Journal of Mississippi History Journal of Mississippi History
Volume 84 Number 3 Article 4
2022
Fighting for Legitimacy: The Impact of Football and Stadium Fighting for Legitimacy: The Impact of Football and Stadium
Expansion at the University of Southern Mississippi Expansion at the University of Southern Mississippi
Chad S. Seifried
Louisiana State University
J. Michael Martinez
Louisiana State University
John Miller
University of Southern Mississippi
Chris Croft
University of Southern Mississippi
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation
Seifried, Chad S.; Martinez, J. Michael; Miller, John; and Croft, Chris (2022) "Fighting for Legitimacy: The
Impact of Football and Stadium Expansion at the University of Southern Mississippi,"
Journal of
Mississippi History
: Vol. 84: No. 3, Article 4.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/jmh/vol84/iss3/4
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188
Fighting for Legitimacy: The Impact of
Football and Stadium Expansion at the
University of Southern Mississippi
By Chad S. Seifried, J. Michael Martinez, John Miller,
and Chris Croft
CHAD S. SEIFRIED is a professor and graduate coordinator for the School of Kinesiology at
the Louisiana State University.
J. MICHAEL MARTINEZ is an associate professor for the School of Kinesiology at the
Louisiana State University.
JOHN MILLER is a professor for the School of Marketing at the University of Southern
Mississippi.
CHRIS CROFT is an assistant professor for the School of Marketing at the University of
Southern Mississippi.
The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) began playing football
in 1912, the same year it opened for instruction as Mississippi Normal
College. Since then, the institution and the city of Hattiesburg have
beneted greatly from the positive attention generated by the football
team’s overall success and economically from the tens of thousands
of fans who have annually attended games on campus at Carlisle-
Faulkner Field at M. M. Roberts Stadium. As an example, USM football
teams produced an overall record of 607-447-27 through 2021 and two
College Division National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
national championships in 1958 and 1962. Furthermore, USM football
has produced fty-two All-Americans, over 125 professional football
draft picks, and nearly 150 professional football players.
1
Collectively,
these achievements generated opportunities for regional coverage of
the sport and university by thirteen newspaper outlets, nine television
stations, and fteen radio stations that combined made-up the Southern
Miss IMG Sports Network.
2
Moreover, the participation of USM in
Conference-USA (C-USA) since 1995 provided national coverage of the
football program and university through network agreements with the
Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network, BeIn Sports, and ESPN along with
various postseason bowl commitments the conference provided.
3
1
Southern Miss 2018 Football Almanac (Hattiesburg, MS: University of Southern
Mississippi Sports Information), 102, 131-134.
2
Ibid., 4-5.
3
Ibid., 55, 57. USM also won ve C-USA titles (1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, and 2011).
189 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
Despite the coverage and attention generated by USM football, there
is an underexplored legacy regarding its football stadium construction
history and its impact on both the university and the southern region
of Mississippi. For example, Chester M. Morgan’s history of the
university offered notable scholarship on USM, but little on the impact
various stadiums provided in determining the institution’s legitimacy.
Further, that work did not contain an adequate review of the critical
events and signicant individuals that helped build the institution’s
reputation through football and stadium-related building activities.
4
John W. Cox and Gregg Bennett also completed a remarkable book
on the history of USM football. However, it focuses primarily on the
football program and not on how football facilities contributed to the
growth and development of the university and the southern region of
Mississippi.
5
4
Chester M. Morgan, Treasured Past, Golden Future: The University of Southern
Mississippi 1910-1920 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2010).
5
John W. Cox and Gregg Bennett, Rock Solid: Southern Miss Football (Jackson,
MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2004).
The lack of interest in USM’s stadium history is notable because
football stadiums are highly recognized social anchors for fan
communities (e.g., local citizens, students, and alumni). Furthermore,
they generate a signicant amount of media attention, and their
complexity often makes them architecturally and organizationally
compelling. As an example, “well-intentioned progressives” made
football and college sports permanent through the development of
athletic departments, building concrete and steel-reinforced stadiums,
and “hiring a corps of professional experts.”
6
6
Brian M. Ingrassia, The Rise of the Gridiron University (Lawrence, KS: University
of Kansas Press, 2012), 9, 149, 171.
Sports facilities like
stadiums are also often associated with technological advances
and reective of a changing consumer society that scholarship has
recognized as capable of providing legitimacy to institutions.
7
7
Chad S. Seifried, “The Development of Death Valley in Louisiana: The
Modernization of Tiger Stadium,” Louisiana History 57 (2016): 187-188.
Finally,
football and its stadiums also are capable of facilitating brand
awareness and business partnerships, increasing student enrollment,
and enhancing alumni relationships and gifts or giving campaigns that
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 190
provide signicant revenues and resources to universities.
8
8
Raymond Schmidt, Shaping College Football: The Transformation of an American
Sport, 1919-1930 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University, 2007), 151; Chad S. Seifried and
Patrick Tutka, “Southern Methodist University Football and the Stadia,” Sport History
Review 47 (2016): 172-192; Chad S. Seifried, Carli Faulkner, Samantha Baker, and
James Piker, “The Development of Razorback and War Memorial Stadiums,” Arkansas
Historical Quarterly, 75 (2016): 181-205; Benjamin Downs, Patrick Tutka, Chad Seifried,
and Cameron Dean, “The Development of TCU Football and the Construction of TCU
Stadium: Building Community and Establishing Legitimacy, 1896–1930,” Southwestern
Historical Quarterly 123, no. 2 (2019): 204-223; Chad Seifried and Clay Bolton, “The
University of South Carolina Football Stadia through the Founding of Williams-Brice
Stadium,” The South Carolina Historical Magazine 118, no. 4 (2017): 289-316.
This article offers a descriptive history of the football grounds—
Kamper Park, Faulkner Field (renamed Carlisle-Faulkner Field in
2004), and M. M. Roberts Stadium—developed at USM from 1912 to
2022. Throughout the story, we reveal that football was strategically
used to promote USM and Hattiesburg and explain how the
development of the football stadium enhanced the school’s legitimacy.
The concept of legitimacy involves assessing an entity (e.g., product or
service) “within a socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs,
and denitions to determine if actions or behaviors” meet the practices
and expectancies of the internal and external stakeholders.
9
In this
regard, internal legitimacy “reinforces organizational practices and
mobilizes organizational members around a common ethical, strategic
or ideological vision.”
10
Meanwhile, external legitimacy encompasses
association and/or comparison with outside groups/organizations and
often seeks to understand their perspectives, not just what they are
doing but how outside groups perceive them.
