Joe Albi Stadium
Spokane's Joe Albi Stadium is best known as the home of many Greater Spokane League football and soccer battles over the past 60 years.
Section:Then & Now
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Photo Archive
| The Spokesman-Review
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Jesse Tinsley
| The Spokesman-Review
It began life as Memorial Stadium and has hosted the Cougars, the Vandals, the Eagles and even Elvis. But Spokane's Joe Albi Stadium is best known as the home of many Greater Spokane League football and soccer battles over the past 60 years. The name of Joe Albi, a longtime sports booster, was placed on the stadium in 1962. College teams have chosen Albi to bring in the large Spokane audience to fill more than 25,000 seats. Sometimes, Albi was needed because home fields were being renovated. When GSL titans like Ferris or Mead clash on Friday night, fans and pep bands can be loud. But it was probably louder on August 30, 1957. Nostalgia Magazine carried this memory from Paul and Charlotte Cooper about that night: “It was so jam-packed that we couldn't get to our seats … All of a sudden all the lights went out, and the stadium was completely dark. When the lights came on there he was: The King. Elvis! Then the screams really got loud…It was quite a sight-and a good concert when you could hear him.”