It was brokered in the backroom of a state Senate caucus and built in a polluted, stinking swampland.

It was a bowl surrounded by parking lots and backstopped by the Big Apple's skyline. It was the dream of one of the NFL's founding families, who opposed New York's power brokers by taking the team across the river to New Jersey to a football-only stadium without frills.

Giants Stadium had the basics, good seats and sightlines. And brutal weather for the closing month of the season: wind, snow and cold.

During its 34-year run, the stadium was the home of the Giants, the Jets, the Cosmos, the MetroStars and the Red Bulls. It was the site of 124 college football games, including the Kickoff Classic for years and three Army-Navy games. It also hosted a papal Mass and more than 160 concerts featuring the acts such as the Jacksons, The Who, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, the Rolling Stones and, of course, Bruce Springsteen, who closed the run with five concerts that featured the song "Wrecking Ball."

And don't forget the rumors. It is the alleged final resting place of Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters president who disappeared in 1975, a year before the stadium opened.

Barring something very strange in the playoffs, the final game will be played on Sunday, when the Jets try to nail down a postseason berth against the Cincinnati Bengals.

During its run, the stadium played host to more than 1,600 events and had more than 70 million people pass through its turnstiles.

"It's been a great run," said Ray Bateman, the former New Jersey Senate president who was among the group that proposed the legislation to build the stadium. "... That stadium was New Jersey to millions of people."

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The Star-Ledger of Newark first proposed that the Giants, who played in the Polo Grounds before moving to an aging Yankee Stadium, relocate to New Jersey in 1967.

New Jersey Gov. William T. Cahill appointed Joseph McCrane to lead the effort to lure the NFL team owned by Wellington Mara. The visionary treasurer was given permission to address a back-room Senate caucus and was the driving force behind the legislation in May 1971 that empowered the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority to build Giants Stadium.

A little more than three months later, the Giants announced they were coming to New Jersey.

"It was a controversial move," recalled Giants chief executive John Mara, who said his father became public enemy No. 1 in New York. "He took a lot of criticism from the politicians, particularly (New York Mayor) John Lindsay and (New York Gov. Nelson) Rockefeller. ... It was a daring move, but he really wanted a building for football."

Bateman vividly remembers the groundbreaking in September 1972.