The former home field of the San Francisco 49ers (and the Raiders!) Kezar Stadium has its 100th birthday on Friday, and it was once a global attraction sports and music destination before becoming the rec-level track meet field that it is today.

Today’s Chronicle has one of those endlessly interesting Peter Hartlaub historical deep-dives on Kezar Stadium turning 100 years old on Friday. The stadium was a much grander structure when it opened on May 2, 1925 (its opening day event was a footrace between Finnish track superstars Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi), when it had 59,000 seats, and absolutely no VIP or luxury box accommodations.

Now, of course, Kezar Stadium is more of a high school football stadium with just 10,000 seats, and a public park running track that anyone can jog on.

“How many cities have a 100-year-old stadium that anybody can walk into just about any time of day and use?” SF Rec and Parks Department general manager Phil Ginsburg told the Chronicle. “You don’t get that at the Coliseum in Los Angeles. You don’t get that in Franklin Field in Philadelphia. You don’t get that anywhere.”

The 49ers played their very first games there when they were established as an All-America Football Conference team in 1946, and it remained their home field until they moved to Candlestick Park in 1971. And get this — the Oakland Raiders played the first four games of their existence at Kezar Stadium in 1960, before moving to Candlestick later that same inaugural season. Despite being called the Oakland Raiders, the Raiders played in San Francisco for their first two years before moving to Oakland in 1962.  

And relive the magic of a 49ers game at Kezar Stadium with this NFL Films recap of a 49ers-Browns game in 1970. I think that's Don Criqui announcing? But this can be litigated in the comments section.

The Chron also has the outstanding nugget that pop legend Johnny Mathis won the high jump competition at a high school track meet at Kezar Stadium 1953.

As a big football stadium, Kezar also became a stadium-rock concert stadium in the 1970s. Led Zeppelin played there, as did Bob Dylan, and the Grateful Dead. (It was 1975 and yes there is a bootleg.)

And the Chronicle reminds us that the famed “enhanced interrogation” scene in Dirty Harry was filmed at Kezar, not at Candlestick.

So who is the “Kezar” in Kezar Stadium? That would be Mary A. Kezar, a reclusive lumber heiress who, upon her death, gifted $100,000 (about $6 million in today’s money) to Rec and Parks in hopes of having a statue or a zoo or something to honor her mother and uncles. Then-Mayor “Sunny Jim” Rolph merely ignored her wishes and used the money on a stadium instead, at least naming it after her.

Kezar Stadium was mostly demolished and very much downsized in 1989 to its current 10,000-seat incarnation with a track and multi-use field. It’s home to the annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Bowl game, serves as the home field for multiple high school football teams, and is also the home field of the semi-pro soccer team San Francisco City FC.

And that track is still open to the public for casual joggers, even though the history of that venue runs so deep.

Related: Santa Cruz Boardwalk Roller Coaster Giant Dipper Turns 100 Years Old This Weekend [SFist]

Image: Eric Fischer via Wikimedia Commons