George Dilboy Memorial Stadium is a multi-purpose public sports stadium in the city of Somerville, Massachusetts. It is the home of the Somerville Rampage semi-pro men's football team, the Boston Renegades semi-pro women's football team, as well as teams from Somerville High School, Saint Clement High School, and Matignon High School.The stadium is named for George Dilboy, who lived in Somerville and was awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I. The original stadium opened in 1955. It was demolished and rebuilt in 2006. When it opened, the current stadium seated 2,000. Since then, it has been expanded at various times to accommodate the teams playing there. Located just off of Massachusetts Route 2, it is also under two miles from Davis Station and Alewife Station, making it reachable by a variety of forms of transit.It is located close to Alewife Brook Reservation (a Massachusetts state park), as well as a Somerville city park with a swimming pool, two baseball fields, tennis courts, basketball courts, and a playground.1955 StadiumThe first Dilboy Stadium was opened in 1955. The inaugural game was a football match between Somerville High School and Medford High School on October 8, 1955. When the stadium opened, its capacity was 5,000.Plans for the stadium began about twenty years earlier but were delayed many times, including by World War II and a 1950 federal ban on construction of recreational facilities. Several fundraising drives failed. In 1952, John F. Kennedy, then a congressman from Massachusetts, helped allocated steel from the National Production Authority for the stadium. The stadium was eventually built as a partnership between the City of Somerville and the Metropolitan District Commission, both of which contributed over $20,000 to the effort. Since the stadium was not wholly Somerville's, the high schools playing in it were charged rent and other fees.
