Foreman Field memories: From opening day to CSNY concert

By Harry Minium '77

It took less than three weeks for the remorseless brick-chewing machines to tear down an 82-year-old stadium that provided countless memories.

Foreman Field's foundation was cracked. Nets hung underneath the stands to catch any concrete that might fall.

"The old girl really needed to come down," said Stephen Ballard, whose S.B. Ballard construction firm is doing a $67.5 million renovation of Old Dominion University's football stadium.

Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard opens in August, and nearly all of the original stadium, constructed in 1936, is already gone. The new stadium will have 21,400 seats, most of them with back support. Concessions stands and restrooms will finally enter the 21st century.

The memories? They'll be with us as long as we live.

Here are some of the best that weren't in Monarch magazine's winter 2019 issue:

Opening day: On Oct. 3, 1936, the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary lost to the University of Virginia, 7-0. Crowd estimates vary from 15,000 to 17,500.

The cost of a treasured box seat? $1.65.

It was the Depression, which left millions unemployed and homeless, and war clouds loomed in Europe. But for one beautiful, though sweltering, day, the nation's problems were forgotten.

Norfolk Mayor W.R.L. Taylor called the game "a magnificent spectacle."

Proclaimed the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch:

"The handsome brick and concrete stadium, built to accommodate 18,000 spectators and embodying the latest improvements in stadium construction, is a monument to the foresight and untiring efforts of a group of local men who realized Norfolk's crying need for a plant of this type."

Norfolk Division football: The 1935 team finished 8-1, with the only loss coming to East Carolina Teachers College, which would become East Carolina University.

But when the Southern Conference decided after the 1940 season that its freshman teams would no longer play the Norfolk Division, putting together a schedule became almost impossible.

The Norfolk Division was winless in 1940. In its last home game, the division lost to Bergen College, 21-0, in front of 100 paying fans. The school's 546 students could attend the games for free, but few did. Revenue came to $16.70.

As World War II approached, the team was disbanded.

The Oyster Bowl: One of the most bizarre plays in college football happened in the 1977 Oyster Bowl, when William and Mary quarterback Tommy Rozantz was heading for what would be the game-winning touchdown in the third quarter against East Carolina.

When he got to the 2, he was blind-sided with a jarring shoulder-first tackle by a guy named Jim Johnson. "I hit him low and I hit him a good one," Johnson said.

Turns out, Johnson was a 65-year-old Virginia Beach resident and former ECU coach who was walking the sidelines as a spectator. "What else could I do? I knew (he) was going to score," Johnson said, adding an expletive.

Officials ruled it a touchdown, and the Tribe won, 21-17, knocking the Pirates out of contention for a postseason bowl. There was no ESPN at the time, but the highlight was played and replayed on national TV.

The last game played at Foreman Field, in which ODU crushed VMI, 77-14 was the 69th annual Oyster Bowl, and it was a fitting farewell for the stadium.

Playground for Larchmont kids: Julia Johnston Pezza, a lifelong Larchmont resident, recalls looking for change in the stands after games in the '60s and '70s.

"People would drop $1 bills, even $5 and $10 bills, out of their pockets," said Pezza, an ODU graduate who works in human resources for the Navy. "It was an easy way to get money to go spend at Tinee Giant."

Norfolk State football: When I was a student at ODU, I would occasionally spend Saturday afternoons or evenings with dozens of my classmates watching Norfolk State play on our campus. It was the only college football in town.

Norfolk State began playing football there in the 1960s, and continued until 1997, when the school opened its 28,000-seat Dick Price Stadium.

NSU officials said three games at Foreman Field stand out.

Norfolk State won the 1984 CIAA title and its only NCAA Division II berth when it held off Winston-Salem State, 20-19, on Nov. 17, 1984.

A year later, Hampton defeated Norfolk State, 36-35. It was a disheartening loss in the Battle of the Bay, but it drew 30,307, the largest crowd the Spartans ever attracted to Foreman Field.

Then, on Oct. 8, 1994, came one of the wildest games ever played at the stadium. Aaron Sparrow threw for a school-record 516 yards and seven touchdown passes. NSU trailed, 48-38, with three minutes left, but Sparrow helped the Spartans score twice in the last 2:42 to beat Winston-Salem State, 50-48.

Fittingly, ODU's first game in the new S.B. Ballard Stadium on Aug. 31 will be against Norfolk State.

Norfolk Neptunes: The Neptunes played seven seasons at Foreman Field, and led all minor league football teams in attendance. The Continental Football League sent dozens of players to the NFL, including Norfolk's Otis Sistrunk.

I attended a game in 1965 in which the Neps trailed the Philadelphia Bulldogs, 35-7, at the half and came back and won, 42-35. I could hardly hear the announcers because the fans made so much noise.

That was back in the day, when men wore hats and ties to games, although the crowds were anything but straight-laced. Booze was rampant in the end zones.

After extra points were kicked, people would sometimes get hurt fighting for the balls, which spectators were allowed to keep. One bounced out of the crowd and into my hands, and I ran with it to avoid being tackled.

The Neps won the Atlantic Coast Football League title in 1971, beating Hartford. The league folded just weeks later.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: According to a Ledger-Star story by Larry Bonko, there were five doctors, a pharmacist, 27 nurses and 18 paramedics under tents to treat injured and sick people at the Aug. 17, 1974, concert. More than 140 people needed treatment, including 27 for drug overdoses. In all, police arrested 33 people. But one officer acknowledged that they eventually gave up arresting people for jumping the fence.

There were just too many to stop.

Other ODU sports and events: In the nearly seven decades in which ODU did not play football, Foreman Field was used for myriad events, including graduations, freshman orientation and intramural sports, from powder puff football to softball.

Fred Rogers, better known as Mister Rogers, the host of the PBS children's show, spoke at ODU's 2000 commencement at Foreman Field.

Old Dominion's track and field, men's soccer and women's lacrosse teams all played at Foreman. But the longest-running tenant was the field hockey team, which played there until its new field hockey stadium at the L.R. Hill complex opened in 2009.

Beth Anders coached ODU field hockey for 30 years, and she won nine national championships, her last against North Carolina in 2000 at Foreman Field.

Modern football at ODU: One of the best games I've seen, of course, was the 49-35 upset of No. 12 Virginia Tech last Sept. 22. ESPN had given ODU a 1.8 percent chance of winning.

Talk about underdogs. Quarterback Blake LaRussa, who walked-on at ODU without a scholarship, came off the bench to throw for 495 yards and four touchdowns and run for another one.

After the game, President John R. Broderick offered an emotional speech in the locker room. Earlier that day, he had attended his father's funeral in Connecticut.

"Today might have been the saddest day of my life," he said. "And to come back here and to get this, I can't thank you enough."

The locker room went nuts as players cheered and hugged Broderick.

Yes, the old stadium is gone, but the memories live on.

And next fall, when the new Kornblau Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium opens, fans will begin making new memories, as cherished as the old.