Downing Stadium

Downing Stadium, previously known as Triborough Stadium and Randall's Island Stadium, was a 22,000-seat stadium in New York City. It was renamed Downing Stadium in 1955 after John J. Downing, a director at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Overview

Built on Randalls Island in the East River as a WPA project, 15,000 attendees witnessed Jesse Owens compete at Randall's Island Stadium in the Men's Olympic Trials on July 11, 1936, the opening night of the new facility. Downing Stadium also hosted the Women's Olympic Trials in 1964. It was the site of an international soccer friendly in which England defeated the USA, 10–0, on May 27, 1964.

Triborough Stadium served as one of two home stadia of the football New York Yankees of the second AFL (along with Yankee Stadium) in 1936 and 1937; about four decades later, Downing Stadium became the home of the New York Stars of the WFL in 1974, and the New York Cosmos of the NASL in 1975 (for years after the Cosmos played there, the words "COSMOS SOCCER" remained on the stadium to be seen from the nearby highway viaduct on the Triborough Bridge).