Long ago on independence square (Jackson: sale, private school, university)

[Tommy_Mac]

I have some information about Goldman Stadium that might help.
I was given an old photo album that would have belonged to Mr. & Mrs. George A. Conway.
In it is a photo taken from centerfield inside of Goldman Stadium.
On the back of the photo is written: "Goldman Stadium 51st & Swope Park, taken at centerfield line
Sept - 44".
Is there any chance someone would know George A. Conway?
Thanks.

[Mad Anthonie]

Originally Posted by Tommy_Mac

I have some information about Goldman Stadium that might help.
I was given an old photo album that would have belonged to Mr. & Mrs. George A. Conway.
In it is a photo taken from centerfield inside of Goldman Stadium.
On the back of the photo is written: "Goldman Stadium 51st & Swope Park, taken at centerfield line
Sept - 44".
Is there any chance someone would know George A. Conway?
Thanks.

The 1941 city directory shows George A & Naomi Conway living at 7319 Walrond in KC. He was employed at B Mfg. Co.

Other than that I know nothing.

[CaseyMO]

Originally Posted by Tommy_Mac

I have some information about Goldman Stadium that might help.
I was given an old photo album that would have belonged to Mr. & Mrs. George A. Conway.
In it is a photo taken from centerfield inside of Goldman Stadium.
On the back of the photo is written: "Goldman Stadium 51st & Swope Park, taken at centerfield line
Sept - 44".
Is there any chance someone would know George A. Conway?
Thanks.

I believe this stadium was known as CYC Stadium in the 1950s & '60s. CY were initials for Catholic Youth. I don't recall what the last C stood for.

The attached article talks about the stadium. My family were there back in the mid-1950s to see a local pitching phenom by the name of Ray Sadecki. Here is more on him in the second article.

http://catholickey.com/index.php3?gi...rticle_id=2932

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

I believe this stadium was known as CYC Stadium in the 1950s & '60s. CY were initials for Catholic Youth. I don't recall what the last C stood for.

Is this the same as O'Hara Stadium which featured Ban Johnson teams and discussed elsewhere in this thread?

Yes, obviously!

On Aug. 5, 1945, Bishop Edwin O'Hara dedicated the CYC Athletic Field, a new stadium at 51st Street and Swope Parkway, in honor of the men and women who served in the military in World War II.

Games during the 1945 football season were divided between the parochial league and the CYC, and played either at St. Elizabeth Field at 75th and Main or at the CYC stadium. The three sports programs expected to compete at the new stadium were football, baseball and track.

In the early 1950's, Bishop O'Hara shut down the Parochial League, urging parishes and schools to promote intramural sports in softball, football and baseball. A booklet published by the CYC about 1953 stated that the CYC recognized the importance of athletics in the proper development of an adolescent.

The CYC stadium was renamed Archbishop O'Hara Memorial CYO Stadium in May 1959 by Bishop John Cody. A fire destroyed a portion of the stadium at the end of June 1959, and usage of the stadium declined after that.

The stadium was sold to the Kansas City Parks Department in 1985. It was restored and renamed Satchel Paige Stadium in honor of the famed pitcher of the Kansas City Monarchs

[CaseyMO]

Ray Sadecki Stats | Baseball-Reference.com

[MRG Dallas]

Originally Posted by CaseyMO

Ray Sadecki Stats | Baseball-Reference.com

I remember Ray Sadecki, but forgotten he was a native KCitian

[WCHS'59]

I did not know of a George A Conway. The only person with that name and initial buried in Jackson County was a machinist mate second class in the US Navy during WWII.

[MRG Dallas]

So it appears that from Sept 44 to Aug 45, there was a field/stadium at 51st and Swope Parkway, previously known as Goldman Stadium, and a "new stadium" built and named CYC Stadium, subsequently renamed O'Hara Stadium (which is what I remember it as)

[WCHS'59]

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

I brought this up once before but maybe some of the new folks can come up with an answer.


I am curious if anyone remembers a large single deck baseball stadium with a covered roof and maybe even advertising in the outfield that was located, I thought, on a street corner intersecting with Hardesty or Van Brunt Blvd in KC.

I thought it was south of 23rd and before 31st street. It was on the northwest corner of the intersection that was in a residential area.

It was old but very impressive for “little league” or higher play. If I recall correctly there was a lot of mesh netting strung from tall poles along both the intersecting streets to keep balls from flying into the neighborhood.

It was probably all wood and has probably been torn down by now.

My friends told me that stadium was where the Blues use to play in the old days but apparently that was wrong information since they were at 18th and Vine before they played at 22nd and Brooklyn.

I use to go by it frequently in the fifties. I never did learn the name.

Originally Posted by WCHS'59

Solved.

My memory as to location of this place was quite a ways off. The stadium is twenty or so blocks southwest with the grandstand at 51st and Indiana. The outfield faces Swope Parkway. I went by that area in the late fifties visiting a girlfriend and her sister. Both now live in Raytown. One of those ladies confirmed just recently that there was netting along the major streets. The current stadium has no netting or any advertising.

Goldman Stadium seems to have been built in 1938. The builder was apparently the owner of Goldman’s Jewelry in KC. There was a branch store on Independence Square in the 50s and 60s where the Clinton “Drug Store” is today. There is a mention of a race track at the site in the thirties.

There are numerous Kansas City Star articles concerning teams playing at Goldman Stadium beginning in 1938 and tapering off towards 1945.

The Lawrence Daily Journal-World says there was a Ban Johnson tournament there in 1938 with many major league scouts expected. That same newspaper mentioned a team called the Kansas City Goldman's.

Goldman Stadium was taken over in 1945 by a local Catholic Diocese and in 1959 was renamed Archbishop O’Hara Memorial CYO Stadium. At the end of that same year, the wood stands partially burned and the stadium use declined.

At some point, the field was sold to the Kansas City Parks Department. A new Satchel Paige Stadium was erected in 1982. That stadium was renovated in 2014.

The drainage ditch is still there.



Goldman Stadium


Satchel Paige Stadium

This is what I previously posted in Jan '15. You have to go to the original post to view the Sanborn map.

[darylfd]

It has been 55 years since i have been to Dog Patch hill. I bet it has change lot. I had family that lived there. The Brown family.