In its 50 years of existence, Honolulu Stadium gave fans a venue for a variety of sporting events, concerts and celebrations.
Opened on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1926, at the corner of King and Isenberg streets in Mo'ili'ili, Honolulu Stadium served as a gathering place.
With an official seating capacity of nearly 25,000, Honolulu Stadium hosted such events as baseball, football, stock car racing, polo, boxing, carnivals, the Boy Scout Makahiki, international track and field, and an aquacade featuring Honolulu Olympian Buster Crabbe.
Honolulu Stadium also sported professional football, with the Hawaiian Warriors, and minor league professional baseball with the Hawaiian Islanders for more than 10 years. The stadium was home to the University of Hawai'i football team before Aloha Stadium opened in Halawa in 1975.
Athletes such as Joe DiMaggio and Jesse Owens, and celebrities such as Elvis Presley performed at Honolulu Stadium, a facility that was built by sports promoter J. Ashman Beaver.
Plagued by termites, the wooden Honolulu Stadium was nicknamed the Termite Palace by the sports media. Just before Honolulu Stadium was demolished, insect researchers were given permission to conduct termite lab experiments there.
Honolulu Stadium — just a half-mile from the UH-Manoa campus — was demolished in 1976. It was replaced by Stadium Park.
