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Today in Patriots History
The Great Flush
The Great Flush
Saturday September 4, 1971:
When Schaefer Stadium was hastily built on a barebones budget, one item that was scrimped on was the plumbing. The water system could not handle all the toilets being flushed continuously during halftime of the first preseason game, obviously a major issue. The water pressure failed, causing unflushable toilets to back up and overflow (including in the visitors locker room, for example).
The Foxborough Board of Health was not amused and was on the verge of shutting the stadium down as a health hazard. On the day before the second preseason game Bill Sullivan thought the problem had been fixed, but he had to convince the local authorities.
In order to prove to the town that Schaefer Stadium was ready for the game, the Patriots' front office rounded up a Great Flush Committee of 320 people, including all the Sullivans and many beat writers, to flush every toilet in the building at the exact same moment. The stadium passed the test (barely), but that was enough to go ahead and play the next game.
Ah, the memories from Schaefer and Foxboro Stadium - Jim Donaldson, South Coast Today
Because Schaefer was "the one beer to have when you're having more than one," and the fans who went to watch the Patriots in those days ALWAYS had more than one.
And why, you may also ask, did the toilets overflow?
Overuse from overindulgence in the product for which the stadium was named, that was one reason. Lack of water pressure was another.
At any rate, the Board of Health was not going to allow the stadium to be used again unless the problem was solved.
So, just days before the season opener with Oakland, Patriots employees, stadium workers, and even a few sports writers were recruited to participate in the Great Flush. My good friend, the always-helpful Ron Hobson, was among them.
"The stadium had to pass the 'flush' test," recalled Hobson, who has covered the Patriots for the Patriot-Ledger of Quincy every season since the first in 1960.
"I was stationed in the men's room on the west side. There was one other guy with me. He was assigned to the toilets. I had the urinals. I can't remember exactly what the signal was -- I think it was a horn -- but, when the blast went off, we had to flush everything, as quickly as we could."
There was a great gurgle. A tense moment or two. And then -- the Great Flush was a great success. The stadium opened, and the rest is history.
The Great Flush somehow seemed to symbolize a stadium that, by NFL standards, was much closer to an outhouse than a penthouse.
Built for slightly more than $7 million -- less than some players are paid per season these days -- it was the most utilitarian of facilities, utterly lacking in charm or creature comforts.
As former Dolphins coach Don Shula, whose memories of Foxboro Stadium are far from fond, said "They got what they paid for."
Stanley Morgan, the best wide receiver the Patriots have ever had, recalled the first time he saw the place.
"Coming from Tennessee, where we had seating for 80,000 at the time, when my wife and I came into this stadium, she thought it was the practice facility," Morgan said. "I had to explain to her that this was the stadium where we were going to be playing."
The stadium never has evoked the sort of warm, sentimental memories that come to mind when you think about Fenway Park, that "lyric little bandbox of a ballpark," as author John Updike called it, or the beloved, and now demolished, Boston Garden.
Fenway has The Wall. The Garden had that famous parquet floor on which the Celtics won so many championships. Foxboro Stadium has . . . well . . .
"We were trying to think of something," Jonathan Kraft, son of team owner Robert Kraft, said recently, "we can keep as memorabilia from Foxboro Stadium. Nothing really stands out right now."
Good article about the lowlights of the history of the Schaefer Stadium era Patriots here:
Patriots' success rose out of strange beginnings -- Cape Cod Times
When they finally got their own home, in 1971, things arguably got worse.
Schaefer Stadium was built for $7 million, a rock-bottom price even then. Equally charmless Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia also opened in 1971, but cost $63 million.
The Patriots’ final game at BC was marred by a stampede after a popcorn maker under the stands burst into flames and the fire spread, scattering large sections of the crowd. During their first home game at Schaefer Stadium there were widespread toilet overflows. (Whomever designed the plumbing there had a wicked sense of humor—some of the urinals were installed 6 feet off the ground.)
No longer the Boston Patriots, owner Billy Sullivan wanted to christen the relocated team the Bay State Patriots, but the NFL rejected the name, not wanting to be associated with a team called the B.S. Patriots.
1990: A NEW NADIR
By won-loss record, the worst team in NFL history is the 1976 Tampa Bay 0-14 team. They won nothing, yet still drew big crowds: 40,000 to 60,000 for home games to see this novelty team in orange sherbet uniforms.
But for myriad maladies, no team can compete with the 1990 Patriots.
They lost 15 of their 16 games.
One lowlight was the Redskins game. They lost badly in a driving rain endured by 22,286 hapless souls. (A UMass versus Delaware game that fall drew 22,184.) One year coach Rod Rust led the team to last place in a season best remembered for the Zeke Mowatt incident; the unheralded tight end exposed himself to a female Boston Herald reporter in the locker room. He would later start a janitorial service company in Hackensack, New Jersey.
By 1990, team founder Billy Sullivan was in a reduced role after having been forced to sell the team after son Chuck's disastrous promotion of the 1984 Jackson Victory Tour. Teetering on bankruptcy, they had to beg the NFL for a loan to meet payroll and after Sullivan's wife filed for divorce, he took up residence in an unused office at the stadium.
BANNED FROM MONDAY NIGHT
The Patriots are the only NFL team ever banned from Monday Night Football.
After a drunken debacle during a 1981 game against the Cowboys—violence, chaos in the parking lots, multiple fires in the stands—the NFL refused to allow the Patriots on lucrative MNF again until 1995.
Just three minutes into the game you could hear broadcaster Howard Cosell say, “Some object has been thrown onto the field,” but things were just getting started in the stands. The New York Times vaguely referred to the “tumult that occurred after dark.” There were reports not only of fires being intentionally set, but of drunken fans interfering with fire crews sent in to battle the flames and even slashing at firefighter hoses with pocket knives!
I was the Plumber for 4x Pro Bowler and Patriots' Hall of Famer...
As a tradesman and a sports fan, there was nothing more exciting than working in the home of a professional athlete. In 1985 I was an Apprentice working for a Plumber who had the plumbing maintenance ...
www.barstoolsports.com
As a tradesman and a sports fan, there was nothing more exciting than working in the home of a professional athlete. In 1985 I was an Apprentice working for a Plumber who had the plumbing maintenance contract at Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough, home of the New England Patriots.
I was the newest hire and unfortunately, I never got a game day assignment. I did go there during the week to do some basic repair, mostly to fix broken flushometers that had suffered alcohol-induced destruction. Gameday was easy, two plumbers, each carrying a pair of Channellocks, a 4-way screwdriver, a walkie-talkie, and a lot of "Out of Order" signs. The plumbing system at Sullivan Stadium (formerly Schaefer Stadium and later Foxboro Stadium) was horrible and there were constant backups. By half time a good portion of the sinks, urinals, and toilets were out of order. After games we'd fix what we could before the next one.
‘Super Flush’ Tests Baseball Stadium’s New Restroom Facilities
Key aspects in this quick read: restrooms, toilets, urinals, commissioning - From Building Operating Management and Facility Maintenance Decisions. Helping facility professionals with their jobs and careers.
www.facilitiesnet.com
The Texas Rangers aren’t the first professional sports team to employ a Super Flush. New England Patriots are the originators, having conducted a similar test in 1971. This one, however, happened under less-than-ideal conditions. After Schaefer Stadium (aka Foxboro Stadium) opened, there were some problems. During the first game, several sinks and toilets backed up because the stadium’s plumbing couldn’t handle the flush volume. The Board of Health threatened to shut down the stadium, so after some repairs were made, the Super Flush was conducted to make sure the toilets worked. And this time they passed.
