Traveling Man

With my trip to very cold Edmonton and a warmer Vancouver on the horizon, I started to think about all the stadiums and arenas I have been in or seen. I can say that in 68 years, I have seen a whole lot of them. 

As I have been in all 50 states and been to 24 major league franchises, I have been to numerous colleges for games, or just entered the arenas for fun and a memory. Not that I limit my exploration to athletics and academia. I also like to see state capitals and Supreme Courts and national parks.

My zest for travel came from my father, who drove to Florida many times when I was young, enduring heavy snow on Route 301 in Maryland or going through Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. before sunrise on Route 1 to avoid the horrendous rush hours that were pre-Interstates. Similarly, on our multiple cross-country trips, which started in 1959 when I was 8 years old and persisted through 1971, we endured the long stretches of hills in Wheeling, WV, the large expanses of Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN and St. Louis, MO while observing the blasting into the mountains of Colorado to push the Interstates further across the country. I knew Route 66 when it was a big deal. I saw Las Vegas in its infancy, before the desert outpost became the megalopolis it has become. 

Thus it is no surprise that my traveling showed me places I never thought I would see, yet opened me up to the magnificence of the United States. With my love of sports, I saw even more. While this may seem like an ego driven article, it is a reflective assessment of my travels  and how my view of sports intersected with geography. I hope you will indulge me as I reminisce, perhaps you have been to many of these places and have your own memories too. 

For instance, I have seen the inside of every Ivy League stadium, going to games at Yale, Princeton and Penn. I even passed Brown Stadium while they were hosting Harvard. I have seen basketball games at Princeton and Columbia. 

The city of Philadelphia and its environs has been special to me. I have seen the 76’ers in three arenas, and the Phillies in three ballparks. I have seen every campus in the area. Yet I have not been to a hockey game in Philadelphia nor an Eagles game.

In the New York metropolitan area, I have gone to three NL parks, the three incarnations of Yankee Stadium, seen the three hockey teams at home, been to two Madison Square Gardens and the two stadiums in the Meadowlands, Continental Airlines Arena, and the Prudential Center in Newark. I often pass the Red Bulls stadium in Harrison.

I have been inside old and venerable sites like Wrigley Field in Chicago and the Boston Garden. I have seen NBA games in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Cleveland and Philadelphia. I have even been inside the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, CA to see a Kings game.

We drove past the old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, home of the A’s and Chiefs. We were on the Interstate in St. Louis, passing Busch Stadium while the 1965 MLB All-Star Game was in progress. 

Early morning trips got us inside of Stanford Stadium and Notre Dame Stadium. We have seen the main Olympic venues in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Atlanta, as well as Squaw Valley. I talked my way into the old Charlotte Coliseum so I could view the honeycomb basketball floor. 

I have attended basketball games on the home floors of ACC members Virginia and Miami. Paying homage to the best college basketball rivalry in America, I have been inside of Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke and the Smith Center at Chapel Hill. Ditto Pauley Pavilion, the home of the UCLA Bruins in 1978, when the men’s basketball team was still relevant. I drove past the Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY and the homes for Louisville football and basketball; same with Alabama, Purdue, Indiana, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, West Virginia, Marshall, NC State Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Wyoming, Michigan State, Arizona, Arizona State, Tennessee and LSU and many more.

Did I see RU men’s basketball away from the RAC? How about at Delaware, Cincinnati, Penn Sate and at Seton Hall along with Madison Square Garden.

I have been inside of both the Big House at Michigan, saw Ohio State invade Camp Randall Stadium and play Wisconsin and stood on the field at the Horseshoe in Columbus. We walked into the basketball arenas at the Citadel and BYU while programs were  being held. I have peered though the locked doors of the Pit, the home of the New Mexico Lobos basketball team and the site of an NCAA final, in order to catch a glimpse of the historic floor way below ground level. 

I have seen the dog house and fire hydrant on the field at Georgia, readied for UGA, the school’s illustrious mascot. We walked between the hedges at Auburn and I saw the basketball floor where Charles Barkley once roamed. 

