NICKERSON FIELD

'Nickerson Field' is a stadium on the site of Braves Field, in Boston, Massachusetts the former home of the National League Boston Braves baseball team, now located in Atlanta, Georgia. Parts of Braves Field, such as the entry gate and right-field grandstand, remain as portions of the stadium.
The stadium is now owned by Boston University, and is the home field for many of the school's athletics programs, including soccer and field hockey. It was also the home of BU's football team until the school dropped the sport following the 1997 season.
Since its reconfiguration in the 1950s, four professional sports franchises have used this stadium:

★ The Boston Patriots played at Nickerson Field from 1960 to 1962.

★ In 1983, the Boston Breakers of the United States Football League played their home games here.

★ From 2001 to 2003, the Women's United Soccer Association's Boston Breakers used the stadium.

★ The Boston Cannons of Major League Lacrosse used the stadium as their home from 2004 through 2006. The 2004 and 2005 MLL championships were played at the stadium.
Boston University purchased the former home of the Braves on July 30, 1953 and renamed it "Boston University Field"^[1][2]. The stadium inherited its current name from the school's previous athletic field, which had been in the town of Weston^[3]. That field was taken by eminent domain in 1955 for construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike. BU used the proceeds, in part, to renovate the former ballpark, which was renamed for William E. Nickerson, a member of the BU Board of Trustees who had donated the original field in Weston to BU in 1928. According to the previously referenced article, Nickerson "was an MIT graduate who was the principal inventor of the machinery used to manufacture the first Gillette safety razor."
The stadium has been the home of BU teams longer (50-plus years) than it was the home of the Braves (parts of 38 seasons).
In 1989, to accommodate commencement speakers US President George H. W. Bush and French President François Mitterrand, a large platform was constructed to Secret Service specifications on one side of the field. The platform remains and can be seen in the bottom center of the color picture below.
From the mid-1980s to 1995, the stadium hosted the New England Scholastic Band Association's marching band field show championships.
In 2001 antiquated turf was replaced with a newer, more player-friendly artificial surface as part of a deal with the Women's United Soccer Association to host the Boston Breakers games. With a professional soccer team playing at Nickerson the football lines, which had remained on the field even though BU no longer had a football program, were not repainted.

Contents

Notes and references

External links

Notes and references

1. Former Boston ballparks BallparkTour.com.
2. Boston University Nickerson Field Boston Public Library.
3. Who's behind that building? Boston University.

External links

★ USGS aerial photo

★ Private event or function reservations

★ Boston University publication on name origins of buildings, including this stadium