The News Tribune from Tacoma, Washington • A14

thenewstribune.com A14 Tuesday, September 14, 2010 THE TEST OF TIME SopL 10, wOS-Tacoma High School opens in what was to be a Northern Pacific Railroad tourist hotel Juib WW Opening ceremonies are held for Tacoma Stadium which has been built for $160,000 into a gulch next door. April 9, WT1 Former President Teddy Roosevelt speaks. WU- Tacoma and Seattle school boards ban intercity football games in response to rudeness and rowdyism. August 31 BM- With the opening of Lincoln Park (later just Lincoln) High School, the district dubs its first school Stadium High, marking the first and perhaps only time a school was named after a stadium, rather than the other way around. Thflnka0vtagWI4- In a fundraising event to help war-torn Belgium, Oregon State defeats Southern California.

It was the first time the Trojans played a game outside of California. Jl4yZ7, WE-Band director John Philip Sousa and his band perform before the largest seated crowd to ever hear the American musician. Sept. 18, WW President Woo draw Wilson speaks during his national tour to build support for the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations. i Bin Mi Richards Studio Collection, Tacoma Public Library The Stadium Bowl was indar contraction April of 1909.

Designed by pcai i uauw iTPuoncK imam ma powi mo mi biibi suamu capacay 2488.lt was dedkatad on June WW. 5, W23 President Warren Harding speaks during a stop in Tacoma on his way to Alaska. Oct W24-A barnstorming Babe Ruth plays an exhibition. Despite local lore, Ruth did not hit a ball into Commencement Bay. 40,000 attend the annual Fourth of July celebration on the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Nov. 1, W29 With temporary lights aimed at the field, Washington and Puget Sound play the first night football game in the Northwest before 20,000 fans. UW 73, CPS 0. Sept W31- Boxer Jack Dempsey appears in an exhibition to raise money for the Milk Fund, which bought milk for needy kids. January, W32 A sewer line in the floor ruptures, sending mud and debris over the open end and down onto railroad tracks below.

CELEBRATIONS The Centennial of Stadium Bowl will be celebrated this weekend with a series of events. FOOD DRIVE Beginning at 4 p.m. Friday and ending at 4 p.m. Saturday, sponsors along with the Emergency Food Network and the Tacoma School District are hoping to set a Guinness World Record for most food collected in a 24-hour period. Donations of nonperishable food items or cash will be collected at all the events.

FRIDAY parade (from Sixth and St. Helens to the school) 7 pm -Welcome Back Football Game, Stadium vs. Bellarmine. movies in the bowl. Bueller'sDayOff and "10 Things I Hate About SATURDAY 8ajiLtoTlajiL Pancake breakfast in the cafeteria.

($6) 6A0ajn.to1k30ajn. Golden Grad reception for alums who graduated in 1959 and earlier. (Stadium library) TlajiLto Mini-reunions from classes of 1960 and later. (Stadium classrooms, look for signs) 2pjn.tD4pjn.-All Community Program and announcement of results of food drive. The program will be reminiscent of earlier pageants and will include a performance by 100 high school cheerleaders, a reenact-ment of the speeches of the three presidents who appeared in the bowl, the 56th Army band, the Stadium Jazz Band, Choir and Drumline, the Young Ambassadors of Physical Education, and the Broadway Center's Cirque Works.

(See www. celebratestadium.com far more information) Marvin D. Boland Collection, Tacoma Public library President Warran a Harde and hat wife voted Sfadarn Bowl on July 5, W23, and apofca bofore a crowd of about 25,000. The centannlal colobrBtlon on Saturday wll hduda reanacOTienti of three presidential speeches. Nov.

30, W40 In an upset that makes national news, tiny Pacific Lutheran College defeats then-powerhouse Gonzaga 16-13. Dbc. 6, W41 Washington State loses to Texas 7-0, in the first Evergreen Bowl. April 13, W40 The most-severe earthquake on record, measuring 7.1, shakes the region and damages the concrete structure. Engineers condemn and fence off the seating bowl.

