Historical Timeline

On July 26th, 1980, the Summer Blowout festival was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The performers included Black Sabbath, Journey, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, Babys and Russia. Over 75,000 concert goers packed the Coliseum, as temperatures reached 100 degrees. Tickets sold for just over twelve dollars.

The event was published by Billboard that week for being the top box office stadium/festival concert, making nearly one million dollars in gross receipts. The Coliseum has been known for hosting big names concerts, and this Summer Blowout Festival is another example of the Coliseum hosting some of the biggest names in music, with the festival featuring some of the biggest rock stars of the 70s and 80s.

On October 9 & 11, 1981, The Rolling Stones performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with opening support from Prince. At the time, Prince wasn’t well-known but Mick Jagger was a fan of his early work and invited him to open the show. Less than four songs into their set, the crowd of 94,000 promptly booed Prince and his band off stage, likely because his music and fashion was much different than taste of The Rolling Stones' audience.

Following the poor treatment, Prince flew back to Minneapolis, set on not returning to the stage. However Jagger and his manager convinced him to come back for night two. Prince and his band received similar treatment on October 11, but finished their five-song set, closing with “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?”

The Rolling Stones 1981 American Tour took over massive stadiums and venues across the country. The band was promoting 'Tattoo You' and was the highest grossing tour of the year. The band received over 51 million dollars in ticket sales and had roughly two million attendees over the span of their concerts.

When the Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982, the Coliseum became the new home to the NFL team. The first home game at the Coliseum took place on August 29, 1982, with the Raiders resolutely defeating the Green Bay Packers 24-3. The game served as a homecoming to running back Marcus Allen, USC’s 1981 Heisman winner.

The Raiders called the Coliseum home for 10 years, and even were the champions of Super Bowl XVIII while in Los Angeles, becoming the first team to deliver a Super Bowl to the city of Los Angeles.

The Who Tour 1982 took place to support their “It’s Hard” album. Although the band had two warm up shows in Birmingham, the tour was otherwise entirely in the United States and Canada. This was their last tour with their drummer, Kenney Jones. The band also announced it as their final tour, however they ended up reuniting and going on tour again several years later.

On Friday, October 29th The Who performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The opener was The Clash, touring off their most successful album. The crowd amassed roughly 95,000 concert goers and people who attended remember the concert going particularly wild over songs like "Love Reign O'er Me" and "Behind Blue Eyes."

June 23rd is known across the world as Olympic Day, a day which commemorates the birth of the modern

Olympic Games in 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris.

This event has helped to spread the Olympic ideals, and to promote participation in sport, across the globe, regardless of age, gender or athletic ability. The three pillars “move”, “learn”, and “discover” each play a role in helping National Olympic Committees organize sports, cultural and educational activities for everyone to participate in. Such events are even being incorporated into some countries’ school curriculum, and many Committees have added concerts and exhibitions to the celebration.

“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

- The International Olympic Committee

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum opened the Olympic Games for a second time, making it the only venue to host two Summer Olympics.

The 1984 Olympic Torch Relay began in New York City and concluded at the Coliseum, traveling 9,320 miles on foot by 3,636 runners. Gina Hemphill, a granddaughter of four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, carried the torch into the Coliseum, completed a lap around the track, and handed it off to the final runner, Rafer Johnson, winner of the 1960 Olympic decathlon. He touched the flame of the torch to a flammable Olympic logo, which ignited all five rings and continued up to the cauldron atop the peristyle and remained aflame for the duration of the Games. Johnson made history as the first person of African descent to light the cauldron.

The United States Army Band formed the Olympic rings to kick off the opening ceremony, which hosted 140 National Olympic Committees, a record number at that time. John Williams composed the GRAMMY-winning song for the XXIII Olympiad, "Los Angeles Olympic Theme" later also known as "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" and has become one of the most recognizable musical themes in history.

