Chicago’s stadium on the lakefront has hosted a variety of people — football players and circus performers, politicians and civil rights movement activists, observers of religious and cultural milestones, the Rolling Stones and Special Olympics supporters with megaphones — in its almost 100 years.
Here’s a look at many of these significant events at Soldier Field.
Dec. 3, 1919
Holabird & Roche architecture firm is chosen to design a U-shaped stadium as a memorial to U.S. soldiers who died in war.
1922
Construction begins.
Sept. 6, 1924
Thousands of Chicago police officers compete in field events at the stadium, one of many events to dedicate the new facility.
The hammer throw event is held a day earlier “to avoid any possibility of an accident,” the Tribune reports.
Oct. 4, 1924
The stadium hosts its first football game — between Louisville Male and Austin Community Academy high schools.
Oct. 9, 1924
Hosts “Chicago Day,” marking the 53rd anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 under the name Municipal Grant Park Stadium.
Nov. 22, 1924
First college football game played at Soldier Field — Notre Dame beats Northwestern, 13-6.
April 19, 1925
Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi — who became the first athlete to win five gold medals at a single Olympics in 1924 — dominates the first Loyola Relays held at the stadium.
Aug. 16, 1925
About 70,000 people attend the first Chicago Roundup.
Nov. 11, 1925
Name changed to Soldier Field on Armistice (now Veterans) Day. Yet, the Tribune decides to call it Soldiers’ Field in its pages.
June 21-23, 1926
Approximately 300,000 people — 150,000 inside Soldier Field and 150,000 outside the stadium — attend Mass during the International Eucharistic Congress. Chicago is the first city in the United States chosen to host the religious gathering.
Nov. 11, 1926
The Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals face each other in the first professional football game played at the stadium, which is also officially dedicated. Soldier Field wouldn’t become the Bears’ home stadium until 1971.
Nov. 27, 1926
Navy is awarded the national championship despite its game against Army ending in a 21-21 tie before 110,000 fans at Soldier Field. Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne misses his own team’s game to attend.
Dec. 19, 1926
The Bears play the Green Bay Packers for the first time at Soldier Field. The game ends in a tie.
Aug. 13, 1927
“Lucky Lindy” Charles Lindbergh touches down in Chicago in his Spirit of St. Louis aircraft to promote commercial air travel several months after his historic solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
Sept. 22, 1927
A Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney heavyweight prize fight, known as the “Long Count Fight,” becomes the first boxing match to draw $2.5 million at the gate.
Aug. 28, 1929
The Graf Zeppelin flies over Chicago, including Soldier Field, for 18 minutes as it makes its way to Lakehurst, N.J., ending its 20,000-mile trip around the world in 21 days.
Aug. 23, 1930
An estimated 150,000 show up for the Chicago Tribune-sponsored Chicagoland Music Festival.
Oct. 3, 1930
Soldier Field hosts its first night football game. Oregon defeats Drake, 14-7.
Aug. 8, 1931
Several hundred performers — including Goliath the sea elephant — arrive to perform as part of the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, which becomes a fixture of summer in Soldier Field’s parking lot for decades.
June 24, 1932
Amelia Earhart flies over Chicago then receives a medal for her trans-Atlantic flight in 1931 during a show for the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth.
May 27, 1933
Opening ceremonies for the World’s Fair are held at Soldier Field.
July 3, 1933
And estimated 125,000 people attend “The Romance of a People” Jewish pageant. Soldier Field hosts many cultural and religious events — to huge crowds — during its early years.
April 1, 1934
The first nondenominational Easter sunrise service is held at Soldier Field, in the rain.
May 19, 1935
Midwest Auto Racing Association hosts its first car race event at the stadium.
Aug. 29, 1935
A team of college All-Stars defeats the Chicago Bears, 5-0, in the Chicago College All-Star Game. The event becomes a tradition through 1976.
Feb. 16, 1936
A 13-story ski jump — the world’s highest man-made jump at the time — is constructed at Soldier Field for the U.S. Central Ski Association’s annual meet. More than 57,000 people show up to see the 1937 meet.
Aug. 23, 1938
Gates are forced open by a crowd of thousands intent upon entering Soldier Field to dance during the “Jitterbug riot.”
September 1939
The adjoining Chicago Park District administration building is completed, enclosing the stadium’s “U” shape.
Sept. 16, 1943
A war bond rally at Soldier Field features Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Harpo Marx and more performers who raise $200 million.
Oct. 28, 1944
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime visit draws more than 100,000 spectators.
July 19, 1949
Just three years after a previous visit to Soldier Field, President Harry Truman speaks at the Shriners convention, which was one of the first televised events at Soldier Field.
April 26, 1951
Gen. Douglas MacArthur, ousted from his Far Eastern command weeks earlier by President Truman, thrills a vast audience with a fighting defense of his stand on Korea.
Sept. 8, 1954
An estimated 260,000 people — 180,000 inside Soldier Field and another 80,000 outside — gather for a Mass in tribute to the Virgin Mary.
Aug. 27, 1959
Opening ceremonies of the Pan Am Games.
Nov. 29, 1959
The Chicago Cardinals play their last home game at Soldier Field. The team moves to St. Louis.
June 21, 1964
Martin Luther King Jr. is the keynote speaker at the Illinois Rally for Civil Rights held at Soldier Field. The predominantly Black crowd that gathers to hear King speak is fewer people than expected, however, due to rain.
July 10, 1966
King returns to deliver another speech at a sweltering Soldier Field, telling the 30,000 attendees, “This day we must decide to fill up the jails of Chicago, if necessary, in order to end slums.” He outlines 14 basic goals of the Chicago Freedom Movement and later in the day posts them to the LaSalle Street entrance of City Hall.
