Jack Coffey Field is a 7,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in the Northeastern United States, located on the campus of Fordham University in The Bronx, New York. It is the Fordham Rams' home for football, men's and women's soccer, and baseball. The facility opened for baseball 94 years ago in 1930, and was named in 1954 for baseball coach and longtime athletic director Jack Coffey, four years before his 1958 retirement.[1]
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| Location | 441 East Fordham Road The Bronx, New York, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Owner | Fordham University |
| Operator | Fordham University |
| Capacity | 7,000 |
| Surface | FieldTurf (2005–present) Natural grass (1930–2004) |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1930 |
| Renovated | 1990, 2004, 2014 |
| Architect | Jack L. Gordon Architects |
| Tenants | |
| Fordham Rams baseball (1930–present) Fordham Rams football (1970–present) Fordham Rams men's soccer (2005–present) Fordham Rams women's soccer (2005–present) | |
Starting in 1964, students began using the left field and center field area for their club football team. The team was sponsored by the students themselves and it was these same students who rented temporary wooden stands, to be set around the gridiron, for the 1964 and 1965 seasons. The university stepped in to build permanent wooden stands behind the left field fence,[2][3] which served as a grandstand for football. A press box and scoreboard were added in 1967,[4] and the university reinstated varsity football for the 1970 season.
Fordham football moved up from Division III to Division I-AA (now Division I FCS) in 1989; the following year, the wooden stands were torn down and replaced with aluminum bleachers.[5] Bathrooms and concessions were added beneath the new set of bleachers while an elevator was added to the new press box. Beneath the seats, a 3,200-square-foot (300 m2) weight room was added in 1996.
Infilled synthetic FieldTurf replaced the natural grass field in 2005 while, behind home plate, other renovations during 2004 and 2005 included lights, new dugouts, as well as a new grandstand and press box for the baseball portion. This section of the facility now goes by Houlihan Park, as the recognized home of Rams baseball.[6] The diamond is aligned approximately north-northeast (home plate to second base); the football field is in the outfield and runs west-southwest to east-northeast, from the left field foul line to center field, with the press box and grandstand along the north-northwest sideline.
west of grandstand on Constitution Way
A monument to the Seven Blocks of Granite was dedicated in 2008, honoring the offensive lines of 1929, 1930, 1936, and 1937.[7] It is located on Constitution Row, near the west end of the grandstand.
Renovations in 2014 included the addition of a full-color DakTronics video scoreboard beyond the Southern Boulevard endzone, as well as chair back seating between the 40-yard lines. The FieldTurf surface was upgraded with FieldTurfTM.
Professional soccer came to Jack Coffey Field in 2016 as it hosted the Fourth round U.S. Open Cup match between the New York Cosmos and NYCFC on June 15.[8]
Popular culture
editCoffey Field was featured in the film Second Act where Trey (Milo Ventimiglia) trained his baseball team.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Jack Coffey – Society for American Baseball Research".
- ^ "Contentdm". Digital.library.fordham.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ^ "Contentdm". Digital.library.fordham.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ^ "Contentdm". Digital.library.fordham.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ^ "Contentdm". Digital.library.fordham.edu. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ^ Fordham facilities Archived 2010-04-12 at the Wayback Machine at fordhamsports.com, URL accessed October 21, 2009. 10/09/09
- ^ "Football legends honored with Rose Hill monument". Fordham University. (Fordham News). October 29, 2008. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
- ^ Gilberg, Ari (June 16, 2016). "Cosmos beat NYCFC again in U.S. Open Cup, want to be 'kings of New York' soccer". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016.