I ran on the track of Byrd Stadium at Maryland and at Maine, and we jogged on the turf at Clemson Stadium. We walked into Gampel Pavilion at UConn to see the championship banners hanging from the rafters. I saw a scrimmage for Maryland basketball at the old Cole Field House, and I went to an American University basketball games at Fort Myer and Delaware;  I knew Kermit Washington, American basketball All-American while I was attended the Washington Semester Honors Program in Government. 

I drove past a decaying Tiger Stadium in Detroit and saw a game in Comerica Park. I have seen the homes for the Pistons and Lions in Pontiac, Auburn Hills and Detroit, while observing the completion of the new home for the Pistons and the Red Wings. 

I have seen hockey in the old Pittsburgh Civic Arena and in the gleaming PPG Arena. I was inside Hienz Field to shoot a PSA. In a bow to history, I went up to the wall remnant from Forbes Field behind the law school at Pitt and entered the arena on campus where Pitt Stadium proudly stood.

Domes—I have seen games in the Georgia Dome, the Sky Dome, the Metrodome and the Kingdome. I walked into the Carrier Dome on Syracuse’s campus. We visited the Houston Astrodome when baseball was on strike. We drove past the Alamodome in San Antonio and the Walk-Up Skydome at Northern Arizona. I have even been inside the Fargodome where North Dakota State plays both basketball and football. 

I went to Senators games and a Redskins-Eagles game in 1971 at R.F.K. Stadium. I have seen the hated rivals, the Dodgers and Giants, play each other in LA.  

I have gone out of my way to see the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the Rose Bowl, the home of the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, other NFL stadiums in Charlotte, Green Bay, Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver, Arizona, New England and Nashville. Whenever I go to see the Orioles at Camden Yards, I walk past the Ravens purple stadium. Same thing happened when we saw the Reds in Cincinnati—the Bengals’ Paul Brown Stadium was adjacent to the baseball park. I even traveled to get a glimpse of Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, the site for many years of the NFL All-Star game. One couldn’t miss the Bucs’ home in Tampa when I drove past the Yankees’ Spring home. I am certainly able to see the Merceds-Benz Superdome dominating the New Orleans skyline. 

Don’t worry, I have also seen the NBA arenas in Portland, Utah, Phoenix, Indianapolis, Miami, Orlando, Minnesota, Houston, the Key Arena in Seattle where the Super Sonics played and is the birthplace of the new Seattle NHL team. We rode past the NHL-NBA facilities like the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the United Center in Chicago, T.D. Garden in Boston and the Staples Center in LA. You cannot miss the Oracle Arena, hard by the Oakland Coliseum. We have been to NBA games in the Miami Arena and in Cleveland. 

Hockey did not take a back seat, as I have driven by or walked up to the NHL sites in Arizona, Buffalo, Florida, Las Vegas and Nashville. While in Montreal, I walked past the fabled Forum. Two years ago, my son and I went to a hockey game at the Air Canada Center, the home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors. Whenever we go through Hartford, I look to the right for the Hartford Civic Center where the Whalers called it home. 

While at the three service academies, I have been inside Michie Stadium for a game, walked around  Falcon Stadium and passed by Navy’s home field. I have been inside of all three basketball courts and the adjacent hockey rink at the Air Force Academy. 

Lafayette and Lehigh—I have seen all of their facilities and been to football games at both schools plus basketball at Lafayette. I have even seen the location of Taylor Stadium, Lehigh’s previous football field. I have also seen the venues at Bucknell and attended a football game. 

In various trips to New England, I have seen the home fields of former rivals Holy Cross and Boston College and the newbie, UMass and each football field and a large number of basketball courts  at the NESCAC schools I have entered. 

We visited Cortland State to see the field when the Jets were holding training camp there. I have been numerous times to FDU Florham, where the Giants once trained. FDU Florham was so convenient that I attended a number of football games there. I made it to Jersey City State, now New Jersey City University and handled statistics for a football game.