11
9
Dylan P. Williams, Chad S. Seifried, and Brian P. Soebbing, “The Five-stage
Process of Legitimacy Building within a Sport Interest Association,” Journal of Issues
in Intercollegiate Athletics 12 (2019): 263; Mark C. Suchman, “Managing Legitimacy:
Strategic and Institutional Approaches,” Academy of Management Review 20, no. 3
(1995): 571-610; Monica A. Zimmerman and Gerald J. Zeitz, “Beyond Survival: Achieving
New Venture Growth by Building Legitimacy,” Academy of Management Review 27,
no. 3 (2002): 414-431; Roy Suddaby, Alex Bitektine, and Patrick Haack, “Legitimacy,”
Academy of Management Annals 11, no. 1 (2017): 451-478.
10
Israel Drori and Benson Honig, “A Process Model of Internal and External
Legitimacy,” Organization Studies 34, no. 3 (2013): 347.
11
Williams, Seifried, and Soebbing, “The Five-stage Process of Legitimacy Building,”
265; Drori and Honig, “A Process Model of Internal and External Legitimacy,” 368.
This article also complements previous ones published in the
Journal of Mississippi History (JMH) that addressed the history of
football and stadiums at the University of Mississippi and Mississippi
191 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
State University.
12
Finally, this work on USM offers a unique story
about the institution and southern region of Mississippi’s legitimacy
building efforts through answering: How and in what ways did football
serve the school as a social anchor for various stakeholders of its fan
nation? How did changes in USM’s football stadium over the years,
with respect to size, services, and amenities, impact the legitimacy
(internal and external) of the university and region? Moreover, how
was stadium-related construction associated with enrollment, and
alumni relationships, business partnerships, and revenue production?
Finally, how did various construction projects and renovations match
the larger pattern practiced by other southern universities?
12
Adam G. Peegor and Chad S. Seifried, “Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium:
The Modernization of a Football Stadium,” Journal of Mississippi History 77, no. 1 and
no. 2 (2015): 147-176; Chad S. Seifried and Milorad M. Novicevic, “Vaught-Hemingway
Stadium at Hollingsworth Field and Ole Miss: 100 Years in the Making,” Journal of
Mississippi History 77, no. 1 and no. 2 (2015): 115-146.
Origins of USM, Football, and Kamper Park
USM was established by the Mississippi legislature as Mississippi
Normal College (MNC) in March 1910. The initial goal of the state was
to create qualied teachers for Mississippi public schools. To incentivize
enrollment decisions, MNC offered free tuition to prospective students
if they committed to teaching three years at state public schools,
which included two years in rural areas near the student’s residence.
13
13
John P. Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of
Southern Mississippi, 1912-1949,” Master’s Thesis, University of Southern Mississippi,
1967, p. 1.
Opening in 1912 with an enrollment of 230 students and eighteen
faculty members, MNC administrators included organized sports
almost immediately to attract students by formally recognizing
athletics as a major activity, even incorporating it into the launch of
the university. For instance, MNC created an athletic association, and
science professor Ronald G. Slay served as the rst athletic director.
Student athletic associations were common by the 1890s throughout
the South. In the case of MNC, sports generated interest from a “local
area vaudeville show,” which helped subsidize the college’s football
program because the vaudeville operators believed promoting through
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 192
the sport could help draw more guests to their own shows.
14
14
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 2, 4; Siegfried W. Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic
Program at the University of Southern Mississippi,” Dissertation, University of
Southern Mississippi, 1970, pp. 23-24; Gregg Bennett, “David Wants to Be Goliath:
Southern Mississippi’s Attempt at Afliation,” North American Society for Sport History
Conference, University Park, PA (1999), 43, accessed https://digital.la84.org/digital/
collection/p17103coll10/id/11440/rec/1.
Many other schools throughout the country at this time also
recognized athletics as a vehicle to create a unique campus identity
and spirit. Moreover, the football spectacle with its exciting plays,
festival of colors, celebratory music, and crowded stands provided
schools with important opportunities to entice potential students to
enroll, media to publish information about the institution, and alumni
to reconnect.
15
Southern schools also needed to gure out how to
prevent the migration of potential students to the North. Thus, athletic
programs were often cultivated by southern universities and promoted
on campuses through association with positive character traits such as
sportsmanship, competitiveness, and responsibility.
16
15
Patrick Miller, “The Manly, the Moral, and the Procient: College Sport in the
New South,” Journal of Sports History 24 (Fall 1997): 298; Michael Oriard, King Football
(Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 13.
16
Lovick Pierce Miles, “Football at the South,” Outing, December 1894, pp. 3-4;
Chad Seifried, Tiffany E. Demiris, and Jeffrey Petersen, “Baylor University’s Football
Stadia: Life Before McLane Stadium,” Sport History Review 52, no. 1 (2021): 3.
The rst MNC football games were played at Hattiesburg’s Kamper
Park, a preexisting recreational complex about forty acres in size,
which was deeded by John Kamper in 1902 to the United Daughters of
the Confederacy (UDC), Hattiesburg Chapter. The UDC chapter spent
approximately $2,000 to beautify the park after assuming control.
In 1908, UDC conveyed the park to the city of Hattiesburg, which
supported a levy to maintain and improve the grounds and buildings.
The levy produced about $250,000 in park spending to grade, layout
driveways, and build a pavilion, in addition to larger construction
projects like the creation of bridges and an articial lake.
17
17
B. L. McGregor, “A Condensed History of Kamper Park,” Kamper Park
Commission 1915-1917, Jessie Morrison Collection, Box 1 Folder 12, McCain Library
and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi, 1-2; Kamper Park- Legal, 1891-1949,
Jessie Morrison Collection, Box 1 Folder 13, McCain Library and Archives, University
of Southern Mississippi, 2; Mayor Moran M. Pope: Kamper Park Legal Documents
1902-1956, Hattiesburg Municipal Records—Mayoral Records, Box 7 Folder 14, McCain
Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi, 1.
Managed by
the city’s park commission, the renovated Kamper Park was developed
for “all general recreational and athletic purposes, including the right
193 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
to erect and maintain swimming pools, playgrounds, . . . and athletic
purposes such as foot-ball (sic).”
18
18
“Kamper Park-Legal, 1891-1949,” 1.
Although Kamper Park did not initially support any stadium
or grandstand seating for football and other athletic contests to be
staged at the facility, MNC was attracted to the complex because of
its natural beauty for festival seating and the accessibility it offered
via streetcars to the school’s campus. Of signicance, student-athletes
were provided special rates to get to and from the facility with their
personal equipment for games and practices. Meanwhile, regular
students interested in attending only needed to walk approximately
one mile to the park.
19
The Kamper Park arrangement was not unlike
that offered by other southern schools in previous decades when they
established their own football programs. For example, the University
of Tennessee started in 1891 at Chilhowee Park, an area best known
for its boating and recreation space that was accessible through a
newly created streetcar line. Mississippi State played its rst football
games in 1895 on Starkville’s parade grounds.
20
19
Yvonne M. Arnold, “A Summary of the History of The University of Southern
Mississippi 1910-1999,” Box 1 Folder “Faculty,” McCain Library and Archives, University
of Southern Mississippi, 4; Venues with festival seating do not support actual physical
seats but allow patrons or invitees to create their own seats. Fagerberg, “A History of
the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of Southern Mississippi,” 25;
Fagerberg referred to an interview with Frank Montague Sr. by Dr. W. D. McCain from
January 11, 1965.
