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From the Special Olympics to ski jumping to Springsteen and the E Street Band, Chicago’s Soldier Field has been the city’s playground on the lake for 100 years.

It all started in 1919, when the South Park Commission hosted a design competition for a new stadium to be built in Grant Park. They selected a plan by architects Holabird and Roche that featured its now iconic colonnades. Construction began in 1922, and the stadium opened on October 9, 1924.

See the stadium and some of the events it hosted over the past 100 years in our latest Google Arts & Culture story.

Select Images

Ski jump meet at Soldier Field Jorgen Johansen soars off a ski jump at Soldier Field, Feb. 3, 1938. ST-17500009-E1, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM
Medalists at the Pan-American Games SA's Wilma Rudolph and Lucinda Williams and Panama's Carlota Gooden at the Pan American Games, 1959. ST-17500944-E1, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM
50 yard dash at Special Olympics Girls' 50 Yard Dash event at the International Special Olympics held at Soldier Field, August 14, 1970. ST-90004481-0003, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM
Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher checks out the new Soldier Field Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher checks out the new Soldier Field at the team's first night practice, September 18, 2003. ST-17500531-E1, Tom Cruze/Chicago Sun-Times
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