Farewell Salute To UConn’s Morrone Stadium
STORRS — Abdou Mbacke Thiam had made another of the electrifying plays for which he is known, a high, curving shot that somehow got over
6-foot-9 goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre and reached the back of the net.
Less than two minutes remained on the clock — this was the game. The refs huddled for a good five minutes to determine whether or not there was a nullifying offside, and the 4,850 bundled-up fans surrounding the field made their presence felt. “It’s-a-goal,” they chanted. “It’s-a-goal … it’s-a-goal.”
It was. The UConn men’s soccer team got its 2-1 win over Temple on Saturday night and is still undefeated this year at the home it has known for 50 seasons. No, it doesn’t have the endearing quirkiness of a baseball park, or the majesty of a football stadium. One can drive by an empty Joseph J. Morrone Stadium without realizing an arena has been passed, let alone a special one.
Yet for many, who grew up with its “Soccer Sundays,” or whose college experience included cold, but rocking nights like Saturday among the “Goal Patrol,” it might be worth stopping by the old place this week.
It’s closing down, you know.
Ray Reid was 19, a freshman at Southern Connecticut, the first time he made the trip to see soccer played on a filled-in — well, mostly filled-in — patch of swamp on Oct.
7, 1979.
“I watched UConn play San Francisco,” Reid said, “and
San Francisco had won the national championship. … The place must have had 10,000 people on a Sunday afternoon, and I couldn’t believe the magic of this place.”
UConn came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game on Joe Morrone Jr.’s goal that day, but lost 4-3 before 6,100, as The Courant reported. Reid, who played and coached at Southern, came back many times, and, when the man for whom the stadium is named, Joe Morrone Sr., retired in 1996, Reid replaced him. The only coaches UConn has employed the last 50 years, both brought national championships to Storrs, and a cathedral for college soccer made not of brick and mortar, but of memories.
The “magic” will have to be translated to a new stadium. The demolition will begin shortly after UConn plays SMU on Oct. 27, or after any postseason games the
Huskies might host. An $8 million pledge by former UConn soccer player Tony Rizza kick-started efforts to build a new and, before we get too sentimental here, badly needed soccer complex, which is expected to be ready for the 2020 season.
But when 50 seasons are played on a patch of land, poor drainage or not, championships won and legendary players come and gone, the memories, the sounds of children at play, or college kids howling, chanting or stomping — making any autumn night feel like Halloween Night for the other side — aren’t just bulldozed away. The basketball memories of winter nights in the drafty, dusty old Field House remain warm after all these years, do they not?
“The field, the stadium is kind of just sitting there,” said Tim Tolokan, special assistant to the UConn AD, who has been working on an oral history of UConn athletics through interviews. “The students bring it to life.”
Though UConn soccer dates to the 1920s, and the Huskies were named national champs in 1948, before there was an NCAA tournament, it was little known before Morrone became the coach in 1969 and convinced school officials to give him something resembling a dedicated stadium on campus. One row of bleachers was put up around grounds next to the open-air hockey rink, and Morrone laid out the field and the markings himself. The Huskies opened the Connecticut Soccer Stadium, as it was originally called, with little fanfare on Oct. 4, 1969, with a 3-0 victory over New Hampshire.
By the late 1970s, UConn was becoming a national power. Morrone would march his players, single file, from the old Field House up to the stadium to find opponents who had rarely played before such large crowds. His
Sunday afternoon games brought youngsters out, many becoming ball boys or girls and beginning their love affairs with the soccer.
And soccer is played here against the elements, whistling late autumn winds and frozen turf for the late-season matches. On Nov 29, 1981, with 7,400 ringing the field, UConn beat Long Island on a cold, windy afternoon to reach the Final Four for the first time, and the Huskies went on to win it.
“UConn soccer was UConn basketball before the two basketball teams were UConn basketball,” Reid said. “The rock stars on the campus were Joe Morrone Jr., Pedro DeBrito, Elvis Comrie … these guys were the rock stars.”
The UConn women’s soccer team began playing here in 1979, and also built an impressive history, reaching the NCAA tournament 26 years in a row, 30 appearances between 1982 and 2015 under Len Tsantiris. The women’s team played its last game at Morrone on Sunday, losing to Tulsa, 3-0.
As the programs grew, Morrone, raising money and getting friends to help, got things done in stages, bleachers built on all four sides, a press box. Lights were added and Reid made night games the thing to do on campus. At one time, the stadium seated 8,574 — imagine the lines at the port-a-potties — but has lost bleachers over the years due to the building of the training center and the rink, and fire codes and for better accessibility. It seats about 5,000 now, and UConn remains at or near the top of the nation in soccer attendance.
Reid’s short list of favorite moments include victories over Furman to reach the Final Four in 1999, and Brown 1-0 on a frosty field to get back in 2000, on the road to his national championship, and a dramatic tournament win over New Mexico in 2012.
Then on Sept. 13, 2015, the Huskies came from behind on a rainy Sunday night to beat Cal-Santa Barbara 2-1, a signature win as an ailing Joe Morrone Sr. watched from a corner of the field.
“That’s how UConn won games in the ’80s,” Reid said. “They had great players, but they were gritty. … The players rushed over to Coach Morrone. We didn’t ask them to do it, and it was the last game he saw. He died [three days] after that.”
The current Huskies
(9-2-2) have games against Vermont on Tuesday night, and SMU on Saturday, and that’ll be it. It has yet to be determined where the Huskies will play and practice next season. For another week, all thoughts are on their longtime home.
Reid, who usually gets back to his office in Gampel Pavilion shortly after games, plans to stay at Joseph J. Morrone Stadium, stay until the lights go out. He wants to be the last one to leave the last game.
“It’ll be hard when they turn the lights off for the last time,” said Reid, who coached in short sleeves Saturday night. “I’ve been here since 1996. It’s the only place I’ve known. It has all kinds of problems. It doesn’t hold water. The practice field doesn’t hold water. But it’s still ours. We’ve won a lot of big games there. We’ve won championships there. We’re very fortunate in what we’re going to have in 2020, but it’s still a bit bittersweet.”