Newark Schools Stadium

Newark Schools Stadium (nicknamed "The Old Lady of Bloomfield Avenue") was a reinforced concrete horseshoe-shaped stadium located on Bloomfield Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. The stadium was used primary for football and was built in 1925. It was the home of the Newark Tornadoes of the National Football League during the 1930 season. The stadium was used for high school football until 2006. Baseball's Newark Stars of the Eastern Colored League, which was a part of the Negro Leagues, also used the stadium in 1926.

Soccer
For the 1967-68 ASL (American Soccer League) season, the Newark Ukrainian Sitch club moved its home games to this field. Prior to that season, 'Sitch' played at Ironbound field. The move to an approx. 25,000 capacity ground was welcomed as an improvement. The crowds never filled the stadium however and the Ukrainian Weekly refers to crowds only in the hundreds rather than thousands.

Football
After the Tornadoes folded, Newark's American Association team became the primary tenants for the stadium. The American Association was the first attempt at establishing a farm system for the NFL. In 1937, the Tornadoes left Orange, New Jersey again for Newark. The team was once again called the Newark Tornadoes. In 1939, the team was purchased by George Halas, the owner of the Chicago Bears, and called the Newark Bears. Most of Newark's public school football teams played at the stadium as well until 2006. The Stadium also served, since 1955 until its closing for reconstruction, as the home of the North Newark Little League (formerly the Saint Francis Xavier Little League).

Baseball
Schools Stadium was also used for baseball. In 1926, the Newark Stars of the Negro Leagues played at stadium. When the stadium was configured for baseball, the distance down the foul lines was so short, that balls hit over the fence were ground rule doubles. High school teams also used the field for baseball until 2006. The Stadium was also the original home of what has become one of the largest youth baseball programs in the City of Newark - the North Newark Little League. Formerly the St. Francis Xavier Little League, the youth of the program utilized the baseball fields from 1955. It was the last organization to have continued use of the facility (even after it was condemned in 2006)right up to the point of its closing for reconstruction.

Track and field
Olympian Jesse Owens, once ran track there and lost to a Newark local named Eulace Peacock. Meanwhile another Olympian, Milt Campbell began his track career at Newark Schools Stadium. The National Women's Olympic Trials also were held in the stadium in 1928.

Riots
During the 1967 Newark riots, Schools Stadium served as the staging area for the New Jersey National Guard, who were summoned to Newark to reinforce the overwhelmed Newark Police Department.

Decline and a new stadium
Years of neglect allowed the stadium to experience a large amount of deterioration and compromised structural integrity. In 2009, the City of Newark announced that the stadium would be domolished and replaced with a new stadium. It was condemned in the fall of 2006 after it was deemed unsafe for players and spectators. In 2006, a capital bond request was approved by the Newark City Council that included $63.7 million in funding for 14 projects that ranged from a new robotics center to the rebuilding of Schools Stadium. However the construction of the new Schools Stadium did not begin until June 2008. The project is expected to cost about $24 million.