I took pictures of the alternating colors of the Oregon football field, walked into the stadium at Oregon State, drove by Husky Stadium in Seattle and California’s stadium on the hill In Berkeley and peeked into Folsom Field at Colorado. I have set foot in Sam Boyd Stadium, UNLV’s home stadium, and Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas, along with Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, AR. 

We went to the homes of the Maui invitational and the Great Alaska Shootout. We have seen Miami host Maryland in football at the Dolphins’ home. When in Boca Raton, there is the football field at FAU, along with the other Florida venues at FIU, FGCU, Florida and Florida State.

College baseball, you ask? Along the places I played at in the Middle Atlantic Conference, some of which have changed in the last 50 years, I have seen RU at Delaware, Miami, FL, Princeton and Seton Hall, plus I saw St.John’s travel to Princeton for the NCAA’s. I have also watched F&M at Kean, Drew and William Paterson.

  Wrestling—that I have seen at the RAC and F&M. College lacrosse and soccer—at F&M, RU and FDU Florham. Crew-on the Raritan, on the Schuylkill River watching Penn and on Lake Carnegie seeing RU and Princeton row. College tennis—at F&M, Western Maryland (almost played to avoid a forfeit when the men’s team was running late) and RU. College soccer and field hockey too. Squash at F&M against the name schools—Navy, Cornell, Penn to name a few. I have seen a swim meet at F&M and at Drew.

Track and field—at F&M and at RU when the old Rutgers Stadium had a famous track surrounding the grass field, a track I have run on and star athletes who went to the Olympics have raved in the AAU meet.

Virtually right in my backyard, the 1993 U.S.Open was held at the august Baltusrol Country Club here in Springfield. Tuesday through Saturday in the oppressive heat; I gave a friend my final round tickets as I was worn out. 

Speaking of a U.S. Open, I have attended the one at Flushing Meadows and driven out to the Forest Hill venue. On vacation, I have gone by the tennis facilities at Miami, Cincinnati and Indian Wells. I went to the tournament that was at Newark Academy, an exhibition inside Centre Court in Florham Park, the clay courts at Orange Lawn Tennis Club where I saw John Mc Enroe up close and maybe too personal. I didn’t skip the Virginia Slims action at Madison 

Square Garden, where I watched Martina Navratilova.

Lest I sound sexist, I have seen women’s college basketball and women’s lacrosse at F&M and Muhlenberg along with Penn State and Drew. Softball—again at F&M and RU. Women’s tennis, too. I have seen intercollegiate club gymnastics at Penn State.

And I attended intercollegiate fencing at Drew where my nephew competed as a member of the Duke team. My travels have taken me to Wimbledon while in London and past a World Cup stadium in Cape Town. A visit to Wembley Stadium also occurred while I was in London. 

What is the purpose of this self-serving essay about athletics and venues? I fell in love with sports as a young child, watching the Yankees, Knicks and Rangers, along with the CBS NHL games Saturday afternoons. I couldn’t stop watching college football on TV. The bug for college basketball started first on TV then at the College Avenue Gym at Rutgers.

Then the TV began showing Mets games, the NFL, the Celtics and Warriors when they were first in Philadelphia and then the Syracuse Nationals once they moved and became the Philadelphia 76’ers. I can recall riding by old Bears Stadium in Newark, in the Ironbound section, and Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, two top local minor league venues of yesteryear. I have been at all three levels of minor league baseball; a trip form Pittsburgh to Newburgh, NY recently took me near the Yankees Scranton-Wilkes Barre home. 

As sports grew with anthologies like Wide World of Sports and the CBS Sports Spectacular, my eyes got bigger with the desire to see things that we don’t normally watch. Ergo, I have seen ski jumping at Bear Mountain. I have observed curling practice too. I have observed skeet shooting a couple of times. 

I have been to the track—thoroughbreds and harness. Of course, I made sojourns to Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont. We were just at recently closed Santa Anita Park. I have driven by many more tracks in New York (Aqueduct, Yonkers, Monticello, Saratoga and the late Roosevelt Raceway), in New Jersey (Atlantic City, Freehold, Monmouth and the Meadowlands), plus others around the country. 

