Ahhh, remember the early 1960s? The days of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” Jackie Kennedy’s trend-setting and Beatlemania?
Well, actually, this reporter doesn’t, but no matter — it’s when D.C.’s sports coliseum was born, and Events DC is celebrating the half-century mark with a smorgasbord of activities including free tours and RFK Appreciation Day on Oct. 29. In the meantime, history buffs can beef up on their RFK Stadium trivia by visiting the anniversary website and Facebook page for fun facts. (Like do you know what the stadium was called before it was renamed in 1969 for the late Robert F. Kennedy?)
Longtime D.C. residents also walk down memory lane in videos posted on the site, talking about going to their first baseball game and their first football game there as kids. All the fuzziness almost erases the horror of those long waits at the bathrooms and concessions, and the embarassingly unimpressive conditions of the pro locker rooms, doesn’t it?
Besides, there’s nothing like 50,000-plus people all jumping up and down at the same time to create that rumbling home team advantage. Magnitude 5.8 earthquakes may only happen here once every century, but at RFK they were all just part of the charm of Redskins’ home games.
