page_title: Giants Stadium
section_title: Notable moments
hierarchical_section_title: Giants Stadium / Notable moments
context_page_description: Giants Stadium was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and it primarily hosted sporting events and concerts. It was best known as the home field of the New York Giants and New York Jets football teams. The maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The structure itself was 756 feet long, 592 feet wide and 144 feet high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 178 feet high to the top of the south tower. The volume of the stadium was 64.5 million cubic feet, and 13,500 tons of structural steel were used in the building process while 29,200 tons of concrete were poured. It was owned and operated by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. The stadium's field was aligned northwest to southeast, with the press box along the southwest sideline.
  In the early 1970s, the New York Giants were sharing Yankee Stadium with the New York Yankees baseball team, and began looking for a home of their own. The Giants struck a deal with the fledgling New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority in 1971 and ground broke on the construction of the new facility in 1972.
context_section_description: October 10, 1976: The Giants played their first ever regular season game at Giants Stadium, a 24–14 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in front of 76,042 in attendance.
  October 1, 1977: Soccer legend Pelé played his last game, an exhibition match between the Cosmos and Santos. He played the first half for the Cosmos and the second half for his old Brazilian team.
  October 28, 1978: Rutgers beat Columbia 69–0. The Lions' humiliating defeat was the last game in one of the oldest rivalries in college football. Columbia's young coach Bill Campbell retired from coaching after the game and went on to a vastly more successful career in the Silicon Valley.
  November 19, 1978: Giants quarterback Joe Pisarcik fumbled the handoff to Larry Csonka with just seconds remaining in the game, allowing Herman Edwards (later a Jets head coach) to scoop it up and run it back for a touchdown, giving the Philadelphia Eagles an improbable 19–17 win. This play would be known as "The Miracle at the Meadowlands", and helped lead to the hiring of[Bill Parcels] as head coach, and later George Young as general manager.  Pisarcik's career in New York never recovered, and Phil Simms was drafted shortly after.
  September 6, 1984: The New York Jets moved into Giants Stadium, losing their first game to the Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 23–17.
  July 29, 30 and 31, 1984: The Jacksons performed three sold-out shows during their Victory Tour in front of 136.000 in attendance.
  July 14, 1985: The Baltimore Stars defeat the Oakland Invaders, 28–24, in the 1985 USFL Championship Game, the final game in league history.
  August–September 1985: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band performed six sold-out shows on the final leg of their Born in the U.S.A. Tour.
  December 28–29, 1985: Giants Stadium makes history by playing host to multiple playoff games in the same weekend. The Jets host the first playoff game in stadium history, as well as their first since hosting the Buffalo Bills in 1981 at Shea Stadium, on December 28, losing to the eventual AFC champion New England Patriots 26–14 in the AFC Wild Card Game. The next day the Giants, who are playing their first playoff game at home since they lost the 1962 NFL Championship Game at Yankee Stadium, defeat the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers 17–3 in the NFC Wild Card Game.
  September 22, 1986: The greatest game in stadium history occurs as Jets defeat the rival Miami Dolphins 51–45 in overtime. Jet quarterback Ken O'Brien throws for 479 yards and 4 touchdowns while Dan Marino throws for 448 yards and a staggering 6 touchdowns. Jets receiver Wesley Walker catches 6 passes for an unthinkable 194 yards and 4 touchdowns.
  January 11, 1987: The New York Giants shut out the Washington Redskins 17–0 in the NFC Championship game to advance to Super Bowl XXI in Pasadena. Two weeks later, the Giants would win Super Bowl XXI, their first Super Bowl victory.
  November 8, 1987: The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 17–10 in ESPN's first televised regular season game.
  December 18, 1988: In a testament to the Giants–Jets rivalry, the Jets helped eliminate the Giants from playoff contention in the final week of the 1988 regular season. Jets quarterback Ken O'Brien threw a touchdown pass to  wide receiver Al Toon with 39 seconds left to give the Jets a 27–21 victory. The Giants were mathematically eliminated when their loss was combined with the Philadelphia Eagles victory over the Dallas Cowboys, and the Los Angeles Rams' 38–16 victory over the eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers due to tiebreakers.
  June 30, 1989: The Who sold out four consecutive shows performing portions of the rock opera Tommy to open the first of two sets each night.
  June–July 1994: Giants Stadium served as a venue for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, opening with Ireland's 1–0 win over Italy, and concluding with Italy's 2–1 win over Bulgaria in the semifinals.
  July 18, 1994: Pink Floyd performed their final US show ever on their Division Bell Tour in which they performed The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety..
  December 23, 1995: 
caption: New York Jets playing at Giants Stadium, November 2001
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