When the horse show circuit stopped at Johnson Park in Piscataway, I would peddle my bike to watch. An archery tournament was held in the South Mountain Reservation—I was there too. 

But no, I haven’t seen professional darts and rodeo. Somehow I missed pro wrestling. As to NASCAR, Formula One or drag racing, I have seen the tracks at Dover, Talladega, Englishtown, Trenton, Reading, Watkins Glen, Las Vegas and Homestead.

I am not going all over the globe to watch competitive chess. I have been to jai alai and dog racing in Florida. But not bowling, bridge, mah jongg, table tennis, fishing or badminton as a spectator. Yet I have seen a couple of heavyweight fights at the South Mountain Arena in West Orange.

This can go on forever. With all that I have covered, this is merely a portion of where I have gone and what I have done. I am so happy that my family has shared my wanderlust for so many things, especially sports venues and colleges. I have a trip to Canada occasioned by my son, who thinks it is a great idea to see the Devils play in every Canadian NHL rink. After this, we will have Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Winnipeg left. Each trip will be an adventure, taking in history, whether it be provincial, judicial, legislative or sports-related. 

My daughter goes to as many sporting events as she can. In Pittsburgh she did and now in New Orleans she does. We will go to the Smoothie King Arena and cross off a bucket list item when we see the Golden State Warriors.

Then there is my loving and understanding wife. The night I met her, I told I had a New York Jets playoff game at Shea Stadium the next day, on December 27, 1981. We talked and I asked her who was her favorite sportscaster—she replied that it was Len Berman, then at WCBS. That sealed it right there—we were meant for each other. She loves to travel and see the schools and the arenas too. She understands that it is history and perspective all rolled into one exciting time.

We hope to go to Rome in the near future. Most of all, I want to see the Colosseum. It’s not the one in Nassau or the one which used to stand in Charlotte or be the home of NC State basketball. It is history and athletics and culture all together. What could be more divine?

I have a lot of places to go and endless energy to see new venues and ones which I have only viewed on TV. The historical context is amazing. The thrill of simply imagining what has happened in a locale is more than enough for me. 

With the magic of the blog, I can bring you along with me on these journeys of love that the little boy inside of me still cherishes. 

I leave you with a small taste of what I have enjoyed over the past 60 years in traveling so far away and seeing things that I could never have imagined that I would ever see.

My favorite stadiums and arenas are: 

Madison Square Garden: There is simply nothing like the Garden crowd for any sport—Rangers, Knicks, college basketball, the Big East tournament. 

Yankee Stadium: the lushness of the field and the thirstiness of the fans is simply intoxicating. Whether it is a playoff game or the Mets coming in, there is no baseball stadium I’d rather be in.

PNC Park: The closeness of the Pittsburgh skyline covers it all.

Coors Field: The view of the Rockies in the distance is so exquisite.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards: It is simply a fun place to be.

Connie Mack Stadium: What an ancient looking ballpark even in 1959. I loved the craziness of the crowd when the Dodgers were in town and I loved the row houses beyond the right field wall.

The Rutgers Athletic Center: Some of the most passionate fans jam into the old barn to root their Scarlet Knights to a victory, which has been too few and far between.

High Points Solutions Stadium: This comes with an asterisk. I was there the night Greg Schiano’s team felled #2 Louisville.  No college game ever matched that for me. The rest of the time it is a mausoleum.

Ohio Stadium: Walking into the giant horseshoe, I was in awe. I did not have to see a game there. The place speaks for itself. 

Boston Garden: I had a seat for a Buffalo Braves-Celtics game in 1975. I felt like I was in a cathedral. The parquet floor and the center scoreboard, with the excitement of the Boston fans for their team, is something I will never forget.

Honorable Mention: 

Atlantic City Convention Hall; Camp Randall Stadium at the University of Wisconsin; Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; Dodger Stadium;AT&T Park; Dane County Coliseum, Madison, WI; Dean E. Smith Center, University of North Carolina; Corwin Stadium at Andrus Field, Wesleyan University; Sanford Stadium, University of Georgia.