You might not think that when your football team dates from 1876 that it would be hard to create any new history. If 2024 is any evidence, then you’d be wrong.

This season at Cornell, Penn backup quarterback Liam O’Brien would set Penn records with an incredible performance en-route to a 67–49 Quakers win. O’Brien would set a Penn record with six passing touchdowns and seven total touchdowns. The previous record holder was Mike Mitchell, who threw five touchdowns against Cornell in 2003 and Jim Finn who rushed for six scores in 1998. The quarterback who O’Brien replaced  —  Aidan Sayin  —  is the pass completion leader in Penn Program history with 665. Penn’s 67 points was also the most in a Penn Game since the Ivy League began in 1956.

Last summer, when Brigham Young Sophomore and Steeplechaser James Corrigan arrived at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field with the opportunity to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, he wasn’t just performing in a Colosseum of collegiate athletic greatness —  he was doing so in the oldest continuously utilized college football stadium in the country.

In fact  —  at 1,413 football games  —  no college program in the country has played more. Since 1895, Penn football has been trotting out at Franklin Field for home football games.

It is named, of course, after University of Pennsylvania founder Benjamin Franklin , who made Philadelphia his home and first set foot in the city on a misty October morning in 1723 after an argument with his brother. The Philadelphia that came into view and the morning autumn mist lifted from the Market Street Wharf and the vessel which had transported him, was memorizing to Franklin.

Originally utilized as a potter’s field from 1832–1860  —  the land that would eventually anchor Franklin Field was a burial ground for Philadelphia’s low income and indigent. Blockley Almshouse, whose cemetery would eventually be the ground for Franklin Field ,  was a hospital and also a poorhouse that was first established between 1732–1733. The site would become Philadelphia General Hospital in 1902.

Before the American Civil War, Philadelphia writer and physician Samuel Morton exhumed some of the fields’ human remains and placed them on display. After Morton’s death in 1851, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia purchased and expanded the collection. It was moved to the Penn Museum in 1966. Philadelphia’s potters fields were also the final resting places of native Americans and yellow fever victims among others.

One hundred and thirty years ago, the plans for Franklin Field were put into motion at a cost of $100,000 and were dedicated on April 20, 1895, in advance of the Penn Relays. The beautiful 20th century facade of Weightman Hall Gymnasium, grandstands, and permanent construction of Franklin Field began between 1903 and 1905 with the assistance of architect Frank Miles Day and Brother.

Benjamin Franklin’s Field has seen amazing feats in nearly 130 years. Home to the Philadelphia Eagles between 1958–1970 — the Birds would beat the Green Bay Packers 17–13 to win the NFL Championship in 1960. It saw the USFL Philadelphia Stars win another championship on its gridiron in 1984.

Franklin Field has also seen some political history. Another Franklin  —  FDR  —  accepted the Democratic nomination for president there before his 1936 reelection campaign.

Today, Franklin Field stands as a tribute to the man who worked tirelessly for Philadelphia and the University of Penn, on hallowed ground that was allocated for the City’s poor. Even in 2024, its old architecture is still seeing its share of new records.

Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, Pennsylvania.

Note: This article has been updated to clarify exactly when Penn took custody of the skulls from Morton’s collection.