AKO plans on restoring its home

by Michael Hugall

One of Windsor’s oldest venues may get a new facelift thanks to a local organization.

The Alpha Kappa Omega Fraternity is progressively moving toward renovating Windsor Stadium. The stadium has housed the AKO Fratmen since the 1940s.

Although the stadium is used mostly to host football games, it has been used as a multi-purpose facility, housing concerts, festivals and other sporting events. The impact it had on the community and the fraternity is what prompted AKO chairman Dan Hogan and governor of the board of directors John Zucchet to take action.

“The response from the community has been phenomenal,” said Zucchet. “We’re looking to sort of re-align that space to make it more amenable to some of the other teams and centralize them all to the Jackson Park area.”

There will be multiple phases in completing the entire vision of the restoration project. In the current stage AKO plans on resurfacing the field to include turf instead of natural grass, renovating the seating structure to fit a capacity of 1,200 fans, providing the stadium with a new scoreboard and finally moving the light posts out of the field of play to ensure proper player safety.

Further to the initial plans, the AKO Fraternity is hoping Windsor Stadium and Jackson Park can be used to facilitate a variety of events including concerts, festivals and parades in hopes to bring back a part of history to the city.

According to Joseph Passa of Passa Architects the estimated cost to complete the entire project will be around $15 million.

“We want to bring a lot of colour and life into the front entry,” said Passa. “One of our biggest images we all think about in Windsor is the Big House in Ann Arbour… so if we can grab a hold of that, it’s the idea.”

Windsor Stadium has been a place of brotherhood for many years, a brotherhood that has stayed with Windsor native and Dallas Cowboys defensive end, Tyrone Crawford for a long time.

“A football team is a football team, and the players on that team make it a brotherhood,” said Crawford. “It’s different in the NFL but in high school you knew that your teammates were going to be around for a long time.”

The Windsor restoration project is attempting to remodel Jackson Park, but first the intention is to bring players back to a field which shares memories generation after generation.

As Crawford recalls, it meant more to him than just a game of football.

“It was our Super Bowl in high school,” said Crawford. “At Catholic Central we would walk to practice and see the lights shining… it was huge for us to play at Windsor Stadium.”