It's Superbowl weekend, you fine folks of Philadelphia. And it's been a whole decade since Donovan McNabb did or did not throw up in his helmet. We may have hoped for just a tad more from our Birds this season, so what's more cathartic than a good, old-fashioned demo video...of The Vet?
From 1971 to 2002, the Eagles called Veteran's Stadium home, and boy did we do it proud. After the Great Snowball Fight of 1989,
The Eagles became the first team in sports to set up an on-site courtroom to handle the gamut of game-day infractions from public drunkenness, to fist-fights, to harassing visiting rooters. To help maintain decorum, the police department even dispatched officers dressed in opposition jerseys to sit in the Vet's upper 700-level. The Eagles' last game at The Vet was in 2002, after conditions became so bad that the stadium actually employed cats in a last-ditch effort to keep the mice infestation at bay. Also there was that hole in the wall of the cheerleaders' dressing room. The final game ever played at the stadium was the afternoon of September 28, 2003, during which the Phillies lost to the Atlanta Braves, and Harry Kalas intoned his famous farewell:
"And now, Veterans Stadium is like a 3-1 pitch to Jim Thome or Mike Schmidt. It's on a looooooong drive...IT'S OUTTA HERE!!!"
· Veterans Stadium implosion [YouTube]
· Veterans Stadium [Explore PA History]
· Lito Sheppard says McNabb threw up in helmet [CBS]
· That time Karl Wallenda traversed the Vet by high wire [Curbed Philly]