The 1984 Olympics are widely considered to be the most financially successful modern Olympics, serving as an example on how to run future Olympic games. As a result of low construction costs, due to the use of existing sport infrastructure, coupled with a reliance on private corporate funding, the Games generated a profit of over $250 million.

The Born in the USA Tour was Bruce Springsteen’s most successful tour to date, supporting his iconic album 'Born in the USA.' The tour included performances in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. It was also the first to feature the future wife of Springsteen, Patti Scialfa.

The tour grossed nearly 90 million dollars and the namesake album was inside the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart for the entirety of the tour. The final four shows of the tour, September 27, 29, 30 & October 2, were held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where they performed crowd-tested classics and premiered new songs like Edwin Starr’s “War.” The cumulative attendance was of the four sold-out Coliseum shows was 322,900.

The first LA Marathon started and ended at the Coliseum with an estimated 11,000 runners, making it the largest first-time marathon in America.

On September 15, 1987, Pope John Paul II hosted a Papal Mass at the Coliseum in front of a crowd of 103,854. There were celebrations all across Los Angeles, including a seven-mile parade route which attracted hundreds of thousands of Angelenos. In fact, the LA Unified School District canceled classes for the day.

The Mass released 500 white doves as a symbol of peace, love and new beginnings, and featured music by a choir consisting of over 1,200 singers from parishes throughout Southern California. Pope John Paul II was one of the most traveled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. His goal was to re-position and transform the Catholic Church at its core to create a new religious alliance that would bring together different religions across the globe.

In support of their iconic 1987 album The Joshua Tree, U2 set out on The Joshua Tree Tour across North America and Europe. The tour quickly became the event of the year, starting off in indoor arenas in April and rapidly growing into outdoor stadiums by September.

The first leg of the tour included five sold-out nights at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena on April 17-22, 1987, performing to over 74,000 people. U2 returned to Los Angeles on the third leg of the tour with two sold-out concerts at the Coliseum performing to over 132,000 fans, marking the highest grossing stop of the whole tour.

Before the second show on November 18, U2 pranked the audience by dressing in disguise as their own support act, a country and western band called The Dalton Brothers.

On April 15, Pink Floyd performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, drawing in an audience of over 56,000 concert-goers. “A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour,” consisted of two back-to-back tours spanning from September 1987 to August 1988, followed by a shorter tour from May to July of 1989. This was their first tour since 1981, as well as the first tour without original bassist Roger Waters.

There was originally doubt about whether or not the tour would continue, particularly because of Waters’ departure. Upon initial announcement of the tour, Waters threatened legal action against marketing any promoters promoting the show as “Pink Floyd.” The band reached a settlement with Waters, and the tour made over 135 million dollars worldwide, making it the highest grossing tour of the 80s.

Van Halen’s “Monsters of Rock” Tour took place in 1988, visiting 23 cities from May to July. The shows consisted of 9 hours of performances from the top rock bands of the era, including Metallica, the Scorpions, Dokken and Kingdom Come. Writers from the L.A. Times called the lineup “one of the most ambitious concert packages ever mounted.” The hard rock and heavy metal music festival originally took place annually in Castle Donington, England for 16 years. The performances spread to other locations across Europe, North America, South America and the Soviet Union.

1988 was the only year that the “Monsters of Rock” tour took place in the United States. Nearly 77,000 concert goers attended the Monsters of Rock tour at the Los Angeles Coliseum. However, during Metallica’s performance a riot nearly broke out as people tried to crush towards the front, ending in a dozen arrests and a “handful” of injuries.

The Rolling Stones “Steel Wheels” Tour launched across North America in 1989, promoting the “Steel Wheels” album. It later went to Japan and Europe. This was the band’s last live tour with their original member Bill Wyman, who played on the bass guitar.

The opening acts on the tour consisted of Living Colour, Dan reed Network, Guns N Roses and Guns. In interviews with the L.A. Times, Guns N Roses credited much of their inspiration and learning to The Rolling Stones. The tour was a giant success, making lots of money and filling arenas across the world. It was a return to glory for The Rolling Stones, who had previously been on a seven year hiatus. For four shows in October, The Rolling Stones performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The crowd was an estimated 95,000, raging from teens to older groupies of The Rolling Stones.

