Busch Memorial Stadium

Lore & Background

The stadium served as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League baseball team for its entire operating existence, while also serving as home to the National Football League's Cardinals team for 22 seasons, from 1966 through 1987, as well as the St. Louis Rams during part of the 1995 season. It opened four days after the last baseball game was played at Sportsman's Park. The St. Louis Stars of the NPSL and later NASL played at the stadium from 1967 to 1974; the team later used the stadium for select matches up through the 1977 season. The stadium was designed by Welton Becket & Associates, with roof arches—a 96-arch 'Crown of Arches'—integral to the original design. The Crown echoed the Gateway Arch, which had been completed only a year before Busch Stadium opened. Its final event was the sixth game of the 2005 National League Championship Series on October 19. The stadium was demolished by wrecking ball in late 2005.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Busch Memorial Stadium was thick with humidity and anticipation as the sun dipped below the St. Louis horizon. The track surrounding the field glowed under the floodlights, casting long shadows over the turf where legends had once run wild. A sea of blue and yellow surged in the stands, the collective roar rising to a deafening crescendo that seemed to vibrate through the very foundations of the stadium. For one final moment before the silence of history would take hold, the Fearsome Flock stood ready, their helmets gleaming, embodying the spirit of a city that had embraced them for nearly fifty years.

Reader's Guide

The stadium was located in St. Louis, Missouri. It was a circular multipurpose 'cookie-cutter' stadium similar to others built in the 1960s and early 1970s in Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. The stadium's grass was replaced with AstroTurf in 1970. Anheuser-Busch bought the stadium in 1981 and removed 'Memorial' from the name. Following the Rams' last 1995 event—the Rams' October 22 game before the opening of the Dome at America's Center—the Cardinals retrofitted it into a baseball-only stadium. A large section of the upper deck outfield seats was closed, replaced with a hand-operated scoreboard and flags. The stadium's original natural grass field was restored, and the outfield walls were re-painted green from their original blue.

Did You Know?

• The stadium hosted the All-Star Game just weeks after opening, followed by a performance by The Beatles.
• The stadium's 96 open arches on its roof were designed to complement the Gateway Arch across the street.
• The St. Louis Rams played only part of the 1995 season at this stadium.
• The stadium was one of the last built in the 1960s to be torn down.