20
Peegor and Seifried, “Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium,” 153; Chad S.
Seifried, Benjamin J. Downs, Jeffrey Graham, and Adam Love, “Life before Neyland:
The Early Development of Football Fields at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,”
Tennessee Historical Quarterly 79 (2020): 232-233.
The rst football game at Kamper Park was played on October 13,
1912, between MNC and the Hattiesburg Boy Scouts.
21
21
Bennett, “David Wants to Be Goliath: Southern Mississippi’s Attempt at
Afliation,” 43; Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 5; “Football,” The Hattiesburg News, October 14, 1912, p. 3.
Although the
sport generated signicant interest from the student body, it did not
initially engender signicant attendance from the local community. A
subsequent contest played against the Gulf Coast Military Academy also
was not considered a prestigious event. Fortuitously, a Thanksgiving
Day game between Ole Miss and Mississippi State (then known as
Mississippi A&M) was arranged to be played at Kamper Park in 1912.
Sponsored by the Hattiesburg Commercial Club to draw visitors to
the town (particularly from Jackson), the event received signicant
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 194
promotion. However, that contest was canceled due to a player
eligibility disagreement shortly before Thanksgiving, prompting the
Commercial Club to nd an alternate game, which featured Howard
College (now Samford University) and Mississippi College. Despite
the disappointment regarding the potential Ole Miss and Mississippi
A&M match-up, the Howard College-Mississippi College contest was
successful in gaining attention from the local community, increasing
local knowledge about football, and attracting out-of-town visitors to
Hattiesburg.
22
22
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 6; “Mississippi College Football Team is Strong Aggregation,” The
Hattiesburg News, November 27, 1912, p. 1.
The success of the rst Thanksgiving Day event eventually set
the stage for a future relationship between MNC and the Hattiesburg
Commercial Club to continue promoting football to the local community.
Moreover, interest by the club eventually led them to assist in
securing funds to help Ronald Slay, the 1912 MNC head coach, hire
W. J. “Blondie” Williams as his replacement. Williams was formerly a
popular star quarterback at Mississippi A&M in 1911, leading them to
a 7-2-1 record, including a win over Ole Miss and a tie with Alabama. It
is likely that his celebrity status, along with the success of scheduling
Ole Miss to play at Kamper Park on Thanksgiving, produced the larger
crowds that MNC enjoyed in 1913.
23
23
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 7; “Normal Eleven Will Battle University Thanksgiving Day,” The
Hattiesburg News, September 17, 1913, p. 1; “Ole Miss Given Hard Battle by Normal,”
The Hattiesburg News, November 28, 1913.
Unfortunately, the momentum MNC generated from 1913 did not
carry over into 1914 and beyond for several reasons. First, Williams’s
team was not very good in 1913 (1-5-1 record), which compelled him to
step down as head coach shortly after the season concluded. Second,
the transition to a new coach, A. B. Dillie, combined with the previous
year’s dismal record did not make the MNC program attractive
enough to schedule better opponents. For instance, from 1914
through 1916, Dillie’s teams produced a 6-10-1 record, which included
several unattractive games against high schools such as Perkinston,
Poplarville, Copiah-Lincoln, and Meridian. The only colleges willing
to travel to Hattiesburg were smaller, less prestigious football-playing
schools like Spring Hill and Mississippi College. Third, the United
States joined World War I, and as happened at many institutions,
195 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
football was discontinued at MNC in 1917 and 1918.
As athletic director, Ronald Slay resurrected the MNC football
program in 1919 and “journeyed throughout the state” to contact
“several students who had football experience and planned to attend
Normal College.”
24
Within this effort, Slay made it a point to pursue
student-athletes returning from war who previously played at better
known schools like Ole Miss to promote MNC and improve the school’s
football program. To entice their interest, Slay developed a “football
training table” in the school cafeteria.
25
The provision of a training
table was important for MNC because many schools offered such tables
by 1900, not only to provide special meals to players but to improve the
morale and cohesion of the team.
26
Overall, the goal for MNC and Slay
was to produce a legitimate team with a “rst class rating . . . hard to
equal in this State.”
27
24
Ibid., 8; “Football Team of Normal Will be Formed Soon,” Hattiesburg American,
September 19, 1919, p. 12.
25
“Laurel’s Team May Come for Game Saturday,” Hattiesburg American, October
8, 1919, p. 3.
26
Chad Seifried, Jim Evans, and Allison Mosso, “Renown to Rubble: The Rise and
Fall of Pitt Stadium 1925-1999,” Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics 11 (2018):
54.
27
“Normal to Have a Fine Team this Year,” Hattiesburg American, September 10,
1919, p. 3.
To help promote MNC, Slay improved the quality of opponents
and the support offered at Kamper Park. For instance, in addition
to scheduling a game against Ole Miss in Hattiesburg for 1920, Slay
successfully scheduled a contest for 1919 against the Gulf Coast
Military Academy because its head coach, Ray Morrison, was a former
star player at Vanderbilt University. Other recognizable institutions
Slay pursued games with included Tulane, Millsaps, Spring Hill,
and Mississippi College.
28
Before he left MNC in 1921, Slay also was
instrumental in supporting the development of a formal relationship
with the Women’s College of Hattiesburg and the subsequent creation
of a “special ladies section” to cheer for opponents. With this innovation,
Slay and others believed the cheering section would entice other schools
to visit Kamper Park.
29
28
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 9.
29
“Mississippi Normal is Nosed Out in Great Football Game by Mississippi College
Warriors,” Hattiesburg American, November 18, 1919, p. 8.
In 1921, the MNC football program and Kamper Park experienced
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 196
some interesting but mixed results as Hattiesburg and the wider
region’s high schools started to expand their investment in football.
Kamper Park was generally viewed as inadequate for producing the
gate receipts necessary to create contractual guarantees with many
high-prole football-playing colleges. However, high schools required
no guarantees. Thus, their football games assumed a greater portion
of the Kamper Park calendar because the area high schools did not
pressure the city of Hattiesburg to improve the size and quality of
grandstand seating.
30
30
“Football is Played First Time by High,” Hattiesburg American, September 24,
1921, p. 3; Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 12-15.
With the poor condition of Kamper Park and its inability to
produce revenues through gate receipts, MNC sought to play games
in Jackson, Mobile, and New Orleans beginning in 1921. MNC viewed
playing in Jackson, the state capital, as an opportunity to legitimize
the school amongst its peers in Mississippi and to enhance student
recruiting efforts.
31
31
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 12. As one example, MNC’s games against Millsaps from 1921 to 1923 were
all played in Jackson.
Other schools in the southern region chasing gate
receipts and publicity also played at neutral sites in more populated
areas.
32
32
Blake Gumprecht, “Stadium Culture: College Athletics and the Making of Place
in the American College Town,” Southeastern Geographer 43 (2003): 35, 39.
