a club made up exclusively of high school students, acquired a grass field and converted it into the first real football field. In March 1919, another club, SV Rapid Marburg, was founded. In January 1920, Rapid signed a contract with the Maribor's city authorities to acquire a football field in the area for the next ten years. In the same year, I. SSK Maribor also obtained a football field in the same area. The pitch was completely renovated and the inaugural football match was played on 9 May 1920, when Rapid played against Slovan from Ljubljana and lost 4–2 in front of 1,500 spectators. The ground also had a small stand, which was later destroyed during World War II. Other clubs that played in the area of ​​today's Ljudski vrt were Sportklub Merkur, Deutsche Sportklub, SK Hertha, and SK Rote Elf. Construction and early years Renovation of the sports infrastructure in Ljudski vrt was the main goal of the new sports organization in most of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and on 12 July 1952, the stadium was opened. At the time, the main pitch was fully enclosed by banking, with concrete terraces and seats located on the west side. By 1958, concrete terraces were built along the entire embankment around the pitch, which served as a standing area. Milan Černigoj was the main architect of the stadium. In the late 1950s he was joined by Boris Pipan, with whom he designed a new main grandstand on the west side of the pitch. Construction began in May 1960 and was completed in 1962, with the new club offices, dressing rooms and gyms located beneath it. A prominent feature of the grandstand is the concrete arch, which is protected by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia () as an architectural and historical landmark. The primary user of the stadium and the new club offices was to be NK Branik, however, they disbanded in 1960 due to the food poisoning affair, when the club's officials allegedly bribed a hotel waiter to deliberately poison the players of the visiting team, NK Karlovac, before the decisive play-off match for promotion to the Yugoslav Second League. After that, the city of Maribor was left without a professional club, which was one of the reasons why NK Maribor was established on 12 December 1960. Maribor found its home at Ljudski vrt,