Picture Midshipmen football games once played right here on Worden Field, on the Naval Academy grounds in Annapolis, Maryland. First mentioned in 1890, this was the home stadium for the Academy’s Midshipmen football team from that year through 1923, until it was replaced by Thompson Stadium in 1924. Since the early 1900s the field has hosted the Academy’s yearly parades and many drills, and it is still used regularly for drills and important parades.
Over time the green has grown smaller as buildings and roads were added within the Academy grounds. The field is bordered on all four sides by small Academy roads; on two sides it is surrounded by officers’ quarters and on the other two it is bounded by a parking lot and the Severn River. You can see rows of bleachers along the south side and a small gazebo on the east side, and a small historical marker sits on the southwest corner.
The field is named for Admiral John Lorimer Worden, who joined the navy in 1834, was captured by the South at the start of the Civil War and freed in 1862, later becoming captain of the ironclad USS Monitor. Notice the bleachers to your south, the small gazebo to your east, and the Severn River marking the field's edge.