However, it was obvious that moving MNC home games was
a result of an inadequate facility.
33
33
W. O. Kincannon, “Magnolia Grid Teams Lacking Power of Lore,” Hattiesburg
American, October 8, 1923, p. 3.
With the potential for signicant
nancial losses at Kamper Park, new head coach O. V. “Sprout” Austin
made appeals to Hattiesburg’s businessmen to “underwrite the game
expenses” and improve the venue to attract a potential commitment
from schools like Ole Miss to send a team to Kamper Park.
34
34
“Frosh Eleven of Ole Miss May Play Here,” Hattiesburg American, October 17,
1923, p. 3.
Although
local businessmen did not provide the nancial support Coach Austin
desired, their failure to do so prompted the formation of the Alumni
Athletic Club in 1924, which was specically formed to help raise money
for athletics and potentially a new football eld.
35
35
“Normal-Fresh Tilt Now Off, Is Announced,” Hattiesburg American, October
24, 1923, p. 3; Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the
University of Southern Mississippi,” 31, 34; Fagerberg refers to an issue of the Normal
College News, March 1, 1924, p. 5.
Coincidentally, MNC
197 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
was also rebranded in 1924 as Mississippi State Teachers College
(STC).
36
36
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 16.
In 1925, STC applied for membership with the Southern
Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA). Although he did not
personally view athletics as a critical part of the curriculum, President
Joseph A. Cook (1912-1928) supported the SIAA application. Cook
understood that football was attractive because of the spirit it
engendered among the students and the subsequent prestige it could
provide through its ability to create favorable comparisons (i.e., winning
on the eld meant a school—not just a team—was perceived as better
than another). Cook also recognized that conference afliation was
considered to be part of what makes a legitimate athletic program.
37
37
Fagerberg, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 25, 31, 61; Bennett, “David Wants to Be Goliath,” 43.
Improving the identity of the institution remained a priority
with athletic and academic administrators, and the SIAA appeared
desirable for additional reasons. First, the SIAA was formed in 1894 for
“the development and purication of college athletics throughout the
South” and specically to assist the formation of eligibility standards,
dene amateurism, and establish standardized rules for contests.
Second, the SIAA was attractive because it helped secure schedules and
provided an opportunity for faculty oversight of athletics to gain their
support.
38
Third, State Teacher’s College was not publicly considered a
major school so afliation with the SIAA, and the prospect of earning
championships and all-conference player honors, was viewed as a boost
for the school’s name recognition with potential students and business
partners.
39
38
Southern Inter-collegiate Athletic Association (Athens, GA: E.D. Stone Printing,
1895), 3.
39
“Football Fans in State Will See 15 Battles,” Hattiesburg American, September
2, 1927, p. 2.
STC’s initial application to SIAA failed to secure enough
votes for an invitation to join, but the school annually applied for
membership until nally receiving acceptance in November 1929. A
major reason for the lack of consideration given to STC concerned
the unwillingness of potential conference members to travel to
Hattiesburg. As previously emphasized, SIAA members negatively
viewed Kamper Park’s inability to produce sufcient gate receipts for
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 198
them to share. Moreover, the Hattiesburg area was still considered to
be underdeveloped technologically, and transportation to the region
was still a bit challenging.
40
In response to the criticism, STC created
an Athletic Advisory Council in 1929, which beneted the school’s
application to the SIAA. The Athletic Advisory Council was developed
to inspire interest of Hattiesburg fans in STC athletics and to create
an advertising committee able to “solicit public support for the athletic
department.”
41
40
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 17-24; “Four S.I.A.A. Games Played at Home,” Student Printz, February
5, 1930, p. 1.
41
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 36; “The Worth of S.T.C.,” Hattiesburg American, October 9,
1929, p. 16.
The creation of similar advisory committees also was implemented
at other schools because critics of football, although in the minority,
were still vocal. As evidence, writing for The North American Review,
Samuel Grafton presented football as not only a spectacle to behold
but also as an activity viewed as a “blight” by others.
42
The blight that
critics cited included cheating, professionalism, and the lack of genuine
interest in education by participants. By contrast, athletic advisory
committees and new stadium projects, in particular, were viewed as
vehicles to unite “men of different [university] departments on common
ground” and to develop signicant bonds across communities. Overall,
this viewpoint may explain why nearly fty new college football
stadiums were built in the nation during the 1920s.
43
42
Oriard, King Football, 13; Samuel Grafton, “A Million Dollars for Football,” North
American Review 5 (1928): 582.
43
Patrick Tutka and Chad Seifried, “An Innovation Diffusion Ideal-type on the
History of American College Football Stadia,” Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate
Athletics 13 (2020): 324.
Enrollment at STC grew to 810 by the end of the 1920s, but annual
nancial losses associated with Kamper Park’s failure to produce
revenues provoked more discussion about building a new football
facility. President Claude Bennett (1928-1933) wanted to maintain
public support in the 1930s after joining SIAA and viewed losses
associated with football as unacceptable, thus justifying his backing
for a new venue.
44
44
Fagerberg, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 35; See Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the
University of Southern Mississippi,” 62.
By 1930, college alumni and residents of Hattiesburg
also realized the benets to the college and community that a thriving
199 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
athletic program could provide, especially as transportation and
communication in the area improved.
45
For example, local business
leaders at the time believed STC had channeled roughly $20 million
into the Hattiesburg area’s economy since 1912. Further, they worried
that the lack of a good football program and a legitimate facility would
eventually become a liability, impairing the image of the region, thus,
preventing visitors from spending money in the area.
46
45
Morgan, Treasured Past, Golden Future, 59.
46
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 27.
Faulkner Field
The 1930 STC football schedule was comprised of SIAA members,
including the likes of Union University as well as Delta State Teachers
College, Louisiana College, Millsaps College, Mississippi College,
Spring Hill College, Louisiana Normal College, and Louisiana Institute
Southwestern in a nine-game lineup.
47
It is clear that the STC schedule
was considerably better than previous seasons because it included only
four-year institutions and SIAA members. Importantly, this upgrade
helped demonstrate to the community a genuine effort to produce a
more attractive set of games to benet fans and local businesses.
48
The
increasing attention STC gave its athletic program also motivated
Mississippi’s governor-elect, Martin (Mike) Conner, to promote STC’s
membership in the SIAA and offered a rationale for subsequent public
support and nancial investments by the state during the Great
Depression.
49
47
“Four S.I.A.A. Games Played at Home,” Student Printz, February 5, 1930, p. 1;
“Jackets Close Season Friday,” Hattiesburg American, November 26, 1929, p. 9.
48
“Four S.I.A.A Games Played at Home,” Student Printz, February 5, 1930, p. 1;
“Jackets Close Season Friday,” 9; “State Teachers College Admitted to Membership in
S.I.A.A.,” Hattiesburg American, December 16, 1930, p. 6.
49
“State Teachers Defeated,” Hattiesburg American, October 5, 1931, p. 6.
