Holy Cross

The Holy Cross Crusaders football team is the collegiate American football program of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Patriot League, an NCAA Division I conference that participates in Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The team plays their home games at Fitton Field.

History

Football began at Holy Cross in 1884 with games against teams from other schools beginning in 1891. Starting in 1896 the Holy Cross Football team played at the Worcester Oval. The first home game played at Holy Cross was a 6–0 defeat of Massachusetts Agricultural College on September 26, 1903. In 1908, the football field was moved to next to the baseball field which bears the same name (Fitton Field). Since 1910, the Holy Cross Crusader "Goodtime" Marching Band has performed halftime shows at home football games. The original field was built with wooden and concrete stands. These were replaced with steel stands in 1924 and aluminum seating in 1986. The largest crowd ever to pack Fitton Field was the 27,000 who showed up to see Holy Cross's All-American back Bill Osmanski in his last home game in 1938.

Fitton Field is a football stadium in Worcester, Massachusetts primarily used for College of the Holy Cross sporting events. The stadium opened in 1908 as the official home for the Holy Cross Crusaders football team. Before that, most games were played on adjoining the baseball field.

Named after Reverend James Fitton, who donated land to the Archdiocese of Boston to found the college, it is an irregularly shaped three-sided horseshoe on the edge of the college's campus. The northern football stands are shorter than the southern due to Interstate 290 being adjacent to the field.

Officially known as Fitton Football Stadium, the football facility is a 23,500-seat stadium, home to the Holy Cross Crusaders football team. The field itself was used as the football field, and termed Fitton Field, as early as 1908. A wooden structure was constructed at that time, but a more sturdy concrete structure did not appear until 1912. In 1924, the concrete was replaced with the steel structure that still stands today, increasing the stadium's capacity. It would remain identical until 1986, when the wooden seating was replaced with aluminum bleachers, further expanding its capacity to its current level. In 2016, new sod and new netting were installed.

Fitton Field was used to film the movie The Game Plan in 2006.