Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium

Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. Veterans Memorial Stadium is the home field of the Jackson State University Tigers. In July 2011, Jackson State University will own and operate the stadium. The stadium also plays host to the Mississippi High School Activities Association state championship football games every fall and other special events, and it has hosted several NFL exhibition games.

The stadium hosted an NFL preseason game between the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts on August 26, 2006, in which the Colts won 27-14.

After initially being built in 1941 with stands on both sides of the field, the northwest corner was bowled in 1980 to increase the seating capacity to its current size (about 62,000); until the recent expansion of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Veterans Stadium was the largest sports facility in Mississippi.

Historically, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Miss's college football teams regularly played selected important games there. Most notably, the annual Egg Bowl contests between Ole Miss and Mississippi State were held here until the early 1990s. Mississippi State and Ole Miss played "home" games there almost every year in the 1960s and 1970s as the stadium's size and accessibility proved more profitable than playing at home. The Mississippi legislature, also in Jackson, encouraged this. Two noted games were both major upsets for the Mississippi schools. On September 17, 1977, Ole Miss beat eventual National Champion Notre Dame 20-13. On November 1, 1980, Mississippi State shocked the undefeated and defending national champs Alabama by a score of 6-3. Shortly after the 1980 expansion, however, both Ole Miss and Mississippi State decided to enhance their on-campus stadia to develop the same home-field advantage of their fellow Southeastern Conference members, and gradually stopped playing games in Jackson altogether. The last game played there by an SEC school was a blowout win by Ole Miss over Division I-AA VMI in 1996; the Rebels' last conference game at Jackson was a 1993 win over Arkansas. Mississippi State's last home game at Jackson was a 34-22 victory over LSU in 1990.[1] Southern Miss made regular appearances as well, playing both UM and MSU as well as games against such schools as Texas A&M. The stadium continues to host the annual Capital City Classic between Jackson State and Alcorn State University, both of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

The stadium has also been home to numerous concerts, most notable being New Kids on the Block at the height of their fame. The 1993 Drum Corps International World Championships were held here as well.

References

• Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium