J. Birney Crum Stadium
J. Birney Crum Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The stadium seats 15,000 and is used by several area high schools and the Pennsylvania Stoners of the NPSL and the Northampton Laurels of the WPSL soccer teams. J. Birney Crum Stadium is the home football field for each of Allentown's three high schools: William Allen High School, Louis E. Dieruff High School, and Allentown Central Catholic High School of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference.
The stadium opened in 1948 as Allentown High School Stadium. It was alternately referred to as Allentown School District Stadium and ASD Stadium for short. In 1982, it was renamed in honor of J. Birney Crum, a football, basketball, and baseball coach at Allentown High School who was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1974.
Crum was, at one point, the largest high school football stadium in Pennsylvania. But with the removal of the visitor side stands during renovations in 2002, it lost that standing.
Crum is also the home high school playing field for numerous Lehigh Valley Conference football players who went on to careers in the NFL, including Ed McCaffrey of the Denver Broncos and New York Giants, Andre Reed of the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, and Tony Stewart of the Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders.
The stadium was renovated in 2002 and FieldTurf was installed to replace the original natural grass surface.
The stadium plays host to a large Fourth of July fireworks display that typically draws tens of thousands of spectators.
In addition, Crum is known as one of the most legendary performance venues in the marching arts. The stadium hosts the annual Drum Corps International Eastern Classic. Formerly the DCI East Championships, this event hosts all of DCI's World Class Drum and Bugle Corps the weekend before DCI World Championships in Indianapolis. The stadium also plays host to the Collegiate Marching Band Festival, held in late September/early October each year, which showcases college and university marching bands of all sizes and styles from across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. Lastly, Crum is the site of the USBands A Class National Championships, featuring performances of High School Marching Bands each November.
