In 2007, Boyle Stadium celebrated its 70 th anniversary. The first baseball game was played on its field in 1937 and the first football game and graduation ceremony took place in 1938. It was named the Michael A. Boyle Stadium in 1942 to honor Stamford High’s longtime coach and athletic director. Boyle’s football coaching record from 1907 to 1938 was 229 wins and 14 ties out of 283 games played, which made for a winning average of .809. This was considered the greatest period of high school football coaching in the country. Stamford High’s Golden Era of football came between 1911 and 1920, when Boyle’s teams racked up a record of 83 wins and 4 losses. In total, Stamford High has won 20 football state championships, as well as a number of state championships in other sports.

Plans for the stadium were first developed in 1933, during the Depression. The project was planned by Town Engineer Llewellyn Bromfield Jr. during the administration of First Selectman John Hanrahan. The architect was Alfonse Vacca. Work began in 1935 under the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) to build the stadium on the site of Bett’s Pond and surrounding swampland. The entire project took several years to complete. The original layout included regulation football and baseball fields, an oval quarter-mile running track with a 220-yard straight-away, pole vaulting and jumping pits, and two stone and concrete stands that resemble an ancient Greek terraced-style stadium, but with Baroque-accented parapets atop the stone walls. One of the significant elements of the stadium is the superior workmanship by local masons of the polygonal-cut, rock-faced granite construction. Seating capacity was listed at the time as 5,924. The cost of the original construction was $400,000, $85,000 of which came from local taxpayers. Plans for a clam-shell bandstand at the north end had to be shelved when federal funding for WPA projects ran out.

The west side, which is typically the home team’s stand, features a shower room, restroom and dressing rooms for both the home and the visiting teams. Storage rooms, a boiler room and an office are also located there. On the east, or visitors’ side, there are public restrooms and storage rooms. In recent years, the football team’s parent booster organization, the Stamford High Gridiron Club, has raised funds to install a weight room, renovate locker rooms and repair the press box. The Friends of Boyle Stadium committee of parents and staff annually raises funds to benefit the stadium by selling commemorative bricks that have been installed along the track near the stadium’s entrance. Recent proceeds from the brick sales have been used for restoration projects and to purchase a scoreboard for the soccer field. Today, the stadium is the site of SHS and regional athletic and marching band competitions, as well as very special SHS graduation ceremonies.

In 2006, the newly established Friends of Stamford High Alumni Association approached the City of Stamford through Timothy Beeble, its Director of Community Development, about nominating Boyle Stadium to the Connecticut Register of Historic Places because of its Depression-era history and architecturally significant stonework. The application was put together by Sandra Dennies and Gerry Katz of the Grants Office, with research assistance from Renee Kahn and Nils Kerschus of the Stamford Historic Neighborhood Preservation Program and Marc Lyons and Cherri Sherman, parents of SHS students and members of the Alumni Association. In October 2006, the Connecticut Historic Preservation Council of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism approved the nomination, making Boyle Stadium eligible for grants from its historic restoration fund. In October 2007, the Commission approved the city’s application for $200,000 in state funding. These funds will be matched with $200,000 from the City of Stamford. Restoration work at Boyle Stadium is expected to begin in the spring of 2008.