Earthquakes Advent Calendar Day 6: SJSU

Its day number six of our San Jose Earthquakes advent calendar and behind today’s door is one of the most loyal neighbors of the Quakes: San Jose State University specifically Spartan Stadium.

The Earthquakes history at Spartan Stadium goes back over 40 years to the original NASL edition of the Quakes. In fact, the Quakes played at Spartan Stadium every decade from 1970 through the year 2000. When the current edition of the Quakes joined MLS as one of the original clubs in 1996, they hosted the very first MLS game ever at Spartan Stadium. Those are some deep roots. Most of the Quakes glory days happened at Spartan Stadium where they held an 80-41-28 regular season record and won two MLS cups and one supporter shield. It is also the location of the greatest comebacks in MLS playoff history and also where LA Galaxy completely fell apart in the second leg of a playoff series. Believe it or not, both things happened on the exact same day.

Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images

When the Earthquakes came back to the league after a couple year hiatus it was San Jose State who offered up free land for the team to build a new stadium. Eventually, that deal fell through but it lead directly to finding the land for Avaya Stadium. Without SJSU sticking their necks out like that Lew Wolff may have given up on building the stadium in San Jose as his option from MLS said the team had to be in the “general Bay Area”.

Check back tomorrow to see what is behind door number 7!