Atwood Stadium Informations

Atwood Stadium is an 11,000-seat stadium owned by Kettering University. It's located in the historic Carriage Town district area of downtown Flint, Michigan. It is home to the Flint City Bucks, a soccer club that competes in USL League Two, unofficially on the fourth tier of the United States soccer league system.

The stadium received its nickname, "The Beautiful Stadium of Ours," from the River Rats, the original Bucks supporters' group. The group's tradition is to sing about the stadium as they march to every home match.

The stadium was named after Edwin W. Atwood, who was elected as the Mayor of the City of Flint in 1920, and also donated a portion of the site for the stadium. It has hosted boxing matches, UAW strikes, high school football, minor-league baseball, election stump speeches, and concerts over the years. Originally Atwood Stadium had a natural grass field, but in 1968 began using artificial turf. Atwood's turf was ruled unsafe, leading to the stadium's closure in 1992. The stadium reopened in 1995 after $3.5 million in improvements, including a new artificial turf field. In 2015, the stadium underwent over $2 million in renovations to the restrooms, press box, concourse, exterior and playing field, and hosted Powers Catholic, Flint Southwestern and Flint Northwestern high school football in the fall of 2015. Because of the annual Northwestern-Beecher game, Flint Southwestern has had to open its home schedule every few years at Guy Houston Stadium, which is Northwestern's normal home field. As Flint Community Schools games have precedence over Powers Catholic games, Powers sometimes uses Aagason Field at the Fr. Luke M. Powers Athletic Complex in Burton, home to the Bendle High School football team, as an alternate home field, on weeks of the Northwestern-Beecher game, and on weeks in which both Southwestern and Powers have home games.

Atwood Stadium is also used for Michigan Invitational Tournament, a high school marching band competition hosted by Flushing High School. It's one of the longest-running marching band competitions in Michigan.

It opened on June 8, 1929 and was named after Edwin W. Atwood who donated a portion of the site for the stadium.

From 1930 through 1976 the Annual Football game between Flint Central High School and Flint Northern High School was played on Thanksgiving Day and drew attendance in the tens of thousands of people. The 1950 game drew a record crowd of 20,600, thanks to standing room and temporary seating. Due to the development of state playoffs after 1976, the game was no longer held on Thanksgiving Day. Prior to the closure of Flint Central in 2009, Central won the overall series 41-39-1. Only four of the 81 meetings were not held at Atwood. The inaugural meeting in 1928 was held at Dort Field behind Flint Central. The 1929 meeting was held at Viking Field behind the original Flint Northern. Due to the stadium's temporary closure in 1992, the 1993 and 1994 Central-Northern games were held at Guy V. Houston Stadium, located near Flint Northwestern.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a speech at the stadium in 1936.

The minor league baseball Flint Arrows played at the stadium from 1948-1951. The Arrows were a Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

Atwood Stadium was renovated in 1966 with new ticket booths, a larger press box, improved lighting and new sod. The renovation also made Atwood an exclusive football stadium. After the sod failed the following year, Astroturf was installed in 1968.

The homecoming concert of American Idol Contestant LaKisha Jones was held here on June 9, 2007. More recently, it hosted a homecoming tribute to 2009 Heisman Trophy winner and Flint Southwestern Academy graduate Mark Ingram, Jr.

In 2010, the Hurley Foundation ran its last Tuuri road race, but was replaced in 2011 by the Atwood Stadium Road Race on the calendar.City of Flint Emergency Manager Mike Brown signed over ownership of Atwood Stadium in 2013 to Kettering University.

Thanks to community gifts from Diplomat Pharmacy, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Kettering University in 2015, the Stadium underwent over $2 million in renovations and improvements to help reopen the stadium in time for the 2015 high school football season.

In recent years Atwood has been home to the annual season opening game between Flint Northwestern and Flint Beecher. Beecher is coached by former NFL player Courtney Hawkins, while Northwestern also has a famous alum as a coach, former NFL wide receiver Andre Rison. Beecher won the 2010 opener, 28-18, while Northwestern took the 2011 opener, 46-44, in double overtime. During recent odd-numbered years, it has also been the site of Powers Catholic's football game against Nouvel Catholic Central High School; when Powers is the home team, it is usually played at the beginning of the season. Due to the 2013 closure of Flint Northern High School and the relocation of Powers Catholic to downtown Flint, it is expected that Powers will be sharing Atwood with Southwestern Academy on a full-time basis. In 2013 and from 2015 onward, the annual Powers Catholic-Southwestern game is now played at Atwood.

The Atwood Stadium Races, formerly the Tuuri, is set of road races, kid's dash, 5K and 10K, that begin and end at the stadium and held by Kettering University. . The races is held on the fourth Saturday in July. It is an official Crim Training Program voucher race and is known as a training race for the Crim. Racers can choose to run the "duo", both races.

The Tuuri 10K road race, named after Flint pediatrician Arthur L. Tuuri, began in 1979. The first four years, the winners won with sub-30-minute times. In 1981, Greg Meyer, a Michigan native, set the record of 29:28. In 1991, the race had its peak number of finisher with 1,176. In 2010, the Hurley Foundation ran its last Tuuri road race despite it being one of top Flint area races with 856 runners in 2010.

A committee of runners led by Brian and Dorie Barkey attempt to have the Turri race be continued by Hurley or picked up by the Crim Fitness Foundation. Instead the committee staged the races in 2011 as the Atwood Stadium Road Races, hoping the nearby Carriage Town Ministries' festival would help the race and vice versa. The 10K and 5K had only changes to it starting and ending at Atwood Stadium. In 2018, Kettering University took over operation of the road races with the route being changed taking the runners past Chevy Commons, the Flint River Trail, Mott Park, the new Educare Center, Glenwood Cemetery and Kettering's new Mobility Research Center.

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