Knights of Columbus Stadium

The ground in East Orange sat along Main Street, but there is nothing else distinctive about its location today. The site is gone, replaced by a high school stadium that shares the name, though the two have no connection. What remains is a set of attendance figures that give a sense of how the place felt when it was alive.

A large crowd of 9,000 people turned up for the season opener in September 1929. That was the biggest number the place ever saw. On the final day of that same campaign, in November, the gates took only 1,500 fans. The team, the Orange Tornadoes, played the whole season in the National Football League, but the league membership was fleeting. They spent most of their time in the American Association and other minor circuits.

The stadium opened its doors in 1926 and stood for ten years before closing. It was built for natural grass, which was standard, and no record exists of who laid the bricks or designed the stands. The team moved on to Paul Robeson Stadium when the old venue was demolished. No history books mention a different name for the place; it was always Knights of Columbus Stadium.

The only thing left is the memory of a crowd that could fill the place or leave it half-empty.