Aug. 9, 1966
Barbra Streisand performs in the rain, backed by a 35-piece orchestra.
July 20, 1968
The first Special Olympics is held at Soldier Field. A sculpture named “Eternal Flame of Hope” was placed outside the stadium in 2018, to mark the event’s 50th anniversary.
Sept. 19, 1971
After playing 50 seasons at Wrigley Field, the Bears defeat the Steelers in their first home game at Soldier Field — in the rain. Capacity is cut to 57,000.
Aug. 2, 1975
With a rock music booking ban in place since fans rioted in July 1970 when Sly and the Family Stone failed to appear for their scheduled concert, Chicago Park District officials book Marvin Gaye for Soldier Field. Only 8,500 fans show up.
June 23, 1976
The Chicago Sting beat the New York Cosmos, 4-1, in front of 28,000 fans. It’s soccer star Pele’s last match at Soldier Field.
July 8, 1978
The Rolling Stones headline Soldier Field for the first time. The stadium is filled on a steamy summer day with 80,000 fans, with opening acts Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Peter Tosh and Journey, featuring new vocalist Steve Perry. The Stones set list includes most of the songs on the quintet’s latest release, “Some Girls.” Later that night Mick Jagger drops in on a Lefty Dizz set at Kingston Mines. The band also jams with Muddy Waters while in town.
1979-1982
A $32-million renovation of the stadium’s north end permanently eliminates some seating and establishes the stadium’s configuration through 2002. Skyboxes and a new scoreboard are added. Capacity is 66,030.
Aug. 10-18, 1983
Hosts ChicagoFest for the last time.
Aug. 9, 1985
Bruce Springsteen “Born in the U.S.A.” tour stop.
1988
The playing surface is changed from artificial turf to natural grass, and more skyboxes are added.
June 17, 1994
Opening ceremonies of FIFA World Cup with President Bill Clinton in attendance. The Park District spends millions to prep the stadium for the soccer tournament.
July 9, 1995
The Grateful Dead’s last concert before Jerry Garcia’s death.
June 29, 1996
Soldier Field swelters as a crowd of 69,000 men sing and shout during the PromiseKeepers first-ever event in Chicago.
April 4, 1998
Chicago Fire plays its first ever home game at Soldier Field.
Nov. 5, 1998
Blair Kamin, Tribune’s architecture critic, suggests Mayor Richard M. Daley act quickly to “shape up the downtown lakefront” — including Soldier Field:
June 24-26, 1999
Hosts women’s FIFA World Cup.
Feb. 24, 2001
XFL Enforcers play first home game — and lose.
Feb. 21, 2003
As the stadium overhaul is more than half finished, the Illinois Supreme Court rules tax-backed bonds can pay for the project. Friends of the Parks and Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois had hoped to force the removal of the new steel-and-glass arena rising within the colonnades of the 1924 stadium.
Sept. 29, 2003
The Packers defeat the Bears in the first game played inside the newly renovated Soldier Field. The project cost $611 million and took 20 months to complete.
Jan. 21, 2007
The 2006–2007 NFC Championship Game granted the Bears their second trip to the Super Bowl, the first in 21 years, with a 39–14 victory over the New Orleans Saints.
Aug. 7, 2007
Hosts Democratic Party debate.
Sept. 12-13, 2009
Hosts U2’s “360? tour.
June 16-17, 2012
First Spring Awakening Music Festival.
Feb. 17, 2013
Notre Dame-Miami game is the first outdoor hockey game in the history of the stadium.
March 1, 2014
Chicago Blackhawks play against the Pittsburgh Penguins as part of the 2014 NHL Stadium Series. The Blackhawks defeated the Penguins 5–1 before a sold-out crowd of 62,921.
Nov. 1, 2014
Hosts its first international rugby union test match between the United States and New Zealand.
June 18, 2015
Thousands of fans in the Soldier Field stands cheer wildly, dancing to team anthem “Chelsea Dagger” and celebrate another Stanley Cup championship for Chicago.
July 3-5, 2015
The Grateful Dead return to Soldier Field for the first time since Garcia’s death for three concerts.
Aug. 26, 2021
Kanye West appears for a listening party of his tenth studio album, “Donda.”
June 2, 2023
For the first of three sold-out shows on her Eras Tour at Soldier Field, Taylor Swift contained multitudes, presiding over a 200-minute extravaganza that often had the crowd of more than 60,000 devoted fans singing along to every word. Swift played an innocent dreamer, a spell-casting sorceress, a festive clubgoer, wounded confessor, seductive chanteuse, contemplative heartbreaker, poet, fearless woman, LGBTQ advocate, trendsetting fashionista and much more.
The epic concert took the form of nine separate mini sets, each aurally and visually connected to a certain album, letting the pop phenom explore nearly every facet of a 17-year recording career that currently knows no limits. There was also a brief solo acoustic portion highlighted by two “surprise” selections.
Swift paired each set change with themed wardrobes and a parade of choreographed routines featuring a squadron of dancers and, frequently, members of her backup band. She also integrated projections on a mammoth, curved, high-definition screen, as well as mobile platforms whose height and shapes fluctuated during songs.
“It was a stage whose magnitude dared make Soldier Field look mid-sized,” Tribune critic Bob Gendron wrote.
April 24, 2024
The Chicago Bears unveiled plans for a new stadium project on the lakefront partly funded by the public that would give the team a facility in line with many of the NFL’s ultra-modern, fan-friendly structures.
Chicago Bears release images of a proposed new lakefront stadium
Check out the Tribune’s archives at your fingertips at Newspapers.com.
Sources: Chicago Tribune archives and reporting; Soldier Field; Illinois Sports Facilities Authority; “Soldier Field: A Stadium and Its City” by Liam T.A. Ford
