NOLA History – Football Stadiums

With the New Orleans Saints at 3-1 and the LSU Tigers still undefeated, and Tulane at 2-2, football fever dominates New Orleans.  So, now is a great time to look back on some of the places where football has been played in the city. While the Louisiana Superdome is known worldwide as the home of the New Orleans Saints and the AllState Sugar Bowl, the premier football venue in the city prior to Da Dome was Tulane Stadium.

The stadium most know as “Tulane Stadium” was constructed in 1926. It was the third stadium to be built on the campus, the first two having been torn down and a larger facility built on the site. New Orleans instituted its college “bowl” game in 1935, calling it the “Sugar Bowl.” The name is very appropriate because the campus was originally part of the Foucher Plantation, where Etienne de Bore first invented the granulation process for sugar in 1795. After the first Sugar Bowl game on January 1st, 1935, Tulane realized the stadium would have to be expanded from the original 35,000-seat configuration. Over time, the stadium’s capacity was expanded to almost 81,000 seats.

When the New Orleans Saints came marching in, Tulane Stadium was their home. From John Gilliam’s 94-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff of the very first game (against the Los Angeles Rams, September 17, 1967) to Tom Dempsey’s 63-yard field goal (versus the Lions on November 8, 1970), to the last Saints game, a win against the St. Louis Cardinals on December 8, 1974, Tulane Stadium was the scene of many memorable moments in the history of the city’s NFL franchise. Along the way, New Orleans hosted three Super Bowls in Tulane Stadium, in 1970 (IV), 1972 (VI), and 1975 (IX). With the Saints closing out the 1974 season at Tulane Stadium, Super Bowl IX was the last NFL game to be played there.

New Orleans was awarded a franchise by the National Football League under one very important condition–that the city would build a domed stadium to keep NFL games out of the rain. Then NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle insisted on it, and the city and state came through. Bonds were authorized to build the Louisiana Superdome, the Saints came to town, and the NFL planned to play Super Bowl IX in Da Dome. Cost overruns and delays, caused in no small part by the 1973 oil crisis, delayed the completion of the Superdome. The Saints took over the Dome in 1975 (losing the season opener there to the Bengals). The Superdome hosted its first Super Bowl in 1978.

In addition to being the home of the Saints and the Sugar Bowl, the Superdome also hosts the annual Bayou Classic, which pits Southern University against their north-Louisiana rivals, Grambling State University. The Louisiana High School Athletic Association plays the state championship games for all levels of prep football annually in the Dome.

The last football game to ever be played in Tulane Stadium was a high school match-up between two “Catholic League” schools, De La Salle High School (located Uptown) versus Archbishop Rummel High School (located in Metairie), on November 1, 1979. Since 1934, the main facility for prep football contests in New Orleans has been Tad Gormley Stadium, located in City Park. While the colleges and pros clashed uptown, Friday nights belonged to Mid City. Tad Gormley Stadium was a Depression-era WPA project. The first football games were held there in 1934. The stadium underwent major renovations in 1994, so it could host the US track and field trials in 1995 (for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta). The stadium underwent extensive repairs post-Katrina, thanks in part to a generous donation by Saints running back Reggie Bush. The turf at Tad Gormley was dedicated as “Reggie Bush Field” to acknowledge his support.

The Superdome is now in its fourth decade of service to the Saints, Tulane and the city.  While the city and state have embarked on a major renovation and enhancement program to keep the world’s largest domed building up-to-date, some in the city have started to consider the possibility of a replacement.  One of the ideas was a stadium located along the Mississippi River, just up-river from the Morial Convention Center.  So far, the Superdome continues to be an attractive facility (the Dome will host Super Bowl XLVII in 2013); no doubt there will be a number of ideas put forward when the time comes to move on from Da Dome.

Tagged as: Bayou Classic, football, GoNOLA, Grambling State, National Football League, New Orleans, New Orleans Saints, NFL, NOLA, Saints, Southern, Sugarbowl, Superbowl, Tad Gormley, Tulane