Thompson Stadium

Thompson Stadium
Construction
Thompson Stadium during the 1942 Army-Navy game
Full name	Thompson Stadium
Location	Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Owner	United States Naval Academy (USNA)
Capacity	12,000
Field size	unknown
Built	1914
Opened	1914
Tenants
Navy Midshipmen football (NCAA) (1924–1959)

Coordinates: 38°58′43″N 76°28′59″W / 38.97861°N 76.48306°W / 38.97861; -76.48306

Robert Means Thompson Stadium was an American football stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. It was constructed in 1914, and served as the home stadium to the Navy Midshipmen football team of the United States Naval Academy between 1924 and 1959. It was replaced by the larger Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The stadium was named after Robert M. Thompson, a marine colonel and graduate of the Naval Academy. Thompson created or led several athletically based organizations at the academy until his death.

Before its conversion to a football stadium, the site of Thompson Stadium was unused area on the Naval Academy campus. Work on the stadium began in 1914, and was finished later the same year. The stadium could seat 12,000 people, and underwent few changes during its entire use. It was surrounded by a regulation running track, and only had a single seating section.

During the 1940s, the Naval Academy began to look for options to construct a new, larger football stadium. The school's directors collected money to build the stadium, for which much support was given by the public, due to the lack of seating at Thompson Stadium. Construction on the new stadium began in 1958, and the field, which would be named the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, was completed in 1959. Use of Thompson Stadium ended that year, but the arena remained until the 1980s, when it was replaced by Lejeune Hall.^[1]

Name

From its origins until the year of 1931, Thompson Stadium went without a name,^[2] and was referred to on maps as simply "Football Field".^[3] On May 30, 1931 the stadium was formally dedicated as the Robert Means Thompson Stadium, who was a benefactor and alumnus of the Naval Academy.^[4] Thompson was born in March 1849, and graduated from the Naval Academy as part of the class of 1868. He was commissioned as an officer in the Navy in 1869, but retired two years later to pursue a career in law. After leaving the navy, Thompson became active in helping with the athletics program at the Naval Academy, donating the Thompson Cup, an award given to the academy's athlete with the greatest improvement throughout the course of the season. In addition, Thompson served as the head of several Naval Academy organisations and founded the Naval Academy Athletic Association.^[5]

History

The Naval Academy's football team played their first game in 1879, an away game against the Baltimore Athletic Club. The game ended in a 0-0 tie.^[6] The Navy football team, not yet known as the "midshipmen",^[7] did not have an official stadium. For the duration of the 1880s, during which the squads obtained a record of thirteen wins, twelve losses, and two ties, the football squads most likely played home games on an unused drill or parade field.^[2]^[6] From the beginning of the 1890s until 1924, a period in which the Navy squads finished with an overall record of 202-82-23, the football team used Worden Field, a large multi-use athletic field for their home games.^[2]^[8]

References

Footnotes

↑ "1972 Reef Points map". USNA Parents Club of North Texas. 9 October 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
1 2 3 Kiland et al., p 191
↑ United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (Map) (1924 ed.). Cartography by C.E. Miller. United States Army. Improvements to June 30, 1924. § L31-M33. Check date values in: |date= (help)
↑ "Navy Dedicates Stadium In Honor Of Thompson". The Sun (Baltimore, Maryland). AP. 31 May 1931.
↑ Royston 2009 p. 213
1 2 Navy 2005 p. 154
↑ Staff (2013). "U.S. Naval Academy Facts, Figures and History". Traditions. United States Naval Academy. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
↑ Navy 2005, pp. 154–157

Bibliography

Kiland, Taylor Baldwin; Howren, Jamie (2007). A Walk in the Yard: A Self-Guided Tour of the U.S. Naval Academy. Annapolis, MD: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 1-59114-436-1. OCLC 72799100.
Naval Academy Athletic Association (2005). "Navy: Football History" (PDF). 2005 Navy Football. United States Naval Academy. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
Royston, Mark W (2009). The Faces behind The Bases: Short Biographies of Those for Whom Military Bases are Named. Bloomington IN: iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-4401-3712-9. OCLC 475622904.

Navy Midshipmen football

Venues	Worden Field (1890–1923) Thompson Stadium (1924–1958) Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (1959–present)

Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Army: Army–Navy Game (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy) Air Force (Commander-in-Chief's Trophy) Johns Hopkins Maryland: Crab Bowl Classic Notre Dame (Rip Miller Trophy) SMU (Gansz Trophy)

Culture & lore	Bill the Goat "Anchors Aweigh" Marching band "Navy ends the drought" 2007 North Texas game

People	Head coaches Statistical leaders

Seasons	1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

National championship seasons in bold

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