flooding from the nearby Allegheny River, the three stadiums' exact locations varied somewhat. The final version of the ballpark was between the eventual sites of Three Rivers Stadium and PNC Park.
Bernhard "Barney" Dreyfuss was an executive in Major League Baseball who owned the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise from 1900 to his death. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.
William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger, also spelled Hafelfinger, was an American football player and coach. He is considered the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to play in 1892 for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
Sports in Pittsburgh have been played dating back to the American Civil War. Baseball, hockey, and the first professional American football game had been played in the city by 1892. Pittsburgh was first known as the "City of Champions" when the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Panthers football team, and Pittsburgh Steelers won multiple championships in the 1970s. Today, the city has three major professional sports franchises, the Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins; while the University of Pittsburgh Panthers compete in a Division I Power Five conference, the highest level of collegiate athletics in the United States, in both football and basketball. Local universities Duquesne and Robert Morris also field Division I teams in men's and women's basketball and Division I FCS teams in football. Robert Morris also fields Division I men's and women's ice hockey teams.
The following is a history of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball.
The 1903 Pittsburgh Pirates season was the 22nd year the Pittsburgh Pirates played in Major League Baseball. The club finished its season as National League champions, beating the second-place New York Giants by 6+1⁄2 games.
The Allegheny Athletic Association was an athletic club that fielded the first ever professional American football player and later the first fully professional football team. The organization was founded in 1890 as a regional athletic club in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, which is today the North Side of Pittsburgh.
The Pittsburgh Athletic Club football team, established in 1890, was based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1892 the intense competition between two Pittsburgh-area clubs, the Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, led to William (Pudge) Heffelfinger becoming the first known professional football player. Heffelfinger was paid $500 by Allegheny to play in a game against Pittsburgh on November 12, 1892. As a result, Heffelfinger became the first person to be paid to play football. Allegheny would go on to win the game, 4–0, when Heffelfinger picked up a Pittsburgh fumble and ran it 35 yards for a touchdown. In 1893, Pittsburgh again made history when it signed one of its players, probably halfback Grant Dibert, to the first known pro football contract, which covered all of the team's games for the year.
American football in Western Pennsylvania, featuring the city of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas, has had a long and storied history, dating back to the early days of the sport. All levels of football, including high school football and college football, are followed passionately, and the area's National Football League (NFL) team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, is consistently one of the sport's most popular teams. Many of the NFL's top stars have come from the region as well, especially those that play quarterback, earning Western Pennsylvania the nickname "Cradle of Quarterbacks".
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US.
Pittsburgh Allegheny was the name of the first professional baseball club to represent Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team was an unrelated forerunner to the American Association's Pittsburgh Alleghenies that were established in 1882, which continue today as the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 1903 Western University of Pennsylvania football team was an American football team that represented Western University of Pennsylvania, as an independent during the 1903 college football season.
The 1902 Western University of Pennsylvania football team was an American football team that represented Western University of Pennsylvania as an independent during the 1902 college football season. The Pitt Football Record Book refers to a 24–0 victory over Bucknell. However, contemporary press coverage indicates that the game was played between Bucknell and the Pittsburgh Stars.
The 1896 Western University of Pennsylvania football team was an American football team that represented the Western University of Pennsylvania as an independent during the 1896 college football season.
The 1890 Western University of Pennsylvania football team was an American football team represented Western University of Pennsylvania—now known as the University of Pittsburgh—as an independent during the 1890 college football season.