The WORST field I've ever seen wasnt even a HS field. Before the renovation, Kean College field downhill from the 30 towards the end zone. Combine that with the wooden bleachers, that place was embarrassing, even for a D3 program.
Favorite NJHSFB Stadium?
- Thread starter Chickadee34
- Start date
I played at Hinchliffe in 1996 (think it was condemned after the '97 season) and I remember the AstroTurf being worn down to the ribbing/ backing between the hashes (it was missing the carpet piling and looked like the back of a bath mat). We were making comments about it and one of our coaches turned and said to us, "it's still better than our field". I remember the SL doing something sort of special in '99 on schools with run-down facilities and Belleville was ranked as having the 2nd-worst in the county/ North Jersey behind Newark at the time. I believe that was a major factor in our stadium complex getting redone over 2001-2002.
It's funny though; even some of the nicer fields had their quirks. As nice as Clifton Stadium was, it was by a duck pond and I remember the field being full of goose crap. As a jr football coach now it's odd sometimes playing towns that are fairly affluent but their teams play in a random roped-off muddy/grassy area of a county park.
Joe P.
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I remember playing baseball possibly 1964, in a Greater Newark Tournament game against i believe Carteret. It was an old structure, just can't recall the name.
Believe their pitcher was a guy named Joe Sico, although not quite sure.
Seemed sort of old school at the time.
Believe their pitcher was a guy named Joe Sico, although not quite sure.
Seemed sort of old school at the time.
The worse HS field I've ever played on was a tie between Hoboken HS and Unterman Field in the late 80s, way before both fields went to turf. Hoboken had rocks, broken glass, dirt pits, etc. Unterman after the first reopening had deep holes where I stepped or tripped in where I couldve broken something. Also the long jump pit was REAL CLOSE to the sidelines that we had to stand in it at times, depending on the side judge of that game.
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One of my older brother's friends (played QB) moved from Belleville to Little Falls their freshman year of HS (1992). I remember him telling my brother stories about when Passaic Valley would go play Newark West Side (both were Northern Hills Conference teams) at Untermann and how the field was terrible (holes, rocks, broken bottles, etc.)
Oddly enough, the worst field I ever played on was probably our own practice field (ran parallel to our game field behind the then-present visitors' stands), which at one point also served as the JV soccer game field (football would go off to another area of the complex during JV soccer games)...however, after the 1994 season (my freshman year), the NNJIL barred conference games from being played there, deeming the field 'unfit for competition'. It had no sprinklers (weeds would grow in the spring/ summer, giving the appearance of grass, but would get chewed up by mid-September) and was basically rocks, dirt, divots/craters and also had a couple of stones that had to be the size of basketballs that were half-exposed at different spots in the field. I have a 'puncture-type' scar on my left wrist from a tackle I made on a kickoff coverage drill my senior year (landed on a rock)...that all said, we still actually hosted 2 home scrimmages on it my junior and senior years (Essex Catholic and Memorial-WNY), which I think were the only two scrimmages Belleville hosted in the 90's.
Joe P.
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I can only imagine, because I played on it in '87 and it was already pretty bad. It certainly didn't get any better in the interim.
Your mention of Essex Catholic made me remember that we played them freshman year at a park you can see from the Parkway South. There was actually a slightly raised manhole cover around the 20-yard-line! They put a traffic cone on it for visibility, but it was still there, just waiting to ruin someone's season!
Now I know why we hosted that scrimmage. I bet that was Watsessing Park; it used to have this big crappy grass field that is turfed over now. With Hinchliffe, I found this picture on Google from when they first started taking the turf out:
That's pretty much how the field looked in '96 (outside of the missing pieces of turf and the trees growing through the stands).
Joe P.
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"Professional football"..
War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo Bills. Field was mud, locker room had rusty nails driven into 2x4's for you clothes. So many guys smoking you couldn't breath.
Hartford Charter Oaks; Continental Football League (AAA football.)
Championship Game nor'easter snow storm hits the previous night, 2 feet of snow. Field is covered with a tarp. Bulldozers clear snow off tarp. Tarp is frozen to field. Take down the used car dealer type flags on the light poles and nail them as sideline markers. No hash marks, yard markers or goal lines. Veteran players told me to keep my helmet on at all times. "Fans" would throw frozen cans of beer at anyone stupid enough to take off their helmet. Took off a couple of cletes on each shoe to use the clete screws for traction...
War Memorial Stadium, Buffalo Bills. Field was mud, locker room had rusty nails driven into 2x4's for you clothes. So many guys smoking you couldn't breath.
Hartford Charter Oaks; Continental Football League (AAA football.)
Championship Game nor'easter snow storm hits the previous night, 2 feet of snow. Field is covered with a tarp. Bulldozers clear snow off tarp. Tarp is frozen to field. Take down the used car dealer type flags on the light poles and nail them as sideline markers. No hash marks, yard markers or goal lines. Veteran players told me to keep my helmet on at all times. "Fans" would throw frozen cans of beer at anyone stupid enough to take off their helmet. Took off a couple of cletes on each shoe to use the clete screws for traction...
I grew up in Hasbrouck Heights, also. Used to manage the field. The stories I could tell about what went on in the training room after we shut down the lights and locked the gates!
Yeah, the trees really do give it a park-like ambience, don't they?Now I know why we hosted that scrimmage. I bet that was Watsessing Park; it used to have this big crappy grass field that is turfed over now. With Hinchliffe, I found this picture on Google from when they first started taking the turf out:
That's pretty much how the field looked in '96 (outside of the missing pieces of turf and the trees growing through the stands).
Joe P.