Hinchliffe Stadium

Hinchliffe Stadium is a 7,500-seat stadium located in Paterson, New Jersey. The stadium is located atop the Great Falls of the Passaic River, and is part of the surrounding National Historical Park. The stadium, built in 1932, was closed in 1996 after years of neglect but reopened in 2023.

The stadium's primary user is the Paterson Board of Education, where it serves as a multipurpose facility for the city's two high schools, Eastside High School and Kennedy High School. As of 2023, it also serves as the home stadium for the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League (FL). The Jackals spent their previous 25 seasons playing at Yogi Berra Stadium in Little Falls, New Jersey.

Hinchliffe Stadium was also used as the home of the New York Black Yankees of the Negro leagues, and is one of four stadia still standing that hosted Negro league baseball games.

The stadium will be home to the latest iteration of the New York Cosmos, which will begin play in USL League One in 2026.

The stadium, a large concrete oval with near-continuous seating laid out like a classical amphitheater, was inspired by a decade-long popular "stadium movement" in the 1920s, and was finally brought to fruition through the persistent efforts of its namesake Mayor John Hinchliffe, who made his fortune from Hinchliffe Brewing before it closed due to Prohibition. It opened on July 8, 1932, as a combination athletic facility and a "paying investment" for the working people of industrial Paterson, New Jersey, who were by then struggling through the early years of the Great Depression. Many workers laid off from the mills found work under a New Deal-financed program to provide enhancements to the stadium in 1932–34.

The stadium immediately played host to the Negro National League and "barnstorming" games. In 1933, the stadium's first complete season hosting baseball, Hinchliffe hosted the Colored Championship of the Nation, the Negro leagues equivalent of the World Series, between the New York Black Yankees and Philadelphia Stars. That same year, the New York Black Yankees made the stadium their home, a tenure that lasted until 1938 and was interrupted only once in the 1936 season when they split time between Freeport and Middletown, New York. After 1939, the Black Yankees left Hinchliffe and took up residency at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Hinchliffe was also home to the New York Cubans in 1935 and 1936.

The baseball played at Hinchliffe Stadium was some of the best and most competitive in the game, including prodigious athletes like Monte Irvin, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, and "Cool Papa" Bell, among many others. Hall-of-Famer Larry Doby, the legendary player who broke the American League color barrier in 1947, grew up in Paterson playing football and baseball in Hinchliffe Stadium for Paterson's Eastside High School, and was scouted from Hinchliffe for the Newark Eagles in 1942.

Hinchliffe became an important venue for boxing (Diamond Gloves, precursor to the Golden Gloves), auto racing (precursor to NASCAR featuring stock car racing, pre-Indianapolis racing, and midget car racing events), and professional football. Racers that appeared at Hinchliffe included Dutch Schaefer, Ted Horn, Bill Schindler, Art Cross, and Tex Keene. Victory Bond rallies held at the stadium during World War II drew sports stars and New York and Hollywood celebrities by the dozens. Among the many notable events headlined at Hinchliffe were shows performed by Abbott and Costello. (Lou Costello was born and raised in Paterson's Eastside section.)