The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum opened June of 1923; some 5 months later, on October 6th, the first football game was played in the stadium, with the University of Southern California defeating Pomona College 23-7 before a crowd of 12,836. It was a modest beginning for a venue that would later play a very prominent role in college and professional football, and become the greatest stadium in the history of America.
Along with the adjacent Sports Arena, the Coliseum is credited with helping to start the migration of professional sports teams to the West Coast. The complex provided a home for the Rams (from Cleveland, 1946-79 NFL), the Dodgers (from Brooklyn, 1958-61, MLB), and the Lakers (from Minneapolis, 1960-67, NBA), and has also been home to a variety of Southern California teams as well the Raiders (from Oakland, 1982-94, NFL), UCLA Football (1933-81) and was the expansion home of the Chargers (1960, NFL) the Clippers (from San Diego, 1984-99, NBA), USC Basketball (1959-2006, NCAA), UCLA Basketball (1959-65, NCAA), the Cobras (1988, Arena Football), the Ice Dogs (1995-96, IHL), the Sharks (1972-74, WHA), the Stars (1968-70, ABA) and Kings (1967, NHL).
In 1984, the State of California and the United States Government declared the Coliseum a State and Federal Historical Landmark for its contribution to the history of California, as well as to that of the United States as a whole.
On March 29, 2008, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox set a Guinness World Record for the largest attendance ever at a baseball game with a crowd of 115,300. Other historic events include Billy Graham's appearance in 1963 in front of 134,254 (still an all-time Coliseum record), Nelson Mandela's 1990 triumphant return to the United States, the first ever Papal Mass by Pope John Paul II in 1987, and the 1976 Bicentennial Spectacular.
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