Roosevelt Stadium (Union City, New Jersey)

Originally the site of the Hudson County Consumers Brewery Company, the property was purchased by what is now Union City for US$456,000, and turned it into a gated playground.

Built in the art deco style, and modeled after the Colosseum and arenas of ancient Greece and Rome, the ribbon-cutting ceremony that opened it was held on November 25, 1937.

Roosevelt Stadium stood 15 rows deep, and initially housed 7,000 people, with subsequent renovations enlarging that capacity to 11,000 and ultimately 18,000.

[3] For 88 consecutive years, the most notable aspect of their rivalry on the field was the annual Turkey Game, held on Thanksgiving, a tradition that began in 1919, when the high schools served the neighboring towns of West Hoboken in the south and Union Hill in the north, a rivalry described as "simmering hatred" that gave the schools' principals cause to fear that the first game might turn ugly.

A wooden chariot would be pulled around the field at halftime, carrying the football king and queen from the defending school, who were booed and pelted with paper when they got to the opposing side of Roosevelt Stadium.

Over the decades, coaches were known to zealously guard their game plans and players, who were alert for spies, were often excused from their classes to practice in secret locations.

According to David Wilcomes, a former football player and later football coach and the last principal of Union Hill High School, the Turkey Game developed a nearly religious significance as a Thanksgiving ritual for Union City citizens,[5] and a loss for one's favored team would cast a pall upon the day's subsequent holiday festivities, commenting, "If you don’t win, it's a long Thanksgiving dinner."

Wilcomes, whose father also played for Union Hill, stated that he stopped answering his home following losing games because his strategies would be endlessly reviewed and second-guessed by various relatives.

[4] During a halftime ceremony held during the 1998 Turkey Game, Union City Mayor Raul Garcia dedicated the field of the stadium to the Emerson High School Hall of Fame great Joseph "Pep" Novotny, who had died less than a month prior.

It sold commemorative tickets featuring photos of the 1919 Union Hill and Emerson teams, and a game program whose proceeds went the new school's scholarship fund.

During the final game, both principals sat together at halftime to present a united front, and the players on both teams were required to wear T-shirts bearing the new school's name under their shoulder pads.

[9] On July 11, 2005, acting New Jersey Governor Richard Codey and Union City Mayor Brian P. Stack, along with other officials, broke ground in preparation for the new complex.