STC produced a 3-5-1 record in 1931 and had several players receive
All-State and SIAA recognition, a source of pride for the institution.
Still, school authorities declared the 1931 season a “nancial op
due to a large measure from the lack of a good playing eld and gate
crashers” that Kamper Park’s physical condition and/or arrangement
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 200
could not prevent.
50
For instance, approximately 1,500 people attended
a November game in Hattiesburg, but this gure is misleading as
500 were students who did not pay admission, and another 215 boys,
attending the Older Hi-Y Boys conference, were guests of the college.
As a result, the lack of paying customers and aforementioned gate
crashers created low box ofce receipts, but burgeoning student and
community interest compelled STC ofcials to pledge to build a new
facility.
51
50
“Teachers Can Use Freshies,” Hattiesburg American, September 30, 1930, p.
7; Without the freshman exception, STC would only be able to support a team of ten
players. “S.T.C. Plans Concrete Stadium to House Varied Sports Events,” Hattiesburg
American, December 9, 1931, p. 1.
51
Cox and Bennet, Rock Solid, 26-27.
Unfortunately, the timing for a new stadium could not have been
worse for STC. The Great Depression saw national average incomes
fall nearly 50 percent between 1929 and 1932, which reduced game
attendance at STC and other institutions of higher education by 25
percent.
52
As with other state-supported schools at this time, the most
signicant concern for STC was insufcient nancial support from the
state and a drop in enrollment. To counter the monetary difculties
and to oversee higher education in the state, the Board of Trustees for
Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) was established in
1931. STC was reported to be $25,000 to $40,000 in debt at this time,
prompting the IHL Board to introduce initiatives that allowed STC’s
athletic program to be positioned as an investment.
53
52
John Watterson, College Football (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2002), 177.
53
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 38; Interview with R. E. Rivers by Siegfried W. Fagerberg,
January 1970; Report of the Functions of the State Institutions of Higher Learning in
Mississippi (Nashville, TN: Division of Surveys and Field Studies of George Peabody
College for Teachers, 1933), 53; STC enrollment dropped to 556 for the fall semester of
1932.
STC President Claude Bennett (1928-1933) announced that
the college would construct a new stadium by the fall of 1932. He
envisioned the facility to be the focal point for all athletics at STC and
a source for the development of favorable academic qualities.
54
54
“S.T.C. Plans Concrete Stadium to House Varied Sports Events,” 1B; Fagerberg,
“A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of Southern
Mississippi,” 28.
As an
investment, Bennett hoped “to have an athletic eld that will make
Hattiesburg and Teachers College a mecca for all high school and
201 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
college athletic tournaments in South Mississippi.”
55
It should be noted
that the conditions presented by the Depression and annual nancial
losses by football and other athletic teams predictably created some
critics of the stadium project, who believed any money provided by
the state should be used to enhance the academic programs at STC.
56
Still, the decision of the IHL and Bennett was not unlike other projects
approved across the country. Many universities were receiving support
from state and federal sources to be spent on athletics during the
1930s because government and education leaders collectively felt that
positive attention from athletic competition helped boost enrollment,
which in turn helped to recruit alumni gifts as well as increased gate
receipts.
57
The development of stadiums generated signicant publicity
and excitement that schools could capitalize on because “[t]here is no
one activity on a campus that arouses as much interest and enthusiasm
as a football game.”
58
Former Southeastern Louisiana College coach
Lloyd J. Stovall (1938-1940) supported this conclusion and went one
step further saying that state schools in Mississippi were “excellent
illustrations of the attempts made to increase the enrollment through
means of publicity engendered by prominent football teams.”
59
Overall,
the stadium was viewed as “becoming just as much a requisite of up-
to-date university equipment as a gymnasium or physics laboratory.”
60
55
“S.T.C. Plans Concrete Stadium to House Varied Sports Events,” 1B.
56
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 39.
57
Abraham Flexner, “American Universities” in Opinions and Attitudes, ed.
S. Morgan and W. Thomas (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1934), 18; Lloyd J.
Stovall, “Present Trends in Intercollegiate Football,” Master’s Thesis, Louisiana State
University (1940), 11, 35, 39, 59. Stovall cites Auburn and Ole Miss as examples of
schools using football as part of a university strategic plan to boost enrollment.
58
Stovall, “Present Trends in Intercollegiate Football,” 16; Ingrassia, The Rise of
the Gridiron University, 165.
59
Ibid., 87.
60
Ernest Quantrell to Amos Alonzo Stagg, December 5, 1922, Amos Alonzo Stagg
Papers, Box 24, Folder 5, Football General 1921–1925, Special Collections Research
Center, University of Chicago Library.
The diversity of people beyond the campus community interested
in football was also a signicant reason groups like the IHL decided
to support athletic facility construction at STC. The 1930 U.S.
census documented that Forrest County and surrounding counties
were growing in population.
61
61
Decennial Population 1930, United States Census Bureau, accessed,
https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1930/population-volume-
3/10612963v3p1ch10.pdf.
This growth meant the various hotels,
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 202
gas stations, restaurants, storekeepers, and other businesses often
proted from football being played in their region.
62
Alumni voices also
were prominent for STC as the number of its graduates continued to
grow. Collectively, these stakeholders all rationalized and promoted
the social value of football by associating it with social bonding
opportunities amongst Hattiesburg locals, STC students, and visitors,
along with the development of personal traits such as perseverance
and competitiveness.
63
62
Stovall, “Present Trends in Intercollegiate Football,” 24; John R. Tunis, “What
Price College Football?” The American Mercury 48 (October 1939): 139.
63
Stovall, “Present Trends in Intercollegiate Football,” 25, 66-67; “S.T.C. Plans
Concrete Stadium to House Varied Sports Events,” 1B.
The initial groundwork of the new STC stadium started in
December of 1931 under the leadership of project director L. E.
Faulkner, who donated important materials and equipment. Faulkner
was vice president of Mississippi Central Railroad and also chairman
of the Central Relief Committee of Hattiesburg. He offered President
Bennett about thirty unemployed laborers to do the construction and
help with the grading of the athletic eld. In the end, due to his efforts,
the stadium was constructed at no cost to the college and named after
Faulkner.
64
64
“Governor’s Day and Football Game Bring out Many Smart Costumes,” 5; “S.T.C.
Plans Concrete Stadium to House Varied Sports Events,” 1B; “Work Started on S.T.C.
Field,” Hattiesburg American, December 15, 1931, p. 10.
It should be noted that Faulkner was a strong opponent of
integration. In 1948, he opposed President Harry Truman’s attempt
to make the Fair Employment Practices Commission a permanent
agency. In 1955, he worked with the Citizens Council to attempt to get
the NAACP’s tax-exempt status revoked.
65
65
Ashton Pittman, “Protesting Racism, USM Football Players March From Stadium
Named For Segregationist” Mississippi Free Press, August 30, 2020.
