Jersey City Times: Football, Boxing, Soccer, NASCAR: Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium Hosted More than Baseball

This is the ninth in a weekly series of essays on Jersey City’s illustrious sports history. It complements the Museum of Jersey City History’s current exhibit Legendary Arenas… and the Legends Who Performed There at the Apple Tree House (298 Academy Street). The exhibit is open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. until October 15.

by Peter Begans

September 5, 2025

More than just a baseball field, Roosevelt Stadium reflected Jersey City's wide-ranging interest in sports and entertainment.

Roosevelt Stadium was much more than a baseball field. It was the focus of the community’s wide-ranging interest in sports and entertainment. City residents enjoyed marching bands, carnivals, and religious festivals here, in addition to ice skating, NASCAR, Pelé, and the Grateful Dead.

Roosevelt Stadium witnessed important boxing matches. On July 2, 1940, former heavyweight champion Max Baer defeated “Two Ton” Tony Galento in a memorably brutal non-title battle. On September 21, 1948, European champion Marcel Cerdan of France took the world middleweight crown from champ Tony Zale. And on August 9, 1950, Sugar Ray Robinson defended his world welterweight crown against the game but out-matched Charlie Fusari.

The stadium was a favorite of wrestling fans as well. It was the site of an early face-off between World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) champion Bruno Samartino and his nemesis Gorilla Monsoon on October 4, 1963. Samartino would be disqualified but not lose his title that evening. He would reign for seven more years. A decade later, Mil Máscaras defeated former WWWF World Heavyweight Champion Ivan Koloff for the International Wrestling Association (IWA) Championship on October 7, 1975, before 14,000 fans. 

During the latter part of the 1930s, minor league pro football gained a tenuous foothold in the East when Tim Mara, owner of the NFL Giants, purchased a franchise and located it at Roosevelt Stadium. Led by superstar Ken Strong — who had been temporarily blackballed by the NFL — the Jersey City Giants won the American Professional Football Association title in 1938, and Strong was its scoring champion. Their chief rival was the Newark Bears, owned by George Halas and the Chicago Bears. Jersey City would again win the league title in 1940 and 1946, before the NFL ended its association with all minor league teams. 

Minor league football would make a comeback at Roosevelt Stadium in the 1960s. A Jersey City team, with varying names, would play five seasons in the Atlantic Coast Football Conference. Local ballplayers like Lou Rettino and Johnny Amabile would extend their playing careers and then go on to become legends as high school coaches. The stadium was also the site of hundreds of high school games, including sold-out games between Jersey City teams and North Hudson powerhouses like Memorial and North Bergen, coached by High School Hall of Fame coach Joe Coviello (who also would coach St. Peter’s College). 

A highlight of Thanksgiving morning was the annual gridiron match between Dickinson High School and St. Peter’s Prep.

The stadium hosted hundreds of high school football games.  Here rivals Snyder and Lincoln face off against each other in the 1940s.

Arguably the greatest football player to call Roosevelt Stadium his home turf was Snyder High School’s Richie Glover. Glover was all-county and all-state at Snyder before earning a scholarship to the University of Nebraska, where he played defensive tackle and middle guard. At Nebraska, Glover anchored the defensive line on two national championship teams, displaying unrivaled quickness and agility. In 1972, Glover would win the Lombardi Trophy as the nation’s best defensive lineman and finish third for the Heisman Trophy. In 1999, Sports Illustrated placed Glover as the starting defensive tackle on its all-time NCAA team. 

Jersey City State and St. Peter’s College would play their home football games at Roosevelt Stadium. The stadium was also the site of a pre-season exhibition match between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Giants in 1960. The game was arranged by Packer head coach Vince Lombardi and Jersey City native Ed Franco to celebrate the city’s 300th anniversary. Lombardi and Franco had bonded years before as part of Fordham University’s legendary line, the Seven Blocks of Granite. Roosevelt Stadium would also serve as the practice field for the New York Giants while the Meadowlands Stadium was being built in the mid-1970s. 

NASCAR briefly called Roosevelt Stadium home in the mid-1950s. NASCAR hosted a short track race at Roosevelt Stadium on June 27, 1953. The race was 50 miles: 200 laps on a quarter-mile paved oval track. Driver Jim Reed in his 1951 Ford defeated Ronnie Kohler in his 1950 Plymouth and 20 other starters. Time of race: 01:04:15, average speed: 46.693 mph. Similar events were run in 1954 and 1955. 

In the 1960s, the Harlem Globetrotters came to Roosevelt Stadium and pulled their usual tricks on their usual opponents. The Jersey City crowd loved it. Both the International Soccer League (1960) and North American Soccer League (1971, 1973) played at Roosevelt Stadium. The latter period featured two matches with Pelé that resulted in near riots as fans interrupted the games to mob the Brazilian superstar.

Roosevelt Stadium hosted dozens of  drum and bugle corps competitions  throughout its history. Champion organizations from throughout the Northeast and beyond performed during the National Dream Contest (“The Dream) from 1946 to 1983. 

The best drum and bugle corps organizations came to Roosevelt Stadium each August to perform in the National Dream Contest, known simply as “The Dream.”

Many New Jerseyans remember the rock ‘n’ roll concerts held at Roosevelt Stadium in the mid-1970s. They included the Beach Boys, The Band, the Allman Brothers, Yes, the Eagles, KISS, the Doobie Brothers, Chicago, and Pink Floyd. The Grateful Dead played the most concerts: eight events between 1972 and 1976. Some concert-goers remember learning of President Nixon’s resignation from Crosby, Stills and Nash at Roosevelt Stadium on the evening of August 8, 1974.

But all good things must come to an end. In November 1982, the Jersey City Council voted to demolish the decaying ballpark and replace it with middle-income housing. 

Time, the elements and a lack of city funding led to Roosevelt Stadium’s destruction in 1985.  Here the iconic scoreboard stands on the eve of demolition. 

Frank Hague’s Art Deco stadium was finally meeting the wrecking ball. Author David Krell, in his piece for Society for American Baseball Research, wrote: “Knocked down in 1985, Roosevelt Stadium exists in the custody of memories, where images, sounds, and stories of its better days echo like a monastery bell.”

The New York Times added: “It was the paradigm of elegance in a blue-collar town. It had panache and an almost human-like quality, a personality of its own. It was our stadium, a center of the socio-economic-political fabric of Jersey City.”

Peter Begans

Peter Begans is the curator of MJCH’s Legendary Arenas… and the Legends Who Performed There. He was born and raised in Jersey City and has had a long career as a teacher, journalist, speechwriter and public affairs representative.