When the Bloomington Jefferson Jaguars defeated the Apple Valley Eagles 17-13 in the Section 3AAAAA semifinals on a chilly Saturday afternoon, it also marked the end of an era as Bloomington Stadium hosted its final high school football game.
Next season Jefferson and Kennedy will play in on campus facilities.
Due to the cold weather, HSGN did not cover the entire game. The blogger came at halftime and asked several people about the demise of a popular Bloomington sports venue that's been around since the late 1950s on the site of what was then Lincoln High School. Lincoln shut down in 1982.
Former Jefferson principal and current football public address announcer Kevin Groebner played high high school football at Lincoln and graduated in 1971. "i grew up with this stadium. You hate to see it go away." He also mentioned that the Vikings and Washington Redskins (now Commanders) used the field to practice when the teams play at Met Stadium.
Groebner's sidekick in the pressbox, timer Joe Meuwissen recalled the great games for Jefferson and Kennedy as well as the atmosphere on game nights.
Jeff Evens, whose father Jack was an assistant football coach and the first boys basketball coach in Jefferson history has been attending home games since 1970 recalls the Friday Night Lights in Bloomington. "That's what you do on Friday nights. You go to football games."
The last person interviewed was a fellow adjacent to the blogger in the bleachers Mike Biever. He praised Bloomington Stadium for it's good location, lighting and parking. "It's a grass field, not a turf field," he said.
More than 60 years of high school football, soccer and Normandale football have been played on the grass field at the corner of 88th St. and Queen Ave. S. What will happen to Bloomington Stadium? We don't known but the memories will live on.
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