- Sports - Janesville Sesquicentennial
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- Athletic Facilities - Monterey happened - twice
- Make Monterey Happen! That's what the backers of Janesville
athletics pleaded to the public.
- And, indeed, it happened - not just once, but twice.
- In keeping with its long standing tradition of providing
its athletes with the best facilities, Janesville
- residents made Monterey Stadium a reality in 1931. Then,
in 1984, they modernized through a $440,000 renovation of the
53-year-old stadium.
- Janesville established itself as leader in developing quality
athletic facilities more than a half-century
- ago. The trend was set when the city became a pioneer in
constructing cement tennis courts - an advantage Janesville promptly
turned into a top-rated high school tennis program.
- Then, in 1922, Janesville became world-renowned by constructing
a high school, now Marshall
- Junior High, that included two swimming pools.
- "You may not believe it now, but that drew attention
from people all over the world," said Pat
- DAWSON, a former Beloit High School football captain
and All-America selection at Beloit College, who served Janesville
for 38 years as a teacher, coach, athletic director and finally
recreation director. "They just couldn't believe a town
this size could have a school with a swimming pool, much less
two."
- But as far as the people of Janesville were concerned, probably
the greatest satisfaction came with
- the construction of Monterey Stadium - a facility named after
the original settlement on the city's South Side. Not only did
the stadium - complete with a 3,000-seat concrete grandstand
- give the city its first acceptable football field, but it provided
Janesville with one of the finest tracks in the Midwest.
- "Janesville at last can boast of an athletic field with
a football gridiron worthy of its name," wrote
- the late George RAUBACHER, Gazette sports editor for
40 years, in his Nov. 17, 1931, review of the stadium's initiation
day. "And it's a credit to the city manager (Henry TRAXLER)
and the (city) council."
- But before the city and school board pooled their resources
(some $30,000) with a federal grant
- to make the project a reality, things weren't so grand. In
earlier days, Janesville football players were relegated to a
converted city dump adjacent to the present Marshall Junior High,
then to the old Rock County Fairgrounds just north of the present
fairgrounds and later to a field located just west of the present
St. John Vianney grade school.
- "That place on top of Clark Street (the St. John Vianney
site) had so many waves and rolls in it,"
- DAWSON recalled, "we actually had a play were
the end hid in a gully. And more than a few times we saw him
sneak out of there for some pretty good yards."
- Unfortunately for Janesville, its 1931 debut at the stadium
also brought something the home folks
- had seen more than a few times before - a loss to Beloit.
This one was by a 20-0 score and extended Beloit's domination
to an incredible 19 consecutive years in what is widely acclaimed
as one of the Midwest's oldest football rivalries.
- That streak eventually extended to 25 consecutive years,
before being broken in 1937. Since then,
- times have changed - at least on the football field.
- But Monterey Stadium is again one of the state's finest outdoor
athletic facilities. Thanks to the
- privately funded renovation project which was completed last
summer, the stadium now has new lights, an eight-lane-all-weather
track, a new press box which seats 36, new restrooms and concession
area, new drainage system, new scoreboard and new public address
system, to go along with a previously installed underground watering
system and fiberglass seats.
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