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Today in Patriots History
Harvard Stadium
Harvard Stadium
June 2, 1970:
After more than a year of back-and-forth discussions, innuendos and rumors - and just three months before the start of the regular season - Harvard University agreed to let the Boston Patriots use Harvard Stadium for their home football games. At this late date people were openly discussing the genuine possibility that the Pats could play every game on the road, or perhaps play their "home" games in Birmingham, Jacksonville or Tampa.
The Patriots had played at Harvard previously. The team opened the 1962 season with a 34-21 victory over the Houston Oilers at Harvard, then played the remainder of their home games that year at Boston University. Many at Harvard looked down their noses at the Patriots, and considered their stadium to be too high class to be sullied by professional sports, especially the Patriots. But at the same time they didn't want to come across as the local bully, villain and bad neighbor. For example, in a 1967
Harvard's public stance was that if they were to allow the Patriots to use their stadium, then city and state officials would not feel any sense of urgency to come to an agreement with the Pats on building a new stadium. That argument seemed to be mot when Billy Sullivan announced that the Patriots would be moving to Foxboro. However, when the Pats initially came back to Harvard and asked if they could use their stadium for one year, the school balked at the notion, stating that they were not confident that Sullivan would be able to put together financing for his new stadium. Even what that hurdle was overcome, some at Harvard then returned to the original argument that this professional sports team playing at their grand old stadium was a thought too odious to consider.
July 14, 1967:
Patriots to Play Two NFL Teams At Harvard Stadium this Summer | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Boston Patriots will play two exhibition football games in Harvard Stadium this August. The Patriots will clash with the
www.thecrimson.com
The Patriots will clash with the Baltimore Colts. Aug. 13, for the Ecumenical Charities of Richard Cardinal Cushing. On Aug. 26 the Patriots tackle the Washington Redskins for former Harvard Overseer Ralph Lowell's Order of the Shriners.
In a letter to Cardinal Cushing, President Pusey repeated Harvard's reluctance to have the Stadium used for professional athletics, but said that "we give our permission in the present instance out of respect for your position in the community and for your leadership of social and religious causes. We recognize the larger issue here of attempting in some measure to serve the community and to help the charities in which you and Mr. Lowell are interested."
Although the charities involved will pay Harvard nothing for the actual use of the stadium, they will pay all of the stadium's operating costs for the two exhibition games.
The Patriots have played in Harvard Stadium only twice before.
May 2, 1969:
Harvard Denies Reports Patriots Will Use Stadium | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard officials yesterday denied reports that the University has agreed to let the Boston Patriots play in Harvard Stadium. "The
www.thecrimson.com
"The Patriots have not talked directly to Harvard University for over a year, although there have been third-party conversations," said Charles P. Whitlock, assistant to the President for Civic and Governmental Relations. Nothing came of the third party talks, he said.
Whitlock's statement was a denial of reports arising from Wednesday's announcement by Patriots President William H. Sullivan, Jr., that the club would play its 1969 season in Boston--but in a stadium other than the club's current home at Fenway Park.
While Sullivan had refused to name the stadium, virtually all observers took it to be Harvard Stadium--the only other park in the Boston area with a capacity for major league football, and one which the Patriots have sought, off and on, for over ten years as a "temporary" home until a new stadium is constructed for them.
Harvard has always refused the requests, arguing, as did the Wilson Committee in its report of last January, that allowing the Patriots to come "temporarily" into Harvard Stadium will only impede progress toward constructing a permanent sports stadium in Boston.
In the past, whenever the Patriots have let it be known that they will leave Boston unless a new stadium is built, local officials and "concerned citizens" have quickly come up with a plan for a new stadium. The plans, however, have always been weak on the financing side--i.e. in determining how the deficit on the stadium will be met--and consequent opposition has always killed them.
The latest proposal--for a stadium in the South Station area, to be financed by receipts from a new toll road and tunnel--is believed to be fiscally more sound than previous plans, and may have a fair chance of being approved by the legislature.
Yesterday, Whitlock and other Harvard officials refused to say whether Harvard would reconsider its stand on a temporary Patriot's home in Harvard Stadium if the legislature adopted a concrete plan for a new stadium, but recent statements by Boston Mayor Kevin White and BRA Director Hale Champion indicate that the University might take a new look at the situation after the legislature has acted.
NFL's Boston Patriots Spent A Year in Harvard Stadium | News | The Harvard Crimson
Harvard Stadium is not only the site of countless Crimson victories on the gridiron, it is the answer to a
www.thecrimson.com
The Boston Patriots contacted Harvard athletic officials about using the stadium for the 1970 season while their current home in Foxboro was being built.
Harvard initially balked at the request but eventually granted the team the right to play at the stadium, albeit with several conditions, according to Patriots officials.
"I remember it was very hard getting Harvard to approve the use of the facility. There was serious opposition to having a pro franchise there. Eventually one member of the Board of Trustees said it was worthwhile," says Patrick Sullivan, whose father Bill owned the Patriots from 1960 until 1988.
Patrick Sullivan, who now is the owner of Game Creek Video, says Harvard agreed to host the Patriots on the condition that the Patriots play at the Stadium for one year only.
Harvard further demanded that the team replace the field at the end of the season, Sullivan says.