Faulkner Field opened on October 29, 1932, with 4,000 wooden
seats lled to capacity for a match against Spring Hill College and with
much acclaim as it coincided with the Hattiesburg Golden Jubilee,
a festival organized by White leaders to celebrate the city’s ftieth
anniversary. Notable features of Faulkner Field included a press box
(described as comfortable) and a large speaker stand in the south end
zone. The facility was also characterized as conforming to national
trends that maximized “the number of seats in preferred locations”
and in “controlling access to and from the building” for the collection of
203 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
gate receipts.
66
The venue itself was ofcially dedicated by Mississippi
First Lady Alma Graham Conner, a member of STC’s (i.e., MNC) rst
graduating class.
67
Many other women also similarly turned out for the
game to show off their fashion in “Southern Mississippi’s nest athletic
arena.”
68
66
Bacon, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Southern
Mississippi, 1912-1949,” 27; Schmidt, Shaping College Football, 41.
67
“Teachers Show Well in Game,” Hattiesburg American, October 24, 1932, p. 6;
“Governor’s Day and Football Game Bring out Many Smart Costumes,” Hattiesburg
American, October 31, 1932, p. 5.
68
“Governor’s Day and Football Game Bring out Many Smart Costumes,” 5;
Fagerberg “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern,” 28.
It should be noted that football victories in the early 1930s, better
local attendance, and enhanced media interest helped to settle some
of the persistent nancial and enrollment challenges STC faced
during the decade. Regarding enrollment, STC’s shortages were not
quite as severe as other peer schools in the South, suggesting that the
football investment may have beneted the school. More specically,
enrollment remained steady at near 550 after the severe early drop.
69
To support the move into the new facility and football specically, STC
athletics employed a variety of strategies. For instance, STC dropped
the price of admission to 60 cents per game so that more spectators from
Hattiesburg would be able to attend home football games during the
Depression.
70
Next, the Alumni Athletic Association emerged to assist
players in purchasing clothes and other school or living essentials. To
further cut costs, the STC freshman football team was discontinued in
1934 along with the sports of basketball and baseball in 1935.
71
69
Biennial Survey of Education in the United States (Washington, D.C.: United
States Government Printing Ofce, 1942), 154.
70
“Governor’s Day and Football Game Bring out Many Smart Costumes,” 5.
71
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 41; “S.T.C. Gridmen Grind Away in Lengthy Spring Workouts,”
Hattiesburg American, February 22, 1935, p. 7.
With these changes, STC strategically decided to invest more into
varsity football, beginning by adding lights in 1934 to elevate the
spectacle at Faulkner Field. Lights were considered in the original
plans for Faulkner Field in 1931, but STC waited until 1934 to save
on the cost and to see whether other schools that added lights realized
gate receipt benets. Eventually, STC saw several southern schools,
such as LSU and Loyola of New Orleans, enjoy “an enormous increase
in patronage, as well as a sharp gain in interest.” The cost of STC’s
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 204
lights was paid by the Emergency Relief Agency and gained STC
considerable attention from local citizens and peers who characterized
Faulkner Field as the “best athletic stadium in the state.”
72
72
“Lights Will be Installed,” Hattiesburg American, September 4, 1934, p. 7; “State
Teachers and Louisiana College to Meet at Faulkner Field,” Hattiesburg American,
November 4, 1932, p. 6; “Southwestern Beaten 12 to 6,” Hattiesburg American, October
20, 1934, p. 3; “S.T.C. Plans Concrete Stadium to House Varied Sports Events,” 1B.
This statement nds support for this position from Stovall, who
criticized the quality of Scott Field at Mississippi State College
(changed from Mississippi A&M in 1932). More specically, Stovall
commented that the poor condition of Scott Field forced Mississippi
State to play all their games on the road one season. Further, Stovall
said that school ofcials at Mississippi State wanted a better on-
campus stadium to not only generate more revenue for the institution
but to bring more visitors to Starkville, which had a smaller population
and fewer businesses than the Hattiesburg area. Mississippi State,
like other schools with small local populations and inadequate playing
facilities, was often forced to play games at neutral sites near large
population centers to generate gate receipts capable of sustaining their
athletics program. Gate receipts remained the main source of revenue
from football. Some universities with large on-campus facilities were
providing prots to their institution for the construction of academic
buildings and student service programs.
73
In the case of Mississippi,
regional peers Mississippi State and Ole Miss responded by expanding
their own facilities for these purposes in 1936 and 1937 to seat 26,000
and 24,000 respectively.
74
73
Stovall, “Present Trends in Intercollegiate Football,” 88-89.
74
Peegor and Seifried, “Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium,” 159; Seifried
and Novicevic, “Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field and Ole Miss,” 130.
Interestingly, internal initiatives and external pressures from the
aforementioned regional peers led to the creation of an STC booster
organization known as the 500 Club in 1937.
75
75
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 28.
Its purpose was to
generate support for college athletics at STC, which at the time only
budgeted about $2,400 for football. President Jennings Burton George
(1933-1945), an alumnus himself, described the 500 Club as “a group
of interested citizens in Hattiesburg, feeling that they should do more
to make a greater institution out of State Teachers.”
76
76
“Workers Will Meet Tonight,” 1.
The 500 Club
included leaders from a variety of local civic groups such as the Lions
205 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
Club, Business and Professional Women’s Club, Kiwanis Club, Rotary
Club, Chamber of Commerce, PTA, Garden Club, and Alumni.
77
77
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern,” 44; “Workers Will Meet Tonight,” Hattiesburg American, August 10, 1937,
p. 1.
The 500 Club connected the importance of the athletic program to
the growth of the school as well as the southern Mississippi region. Its
leaders pointed out that the athletic department and its facilities had
steadily improved, but stressed the need for more progress to elevate
the status of athletics and the institution. As one example, the locker
rooms at Faulkner Field were considered poor and small, which often
discouraged high-quality opponents from playing at STC.
78
Notably,
Hattiesburg’s mayor, Travis H. Boykin, also supported the 500 Club
after proclaiming “that a sound athletic program was necessary to
the growth of the community and college.”
79
Further, the president
of the Hattiesburg Chamber of Commerce urged all residents of the
city to support STC’s athletic program to help bring better teams and
improved facilities to the area.
80
78
Ibid., 43. Beginning with Coach Allison “Pooley” Hubert in 1935, continuing with
Reed Green in 1937 and Thad “Pie” Vann in 1949, STC produced thirty consecutive non-
losing football seasons.
79
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern,” 45.
80
“Map Drive to Build S.T.C. Athletics,” Hattiesburg American, August 5, 1937, p.
1.
To achieve its goal of becoming a major college athletic power, STC
needed to improve revenues to help fund athletic scholarships. Thus,
improvement to Faulkner Field required renovations perceived as
modern and capable of producing both gate and now radio revenues.
81
81
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 43-44.