Now, 12, WB0 With $50,000 in school district funds, a partially restored Stadium Bowl reopens with celebrations and the first home game since the 1949 earthquake. Bellarmine 12, Stadium 6. Jan.21.W66-Noted architect Silas Nelson presents a plan to renovate the bowl to 45,000 seats and add parking to help the region attract a pro football team. May 11,1976 -The result of student fundraising and donations, a new grass field with elaborate irrigation and drainage systems beneath is completed. Sept.

7, W60-Using a federal grant, the bowl is renovated minus its horseshoe end and the sections nearest the bay but with new artificial turf. Oct. 6, W61 A stormwater line on Street is overwhelmed during a rainstorm. The cascade of water ruins the bowl renovations. Oct 24, W85-Stadium Bowl reopens yet again after repairs are made and lawsuits resolved from the 1981 washout.

It is the fifth inauguration in the stadium's 75-year history. May 28, W96-Touchstone Pictures transforms the school and the bowl into Padua High, inexplicably in Seattle, for the movie "10 Things I Hate About You." celebration of Tacoma StadiumStadium Bowl. News Tribune file This photograph was taken Jan, 5, 1982, after a sewer he tithe floor ruptured and created a flood that caused heavy damage to the floors and walls and sent mud and debris onto the ratroad tracks below. i I i l-r Richards Studio Collection, Tacoma Public Library Footbal players had up for the kkiwff Day charity game at Stadium Bowl, pltthg Army agahst Navy. Many players ware axporkincod athlotfls who had played at West Point and Amapols.

The stands ware packed wMi 84)00 and local fans who sat hi the cold and rafci. Hours of rabi had turned the fkrid Into a soa of mud and sfcne. Navy won the contest, 62, wUi a forward pasa from Coombs to SawlstafTy the ganars closing A sites. BOWL FrontPage Al with concrete and create a stadium like no other? Residents bought commemorative stamps. They purchased season tickets for admission to astadium not yet built and events not yet scheduled.

And once they'd raised $50,000, the school district that owned the high school put up another $100,000 and the project was on. THE FATHERS Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan. So the inspiration for something like Tacoma Stadium is claimed by several. Some say it was Frederick Heath, the architect who had transformed the never-completed, fire-damaged and partially demolished tourist hotel into what is now Stadium High School. Others say Heath got the idea from Tacoma booster Charles Cutter, who had visited the ancient amphitheaters in Greece as well as the 1896 Olympic stadium in Athens.

Whatever the source, Heath pursued the idea. THE PLAN Heath enlisted City Engineer Laws on A. Nicholson to draw up the plans. At first the school board balked, deciding to level the floor of the gulch as simple playfields instead. Only after schoolkids and business leaders took up the issue and began raising the money did the board give in.

Workers used water jets, steam shovels, horse-drawn carts and men with broad backs to move 180,000 cubic yards of earth to form the floor and the sides. Pillars were sunk to hardpan, beams were attached to those, and latticed steel girders were stretched in between. Lumber was cut to build concrete forms, and concrete was pumped into those to construct 31 tiers of seats and two broad staircases up to the street. "As a piece of monolithic concrete," Heath wrote, "the stadium is one of the most remarkable structures ever built." Wrote Pacific Monthly Magazine: "Except perhaps for its ancient prototype, the famous Greek Stadium, no other structure in the world possesses such a magnificent location with such a far-reaching outlook on mountains and Seating capacity was just under 25,000. Or 32,000.

Or 40,000. It all depended on who was counting and whether those standing on the promenade, sitting on the grassy slopes above or leaning over the railing uponE Street were included. THE CELEBRITIES Teddy Roosevelt. Warren Harding. Woodrow Wilson.

William Jennings Bryan. The Rev. Billy Sunday. John Philip Sousa. Babe Ruth.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Bob Hope. Jack Dempsey. Heath Ledger. All appeared at Tacoma StadiumStadium Bowl.

(OK, Ledger used it as a set for the movie "10 Things I Hate About You," but thaf technically an appearance.) Any time a celebrity or act was popular enough and a big venue was needed, the stadium was it. 'Rebuilding of this stadium will influence your city for decades and will influence every city in the nation," Roosevelt said in April 1911. "During my travels I had heard of this extraordinary feature of your municipal life I know of nothing like it on this side of the water or abroad." THE PAGEANTS It began with the 1910 grand opening, big shows filling the floor of the stadium with all sorts of spectacles. Some 7,000 dancers performed dances, exercises and drills. Two hundred girls spelled out "Tacoma" while 4,000 schoolchildren formed an American flag.

