Joliet Memorial Stadium

Coordinates: 41°31′19″N 88°09′21″W / 41.521913°N 88.155842°W / 41.521913; -88.155842 Joliet Memorial Stadium is a 10,000-seat multipurpose stadium located in Joliet, Illinois. It is used mostly for American football and soccer matches, and also sometimes for athletics. It was built in the 1950s and is dedicated to Joliet residents who fought in World Wars I and II as well as the Korean War.

It is the home of the University of St. Francis Saints team, and the Joliet Catholic Academy teams. It is the former home of the Joliet Junior College Wolves football team after the school cancelled the program in 2011, and the Joliet Buccaneers of the MidStates Football League after they moved to Naperville, Illinois. It was also the home of the National Christian College Athletic Association National Championship for Outdoor Track and Field from 2011-2013.

It is used for other events, including Independence Day fireworks as well as summer festivals.

For many years after it opened when the track surrounding the football field was made of cinders, the stadium also doubled as the Joliet Speedway where it mainly hosted Stock car and Midget racing. The stadium was the home of the United Auto Racing Association (UARA) and among the regular drivers at the speedway were midget racers from neighboring towns including Streator native Bob Tattersall (who would later go on to win the 1969 USAC National Midget Championship) and "Wild" Willie Wildhaber from Lexington.. The Stadium would run speedway from its opening until 2009. During the 1980s the cinders track was replaced with asphalt.[1][2]

In May 2009, renovations on the aging stadium began with the installation of a new, state-of-the-art LED video scoreboard to replace the old, screenless one. By the end of the renovations, planned to be sometime before the 2010 college football season, artificial turf will be installed, along with a new track surface to surround the field.

References

  1. ↑ Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections
  2. ↑ Joliet Memorial Stadium - Midget
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