Connecting to the latter point, the next initiative was produced by the
student body (Class of 1937) and the staff of the Student Printz, the
student-run newspaper, which donated money for a new loudspeaker
system capable of being integrated into radio broadcasts for WFOR
and additional stations. To that end, production space was built into
the press box because every major football-playing school had a press
department by 1930, and many were generating revenue from radio
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 206
broadcasts before the end of the decade.
82
82
“Teachers Open Season Tonight,” Hattiesburg American, September 24, 1937,
p. 1; Oriard, King Football, 133; Kathleen M. O’Toole, “John L. Grifth and the
Commercialization of College Sports on Radio in the 1930s,” Journal of Sport History
40, no. 2 (2013): 241-257.
To accommodate housing needed for returning students and
growing enrollment, STC also announced plans to construct a stadium-
dorm on the east side of the football eld.
83
Other southern schools such
as LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss, and Arkansas, had already successfully
incorporated the dorm-in-a-stadium idea to support student housing
needs and interest in producing more gate receipts. Thus, Chancery
Court judge Ben Stevens of Hattiesburg “validated $77,000 worth of the
college revenue bonds purchased by the Federal Government at 4%.”
Additional support from the Public Works Administration and other
federal agencies awarded another $63,000 and $38,000 respectively for
the construction.
84
83
Morgan, Treasured Past, Golden Future, 59
84
“Stadium Bonds are Validated,” Hattiesburg American, November 26, 1938, p. 1.
The concrete stadium-dorm addition was built over the winter
of 1938-1939, with members of the football team working on the
construction. The construction project created a new residence for 165
students, which included football players, and it provided players with
“extra money by working on the construction team, hauling concrete
for about 19 cents an hour.” Since the players both literally and
guratively built the 10,000-seat stadium with rock and poured the
concrete, the facility became known as “The Rock.”
85
The subsequent
success enjoyed by the football team in “The Rock” led to increased
exposure for both the team and school and to accompanying gains in
attendance and gate receipts between 1938 and 1949.
85
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 39.
Legitimation of the institution and football program improved
through not only better performing STC teams but the improved
facility. As evidence of this point, STC generated more revenue from
the renovated facility to expand the number of number of football
scholarships and team members from twenty-six to thirty-three.
Further, STC successfully convinced Ole Miss to visit the new venue in
1939. As the administration and school enlarged the football program
and facility, there was noticeable demand for continued improvement
to meet the expectations for a more modern academic institution.
However, as the institution entered a new decade and rebranded into
207 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
Mississippi Southern College (MSC) in 1940, MSC athletics suffered
from new challenges during World War II as building materials
required for potential renovations were redirected to the war effort.
86
86
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 46; Morgan, “Treasured Past, Golden Future,” 84; Cox and
Bennett, Rock Solid, 39.
The Search for New Afliations: Success and Struggle
MSC struggled during World War II as its enrollment declined
again and as happened in World War I, the school dropped football
competition from 1943 to 1945. Yet, from a facility standpoint, the
athletic dorms were benecial because they supplemented the war
effort, resulting in $25,000 in rental fees for future athletics interests
via the Army Administration Program and the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation.
87
The college’s leaders sought ways to rebuild
an enrollment that dropped to 350 in 1945. Markedly, athletics soon
became a major component in MSC’s plan in 1946 to reestablish
previously lost enrollment momentum.
88
New president Robert C. Cook
(1945-1954) echoed this focus in 1946 stating, “A well-rounded program
in physical education and athletics was important to any college.”
89
87
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 100.
88
Ibid., 82-83.
89
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 46.
Condence in football likely resulted from the Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill, which offered
funding to soldiers interested in returning and/or enrolling in college.
Such support by the federal government ooded campuses with new
students, new money, and eventually new members of the alumni base.
Football was noticeably supported and promoted during World War II
as having signicant synergy with troop training, mass mobilization,
and various military strategies. Exposure to football occurred with
coaches recruited to serve as military training ofcers and through
the Ofce of War Information sending out daily broadcasts and news
releases about the sport.
90
90
Chad Seifried and Matthew Katz, “The United States Armed Forces and their
Bowl Games from 1942 to 1967,” Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies 22
(2015): 231-247; Oriard, King Football, 116.
As football competition resumed at MSC following the war,
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 208
budgetary concerns proved difcult, but success on the football eld
was reestablished. After breaking even in 1946, due in large part to
a $10,000 Reconstruction Finance Corporation payment and winning
its rst SIAA championship, the school’s administration sought to
increase the athletic program’s legitimacy by doubling its budget
from $48,000 to $100,000 (excluding employee salaries).
91
Enrollment
grew to more than 2,000, which allowed MSC to invest more revenue
into its athletics program. Next, it should be noted that the SIAA,
geographically, was too big and possessed too many members. Major
football-playing schools gradually left the conference to play schools
like themselves in their own geographic area. Likewise, MSC moved to
the Gulf States Conference (GSC) in 1948, following the lead of other
regional schools with ambitions of “major college status.”
92
91
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 101.
92
“Southern is Member of New Conference,” Hattiesburg American, May 10, 1948,
p. 10.
The conference afliation helped address the post-war scheduling
and travel issues that MSC had experienced with the SIAA, but
administrators still found scheduling games against prestigious teams
difcult. Eventually, head coach and athletic director Bernard Reed
Green worked towards establishing the legitimacy of MSC football
by utilizing contacts cultivated from his time serving in WWII. As
an example, coaches such as Paul “Bear” Bryant (Kentucky), Bud
Wilkinson (Oklahoma), Don Farout (Missouri), and Jim Tatum
(Maryland) enjoyed a relationship with Green, who was hopeful he
could schedule future games with their teams.
93
93
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 53, 87.
Entering the 1950s, Green hired Thad “Pie” Vann to replace him as
head coach. Under Vann’s leadership, MSC achieved incredible success
on the football eld, while also beneting from increased external
support. For instance, in early 1950, the Mississippi legislature
appropriated money for several Mississippi schools (MSC, Mississippi
State, and Delta State) to build new stadium dorms. MSC received
$350,000, leading to the construction of additional seats on the west
side of the stadium, which expanded the facility’s seating capacity to
209 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
15,000.
94
During this time, MSC’s excellence within the Gulf States
Conference took hold, including one undefeated conference slate in
1948 and four-straight conference titles under coaches Green and
Vann.
95
94
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 105. This information came from an interview Fagerberg
completed with Bernard Reed Green in January 1970.
95
“Southern Miss 2019 Football Almanac,” 89.
Concurrently, struggles with the conference started to escalate
almost immediately. The GSC had wanted its members to play more
games within the conference, a move that would have resulted in lost
revenues for MSC and a diminished regional status with aspirational
peer schools in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Southern
Conference, whom MSC had begun to play more regularly.
96
MSC
ambitiously attempted to schedule bigger name opponents with the
hopes that such afliation might prompt an invitation to join their
conferences. As evidence, Coach Green contacted schools such as
“Houston, Texas Tech, the University of Miami, Alabama, Wake Forest,
George Washington, and Wyoming in the fall of 1952 for possible ‘big
games’.” This change also came in response to growing concern from
fans and students who “were not satised with the caliber of teams”
MSC played in the GSC.