Later, a track meet was held, featuring Tacoma versus rivals from Seattle's Broadway, Queen Anne and Lincoln high schools. That gave birth to an annual event know as Stadium Day during which thousands of local schoolchildren would gather to show off their drill teams, bands, folk dances and calisthenics. The Stadium was the home of the annual Fourth of July extravaganza that included military units from Camp Lewis and ships from the Navy. Fireworks were set up in the open end of the bowl. "Colored flares formed huge pictures," wrote Tacoma favorite son sometimes a local Army-Navy game or a contest between the likes of Southern California and Oregon State would be the attraction.

THE DISASTERS Old Woman's Gulch "Hud-hud-gus" to the Puyallups was formed by nature for an excellent reason. It channeled rainwater and groundwater from the bluff above to the bay below. Therefore filling it with dirt, pouring concrete around the edges and hoping to redirect all that water into pipes and trenches was a risky idea. After the first game in 1910, the mud was so thick that games were cancelled until repairs could be made. Several times, nature won out In 1932 and 1981 the system failed and flood waters ripped gashes in the floor and the walls.

And then there were the earthquakes in 1949 and 1965 that cracked the primitive concrete and left the bowl unusable. In fact, out of its 100 years of life, the stadium has been off-limits for nearly 20 of those. And it was dedicated five different times, first in 1910 and again in 1934, 1960, 1980 and 1985. Each time many in town said it should not be repaired, that its time had passed, that it was too expensive to bring it back to life. And each time residents, especially the schoolchildren, stood in the way and insisted that it be saved.

THE FUTURE No longer the city's primary gathering place, Stadium Bowl with fresh Field Turf and relatively clean and safe seating areas is one of the most-striking high school sports venues in the state if not the country. It is home for Stadium and Wilson football and soccer teams and the place where hundreds of physical education students learn to count the steps (but no, despite "10 Things I Hate About You," they dont practice archery). For visiting athletes and spectators, the view of the castle above and Puget Sound below is enough to take their breath away. Or maybe they just haven't had a chance to recover from the trip down the stairs. Peter Canadian: 253-597-8657 ptfer.canagfumthenewstribuneom Murray Morgan.

"The Monitor and the Merrimac dueled with skyrockets. Vesuvius erupted. A circle of covered wagons fought off attackers. The Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill." A Golden Jubilee celebration was held to commemorate the state's 50th birthday in 1939. And 5,000 even gathered at the stadium not to celebrate the completion of the first Narrows Bridge but to commemorate the decision by the federal government to pitch in $2.7 million.

THE GAMES Above all else, the Stadium was a place for kids to play sports (despite the often deplorable condition of the field). Track and field were the first to use the floor of the bowl, but soon football followed. Because there was only one school in town, Tacoma had to bring in opponents from Seattle, Everett, Aberdeen and Bremerton. Rooters would descend via train or steamship and stay overnight in local hotels. But after the Aberdeen fans had the audacity to storm the field and perform what was termed a provocative version of the Snake Dance, locals nearly rioted outside their hotel.

As a result, the school board banned intercity games, reinstating them a few years later. The College of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran College played each other as well as rivals such as the University of Washington and Gonzaga Washington State played two big intersectional games at the bowl, against Texas in 1941 and Perm State in 1948. The Cougars lost both games by the same score 7-0. In 1929, temporary lights allowed the first night game in the Northwest When fog began to roll in, reporter Herb Larson wrote, "At times the players were as faintly visible as lumps of barley in the bowl of cream of celery soup." The bowl, though an unlikely baseball stadium, was home to the city league that pitted teams from Tacoma neighborhoods such as Street, Tacoma Avenue, Fern Hill and the 23rd Street Skidoos. Then there was the Babe, who split up with fellow Yankee Bob Meusel and captained teams of local all-stars Ruth with the Tacoma players and Meusel with those from the Timber League in Thurston, Mason and Grays Harbor counties.

And the bowl was the place for the annual Turkey Day football game for fans throughout the city who would arrive on the various streetcars that converged on the district. Often the game would pit the top two City League teams, but a.