Vaught–Hemingway Stadium

Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
Full name	Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field
Former names	Hemingway Stadium (1915–1982)
Location	All-American & Hill Drive University, Mississippi 38677
Coordinates	34°21′43″N 89°32′3″W / 34.36194°N 89.53417°W / 34.36194; -89.53417Coordinates: 34°21′43″N 89°32′3″W / 34.36194°N 89.53417°W / 34.36194; -89.53417
Broke ground	1912
Built	1912–1915
Opened	October 1, 1915
Renovated	1941, 1980, 2002
Expanded	1950, 1980, 1988, 1998, 2002
Owner	University of Mississippi
Operator	University of Mississippi
Surface	FieldTurf - (2009–present) AstroPlay - (2003–2008) Natural grass - (1984–2002) AstroTurf - (1970–1983) Natural grass - (1915–1969)
Scoreboard	Daktronics 48' by 84' HD jumbotron
Construction cost	$96,000[1] ($2.22 million in 2014 dollars[ 1]) $25 million (renovation)
Architect	Cooke Douglass Farr Lemons (renovations)
Capacity	24,000 (1915–1949) 34,500 (1950–1972) 37,500 (1973–1974) 35,000 (1975–1979) 42,500 (1980–1984) 41,000 (1985–1987) 42,577 (1988–1997) 50,577 (1998–2001) 60,580 (2002-present)[2]
Record attendance	62,657 October 10, 2009 (vs Alabama)
Tenants
Ole Miss Rebels (NCAA) (1915–present)

Vaught–Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field is an outdoor athletic stadium located in Oxford, Mississippi. The stadium serves as the home for the University of Mississippi Rebels college football team. The stadium is named after Johnny Vaught and Judge William Hemingway.

History

Built starting in 1915 as a federally sponsored project, a series of expansions and renovations have gradually expanded the stadium and modernized its amenities, allowing the Rebels to play all of their home games on campus. Prior to the early to mid-1990s, Ole Miss would play many of its big rivalry games, including the heated feuds with LSU, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and Arkansas at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in the state capital of Jackson, located approximately 170 miles (270 km) south of the Ole Miss campus; and to a lesser extent, the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis. The Ole Miss-MSU game, commonly referred to as the Egg Bowl, was held in Jackson every year from 1973 through 1990 before returning to a home-and-home series.

Namesake

When the stadium opened, it was named for Judge William Hemingway, a professor of law and chairman of the University's Committee on Athletics. October 12, 1982 saw the addition of legendary Ole Miss coach Johnny Vaught's name to the stadium. September 5, 1998 saw the field named for longtime supporter Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth, bringing the current official title to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field.

Expansions and upgrades

The most recent expansion, completed in 2002, replaced the south end zone bleachers with a rounded bowl, adding luxury boxes and covered club seating in an upper deck, as well as additional general admission seating for students and season ticket holders; these renovations expanded seating capacity by nearly 10,000, giving Vaught-Hemingway a capacity equal to that of the stadium in Jackson. In August 2011 the school announced Forward Together, a new capital campaign that would seek to build a new basketball arena and expand the stadium. Phase 1 of the campaign includes renovating the concourses and concession stands at the stadium. Phase 2 calls for the stadium's capacity to increase giving it the ability to hold around 70,000 fans. This would be done through closing off the north endzone with a structure that would mirror the one added to the south endzone in 2002. In addition a plaza would be built outside the north endzone to serve as a "front door" to the stadium and celebrate Ole Miss tradition and history.^[3] In the summer of 2012 Ole Miss announced that they had received a million dollar gift that was to be used in the Forward Together capital campaign. The school announced in honor of the gift they would start a new tradition and include a bell tower in the north endzone expansion that would be rung before Ole Miss games to let fans know the game is starting soon and after Ole Miss victories.^[4]

The press box was added in a renovation in 1988

Other notable upgrades include the installation of lights in 1990, a jumbotron in 1997 and the replacement of the natural grass turf, which had become increasingly hard to maintain, with an AstroPlay artificial turf surface in 2003. Ironically, the stadium had been among the first in the nation to switch from a natural grass playing surface to artificial turf in 1970, and then one of the first of those stadiums to switch back to natural grass in 1984. The field surface was again changed in 2009 from AstroPlay to FieldTurf, making Ole Miss the first team in the Southeastern Conference to play their home games on the surface.^[5]

Attendance record

On October 10, 2009, 62,657 spectators were in attendance when the #20-ranked Rebels faced the #3-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.^[6] The Rebels fell to the Crimson Tide with a final score of 22–3.^[7] The previous record was set in 2003, when the Rebels lost 17–14 to eventual national champion LSU in front of a crowd of 62,552.^[6]

Indoor practice facility

In 2004, a 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) indoor practice facility and locker room facility was opened. This facility is linked to the existing stadium via a secured, underground tunnel that provides players with gameday access to and from the state of the art training features and expansive meeting areas housed there.

Video display

The new display cost $6 million

For the 2008 season, Vaught–Hemingway Stadium got a new high definition Daktronics video board to replace the Sony Jumbotron that had been installed in the north Endzone in 1997. The new board is the eighth largest scoreboard in NCAA college football (fourth in the Southeastern conference), measuring in at 48 ft (15 m) by 84 ft (26 m) (4,032 square feet). Ole Miss' board cost $6 million, all of which was paid for by Telesouth Communications as part of a multimedia rights agreement with the University.^[8]

See also

• The Grove

References

External links

• VIDEO: Virtual tour of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Ole Miss
• VaughtHemingway.com - Seating charts, photos, & history
• Daktronics Ole Miss page

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