A Look Back at Veterans Stadium
Veterans Stadium is a historical multi-purpose stadium that opened up in 1971. It was home of the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies, Temple Owls, and many other teams. The Eagles played their first game on September 26, 1971 and last game on January 19, 2003. The stadium held a total of 65,352 people. The stadium comprised of AstroTurf. The Oxford dictionary defines Astro-Turf as “An artificial grass surface, used for athletic fields.” The name came from Bill Giles who was the president of the Philadelphia Phillies. At that time he worked for the Houston Astros as their publicity director. He decided to change the name of the Huston’ Colt .45s to the Houston Astros after the Astro-Turf product, which is what that stadium was named after.
The Vet was closed after the Phillies 2003 season and later demolished on March 21, 2004, it would be demolished. However, you can still celebrate the memories of the Vet at Bucks County Baseball CO. Click Here to view our unique Veterans stadium items currently available on our website.
Phillies Championships at Veteran’s Field
The Philadelphia Phillies played games in two World Series at the Vet. The first one took place during October 14-21, 1980 where they played the Kansas City Royals. That particular world series was played in six games. Four were played in the Vet. The Phillies won the whole series and their record was 4-2. Several famous faces participated in this game for the Phillies like Bob Boone, Larry Bowa, Steve Carlton, Tug McGraw, Marty Bystrom, and Pete Rose. The World Series MVP of this game was Mike Schmidt. The winning game of the series was played in the Vet and the Phillies obtained a 4-1 win.
The second World Series the Phillies where games were played at the Vet was in 1993. The series took place during October 16-23, 1993, where they would face the Toronto, Blue Jays. Just like the 1980 World series it took six games to play. However, the Phillies lost this one. Three out of six of the games were played in the Vet. Some familiar Phillies who played in this World Series were Larry Anderson, Pete Incavigila, Danny Jackson, Milt Thompson and Mitch Williams. The Phillies lost the sixth and final game in Toronto with a score of 8-6.
The Eagles Championships at the Vet
The Philadelphia Eagles made it to the playoffs in the year 1980 after a 12-4 season and winning their NFC East division. After beating the Minnesota Vikings at home 31-16 they made it to the NFC Championship game. At that particular game they would face their big-time rivals the Dallas Cowboys on January 11th. This game featured QB Ron Jaworski, WR Harold Carmichael, LG Petey Perot, RG Woody Peoples, and RT Jerry Sisemore. This game was a very proud moment for the Eagles because not only did they beat their rivals in a playoff game but they got their way into their very first SuperBowl. They would play the Oakland Raiders in SuperBowl 15 in New Orleans on January 25, 1981. However, they would lose that game 27-10.
The final game the Eagles played at the Vet was an NFC Championship game on January 19, 2003. They won the division that year with a 12-4 record. They hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but would lose to them. The QB of this game was Donovan McNabb. Other players were RB Duce Staley, TE Chad Lewis, and FC Brian Dawkins. The final score was 27-10 with the Tampa Bay Bucs heading to the Superbowl.
After this game the Eagles would go on to their next stadium Lincoln Financial. However, they would not share this stadium with the Phillies. The Phillies would move on to Citizens Bank Park. Both stadiums would be right next to each other in the same venue. Finally, even though the stadium closed down over ten years ago it will always be treasured by many.
William Rodebaugh
Author