A short four months after being released from prison in South Africa, Nelson Mandela came to Los Angeles and spoke at a rally for freedom at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The event was sold out, attracting more than 70,000 viewers who came to listen to him speak of the suffering of South Africa’s Black majority. Musicians performed at the event, including Ice T, Babylon Warriors, Tone Loc and Kris Kristofferson among others.

As a well-known activist in the anti-apartheid movement, Mandela led the way to the end of apartheid, stopping racial division and advocating for human rights. After 27 years of imprisonment, his speech at the Coliseum was a key destination on his first trip to the United States featuring eight cities in 12 days.

On June 1st, 1991 The Grateful Dead hosted a concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The event was opened by Johnny Clegg and Savuka, starting at 1 p.m. The crowd in the Coliseum ended up being about half capacity, with nearly 50,000 tickets sold. Still, it was one of the top 5 highest grossing shows of 1991.

Sound technician Dan Healy spent weeks studying the Coliseum before The Grateful Dead performed in order to figure out the best location for the band’s speaker towers in order to make sure there were “no bad seats.” Some fans were apprehensive about the reserved seating style of the Coliseum, in contrast with the usual festival seating for The Grateful Dead. However, much thought went into the show, including nude torso sculptures by Robert Graham to assure the authenticity of the show.

Metallica kicked off the first show of their World Wired Tour yesterday in South Korea, and it got us to thinking about all the times they performed at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum over their incredible career.

In fact, 2017 marks the Coliseum's 25th Anniversary of hosting both Metallica & Guns N' Roses on a co-headlining tour, on September 27, 1992.

Other performances by Metallica at the Coliseum:

July 24, 1988: Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour, which also included Scorpions, Dokken, and Kingdom Come.

Attendance: 76,985

July 15, 2000: Summer Sanitarium Tour, also featuring Korn, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000, and System of a Down.

Attendance: 78,994

August 9, 2003: Summer Sanitarium Tour, with supporting acts Linkin Park, Mudvayne, Deftones and Limp Bizkit.

Attendance: 65,210

American romantic comedy Jerry Maguire stars Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger and Regina King. It was produced by James L. Brooks, famous for his production of The Simpsons. The film was inspired by the life of sports agent Leigh Steinberg, covering his struggles, career ventures and love of life. The film became the ninth highest grossing film of 1996, making $273 million worldwide up against a 50 million dollar budget. The film was additionally nominated for five Academy Awards and three Golden Globe awards. Cuba Gooding Jr. won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Cruise won the Golden Globe for Best Actor.

Scenes of the movie were filmed in June of 1996 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, including the first scene introducing top NFL recruit Frank Cushman, played by Jerry O'Connell, in what was supposed to be a stadium in Odessa, Texas.

In front of a crowd of 14,671 fans, the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) took on El Salvador at the Coliseum in the first of their preparatory games for the 1998 World Cup in France.

Starting the game off, U.S. standout Joe-Max Moore scored the first goal, screening out El Salvador’s goalkeeper, Alvaro Sanchez, in the 3rd minute. The game was tied up in the 59th with a goal by El Salvador's Oscar Lazo, but the celebration was brief. U.S. player Eric Wynalda scored in the 61st, followed again by a second goal by Moore in the 88th, which sealed the United States a victory with a final score of 3-1.

The USMNT represents the United States in international soccer, competing in CONCACAF (the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) as well as qualifying for all seven World Cups held since 1990.

A sequel to Escape from New York (1981), Escape from L.A. is a 1996 American post-apocalyptic action film directed by John Carpenter, with Kurt Russell starring as Snake Plissken. The legendary basketball scene was shot in the Coliseum. Fun fact: Kurt Russell practiced playing basketball in-between scenes because he wanted to legitimately make every shot during the basketball challenge. He made every shot, including the full court one.