Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park
Kezar (KEY’ czar) Stadium is a stadium in the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It was once the home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL. A $100,000 gift from the estate of Mary Kezar in 1922 and an additional $200,000 appropriated by the City and County of San Francisco were used to build the original 59,000-seat stadium, which was dedicated on May 2, 1925.
Through the years, the stadium has had many uses, including track and field, motorcycle racing, auto racing rugby, lacrosse, soccer, baseball, and football. In 1971, several scenes from the film Dirty Harry (starring Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan) were filmed there. The villain of the film, the fictional Scorpio Killer, was a custodian at Kezar Stadium, in the film. With the loss of professional football in the 1970s, Kezar Stadium became a concert venue (probably in part because of its proximity to the Haight-Ashbury district) for such artists as: Carlos Santana, Neil Young, The Doobie Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Joan Baez, Jefferson Starship, Tower of Power, and The Grateful Dead.
The old 59,000-seat stadium was demolished in 1989 and replaced with the current 9044-seat stadium shown above. The new stadium is used for soccer and for home football games by some San Francisco high schools.
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