Schaefer Stadium

Watching the crews clean off the seats in the nice, modern, Gillette Stadium in preparation for today's game against the Jets, reminds me of the first game I ever went to in Foxboro.

After many years of watching the Patriots play at BC, BU, Harvard Stadium, and even Fenway Park, they opened Schaefer Stadium, named after a beer company. Finally, on August 15, 1971, the Patriots played the hated New York Giants before over 60,000 fans. Nobody knew what to expect, and the traffic was a nightmare. We barely made it to the stadium in time for the kickoff but we had good seats. We had purchased season tickets the year before when they were still playing at Harvard Stadium. Our seats were on the 10 yard line at Harvard, but at the much larger Schaefer Stadium we were on the 40 yard line, Section 321, right in front of Reggie Smith, the right fielder for the Red Sox. Three of us had purchased two season tickets each, so we had a crew of six.

By halftime things began to go downhill. The concessions stands were beginning to run out of food, and even worse, running out of beer. Fans were buying as many beers as they could carry, and before long things were out of control. Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, the rest rooms malfunctioned and backed up. It was total chaos, but the fun had just begun. The State Police were completely unprepared for the traffic on Route 1 near the stadium, so it was gridlock. We got home at 2 AM from an 8 PM game. Oh yeah, the Patriots won 20-14.