Frank Youell Field was a football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 stadium that stood in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. It was the home of the Oakland Raiders

Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 from 1962 to 1965.

The stadium, which was essentially a temporary home until the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was completed, sat 22,000 and cost $400,000 to build. The facility was named for Francis J. Youell (1883-1967), an Oakland undertaker owner of the Chapel of the Oaks, Oakland City Councilman, and sports booster. It was located on the grounds of what is now part of Laney College

Laney College

Laney College is a community college located in Oakland, California, next to the Lake Merritt BART station and the Kaiser Convention Center. Laney is the largest of the four colleges of the Peralta Community College District which serves northern Alameda County.Laney College originally opened in...

 next to the channel which connects Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt

Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon that lies just east of downtown Oakland, California. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. A popular 3.1 mile walking and jogging path runs along its perimeter...

 to the Oakland Estuary

Oakland Estuary

The Oakland Estuary is the body of water separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. On its western end it connects to San Francisco Bay, while its eastern end connects to San Leandro Bay.-Crossings:...

. The site was formerly part of the "Auditorium Village Housing Project", one of several temporary housing tracts built by the federal government in the San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 for the thousands of workers who poured into the region during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 to work in war industries, especially, in shipyards such as the Kaiser Shipyards

Kaiser Shipyards

The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located mostly on the U.S. west coast during World War II. They were owned by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, a creation of American industrialist Henry J...

.

The Raiders (then a member of the American Football League

American Football League

The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...

) had played their home games in San Francisco (Kezar Stadium

Kezar Stadium

Kezar Stadium is a stadium located adjacent to Kezar Pavilion in the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. It is the former home of the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, and of the San Francisco Dragons of MLL. It also served as the home of the...

 and Candlestick Park, respectively) during their first two seasons. They played their first regular-season game at Frank Youell Field on September 9, 1962, against the New York Titans. The Raiders lost 28-17.

Frank Youell Field remained in operation and hosted some high school football games after the Raiders moved into the Coliseum. Frank Youell Field was demolished in 1969 to make way for extra parking for Laney College.

Sources

• http://football.ballparks.com/NFL/OaklandRaiders/veryoldindex.htm
• http://www.raidermecca.com/stadium.php