SLUH Stadium

SLUH Stadium is arguably one of the more unique venues for high school sports in the St. Louis area.

Nestled between the campuses of St. Louis University High School and the St. Louis Science Center, the stadium has a Nexturf field, a four-lane track, a nice little concession area and bleachers for 2,345. Yet it also boasts one of the area’s more aesthetic backdrops, with the graceful lines of the McDonnell Planetarium– a St. Louis landmark since 1963 — accentuating the scoreboard.

Many a Friday night has seen the Planetarium lit up in blue — coincidence? You really think so?

There’s plenty for the eyes to feast on, although afternoon games can be challenging from the west-facing bleachers looking into the setting sun. But the colors of Forest Park more than make up for the 15-minute squint until the sun sets behind the Science Center building. And if there’s a home game on the night of Forest Park’s annual Balloon Glow, fireworks over the park fill the night sky and the scoreboard is lit up in more ways than one.

That’s a lot for a high school stadium, which is why this is no ordinary venue. Groundbreaking for the stadium took place in the spring of  1979, and the first game was played Sept. 5, 1980. I was there. Really.

I was a senior at the all-girls Incarnate Word Academy that fall of 1980, and there’s no way I would miss the first big football game/social event of my senior year. The record book says SLUH defeated Southwest High 21-12, and to be honest I have no recollection of what went on on the field.

But I remember the night because of this:

My friend and Incarnate Word classmate, Leisa Feldhaus, walking down the stairs near the student section on the north end of the bleachers, and literally being stopped in her tracks by a SLUH boy walking up the stairs, senior Chuck Klump. They started talking on the steps, at that moment. They started dating the next weekend. They married while college, and, 31 years later, live and thrive with their five kids in Springfield, Mo.

Love at first sight in the bleachers in the first night at SLUH Stadium. I guess you could say there was magic in the air.

I probably went back to a few more football games that 1980 season, but I don’t really remember them. I had plenty of interest in SLUH but no interest in high school football, other than to catch a glimpse of SLUH linebacker Dan Vierling, on whom I — and about 200 other high school girls in the St. Louis area — had a major crush.

Who knew how many times I’d come back to that stadium? My fate was sealed, I think, the night Dec. 29, 1990, when I was seated next to a handsome young man named Tom McCarthy at the wedding reception for my college friend, Katy Ebert Cushing.

“Oh, you teach at SLUH?”

“Oh, you graduated from SLUH, too?”

My fate was furthered sealed two more nights in the 1990s:

“It’s a boy, Mrs. McCarthy,” and “It’s a boy.”

So I’d think about that fall of 1980 from time to time, sitting in the bleachers of SLUH Stadium in the last 16 or so years, on one of those days when Mr. McCarthy was coaching soccer, and I’d have to corral our toddler boys, Matt and Jack, who’d want to run up those very steps Chuck and Leisa ran away with.

“Run around the track, but don’t leave the stadium,” I’d tell them. If it got cold, we’d hang out in the press box with SLUH teacher and press box announcer Charlie Merriott, the boys having to stand on a chair to see out to the field.

I’d think about those days, watching Matt’s first freshmen football game in the stadium in the fall of 2008, wondering how in the world we raised a football player.

I’d think about those days sitting in the parents section that first varsity game as a junior in 2010, seeing Matt (above right) run into the stadium from the Oakland Ave. gate and trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

I’d think about those days just this September, the night Matt ran on the field in uniform and Jack ran in the gate painted blue with his freshmen class. I’d think about those days squinting into the sun watching Jack (above left) with his freshman team, wondering how in the world we raised two football players.

“Run around the track, but don’t leave the stadium,” I wanted to yell from the parent section.

And I thought about those days just last Friday night, as the clock ran to zero in SLUH’s thrilling 47-46 win over DeSmet in the state quarterfinal and I watched the celebration on the field. Somewhere in the crowd, two brothers were meeting in the middle.

I guess you could say there was magic in the air. At SLUH Stadium.

Photos by Nancy Winkelmann. To view more, visit http://nancywinkelmann.zenfolio.com/varsitypix.