Opened in the fall of 1930, Universal Stadium became
the home of the Portsmouth Spartans professional
football team. Earlier that summer, the Spartans had
just become a member of the National Football League
(NFL). Led by a few local businessmen, the Portsmouth
National Football League Corporation raised money
to help build the permanent stadium for the Spartans. The stadium
opened on September 14, 1930 as the Spartans defeated the Newark
(New Jersey) Tornadoes for their first NFL victory. Ten days later
the Spartans played one of the NFL's first night games against the
Brooklyn Dodgers. The Portsmouth Times said, "Night football has
come to stay, at least in Portsmouth." From 1930 to 1933, the
Spartans compiled a record of 19 wins 2 losses and 4 ties at
Universal Stadium.
The most famous game played at Universal was on December 4, 1932. The Spartans with just eleven men defeated the world champion Green Bay Packers 10-0. In Portsmouth, the game is simply known as "The Iron Man Game." In 1934, the franchise was sold and the team moved to Detroit. They were renamed the Detroit Lions. Portsmouth was to become the last small town in Ohio to have a NFL franchise. In August of 1980, the name of the stadium was changed to Spartan Municipal Stadium to honor the NFL team that called Universal
Stadium home for four years. It is one of the oldest NFL stadiums still in use, and its field is still used to play football.
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