97
96
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 71.
97
“Green Explains Withdrawal from GSC,” Student Printz, October 10, 1952, p. 2.
In 1952, MSC left the GSC to become an independent while also
receiving acceptance as a full member of the NCAA. Reecting on the
decision to leave the GSC in 1952, Green stated, “It may be that we
are more ambitious than some of the other teams in the conference,
but it is necessary that we continue our relationship with larger
schools.”
98
President Cook echoed this sentiment believing that the
GSC was problematic because it was not nationally known. Big wins
over Alabama in 1953 and 1954 helped convince Cook and likely many
internal and external stakeholders that MSC should look to join a
major conference.
99
98
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 71.
99
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 61, 64; House Resolution No. 7 Mississippi State Legislature,
September 20, 1954.
MSC eventually pursued entrance into both the Atlantic Coast
Conference (ACC) and SEC during the 1950s, citing regional advantages
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 210
to draw from markets in New Orleans, Mobile, and Jackson.
100
During
this time, it should be noted that MSC moved some of its home games
to Jackson to play against Louisville (1952) and Georgia (1953) as
SEC schools Ole Miss and Mississippi State had similarly done.
101
Notably, moving games to Jackson served a nancial purpose, as it
allowed MSC to generate a large enough gate to pay up to a $25,000
guarantee. Winning 19 of 21 games during the 1952 and 1953 seasons
and receiving back-to-back invitations to the Sun Bowl those years also
offered evidence to re-afrm MSC’s pursuit of membership with the
SEC or ACC.
102
Still, despite these achievements, the attempts to join a
new conference failed, leading MSC to remain an independent.
103
Part of
the failure to join either the SEC or the ACC stemmed from the smaller
athletic budget MSC had compared to schools in those conferences
and the size of MSC’s on-campus football facility, which was already
considered too small within ve years of the 1950 renovation.
104
100
“Green States Southern Open for Conference,” Student Printz, September 25,
1953, p. 11.
101
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 83.
102
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 92.
103
“New League Heads Goals,” Student Printz, December 11, 1953, p. 7.
104
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 91.
While success with football was steady, enrollment continued to be
a major interest for MSC in the 1950s. Cook considered the emerging
middle class in Mississippi as a demographic that could be tapped
to improve enrollment beyond the initial boom that the G.I. Bill had
provided shortly after WWII concluded.
105
To reach the emerging middle
class, school administrators initially rationalized that moving games
to different locations away from Hattiesburg would benet enrollment
by prompting renewed interest from athletic success to advertise the
legitimacy of the university near Mobile, Jackson, and New Orleans.
106
105
“Welcome to Alumni,” Hattiesburg American, November 6, 1953, p. 1.
106
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 57.
However, visiting these locations ultimately created a scenario
where less attention was provided to Faulkner Field. MSC
administrators and Hattiesburg business leaders wanted to build a
larger, more state-of-the-art stadium on campus to better legitimize the
school and town. Larger facilities already had been built at Mississippi
State (1947: 32,000 seats) and Ole Miss (1948: 34,500 seats) with
211 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
amenities to accommodate the maturing interests of spectators and
media partners.
107
Further, MSC students were paying a $13 annual
fee to help support athletics and likely preferred to stay in Hattiesburg
versus traveling to Jackson.
108
107
Ibid., 69; This information came from an interview Fagerberg completed with
Richard A. McLemore in November 1969. For information on the nationwide stadium
building boom see: Patrick Tutka, “An Ideal-type Through Innovation Diffusion,” PhD
Diss., (Louisiana State University, 2016), 201-266.
108
“Athletic Staff Plans Freshman Team for Approaching Football Stadium,”
Student Printz, March 25, 1955, p. 11.
Interim President Richard A. McLemore (1955) also positioned
athletics as “responsible for the growth of the school and area.” Further,
he felt that a larger, more state-of-the-art, on-campus stadium would
help bring and/or keep games in Hattiesburg, while also providing for
a better on-campus experience for students and fans. Supporting this
notion, Coach Green attributed continued growth of enrollment to the
publicity that wins over Alabama, Auburn, and Georgia provided MSC
and the fact that MSC had played against notable star athletes such as
Johnny Unitas (Louisville) and Bart Starr (Alabama).
109
President Cook
added that the presence of football helped MSC secure attention from
state ofcials, who provided the school with more money. Moreover,
he thought football decreased student unrest and increased campus
pride. Their opinions were signicant because all these individuals
were respected by “professional, religious, and civic groups.”
110
109
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 85.
110
Ibid., 70.
The middle and later 1950s also saw MSC again explore conference
afliation. Within this consideration, the institution’s leadership did not
want to be in a conference with smaller Texas, Louisiana, or Alabama
schools that would prevent MSC from achieving major school status.
111
For instance, in 1955, MSC considered forming a new conference with
Miami, Florida State, Memphis State, and Chattanooga, with the
possibility of Tulane and Vanderbilt who were beginning to explore the
possibility of leaving the SEC.
112
When school enrollment reached 3,000,
conversations about expanding the football stadium also reemerged as
a priority for MSC.
111
“New League Heads Goals,” 7.
112
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 94.
With many of the school’s major games going to neutral sites due
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 212
to their larger stadium size, there was concern that this hindered
MSC’s escalation into a “big time” college program in the eyes of major
conferences.
113
Eventually, the success of the 1950s prompted the
Mississippi legislature to give the “school authority to issue revenue
bonds worth up to $750,000 to expand Faulkner Field.”
114
The goal was
to more than double the size to 40,000 seats. The Landry and Mattis
rm of Hattiesburg drew preliminary plans for the expansion of the
football stadium in 1955. Ination only allowed the stadium to increase
by 4,000, and the legislature failed to back the general obligation
bonds. Instead, MSC was forced to itself issue the bonds, which carried
a higher interest rate. To help retire the bonded indebtedness, MSC
added a 20 percent stadium fee to the cost of tickets.
115
113
“Athletic Staff Plans Freshman Team for Approaching Football Stadium,”
Student Printz, March 25, 1955, p. 11.
114
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 83.
115
Ibid.
The expansion of Faulkner Field was done with the purpose of
attracting major football-playing schools to Hattiesburg and to build
MSC’s national athletic ranking. However, Faulkner Field was still
small compared to its regional SEC and state peers. Even with new
seating and a ticket tax, not enough money was generated to pay SEC
schools to visit Hattiesburg as their guarantees approached $35,000.
116
116
Willie Simpson,” Southern to Play 3 Major Foes, Seating Capacity Presents
Problem,” Student Printz, October 18, 1957, p. 7.
Still, MSC desired to have a major college football program, so beginning
in 1956, the school adopted the SEC player-eligibility rules that
Mississippi State and Ole Miss practiced.
117
117
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 84.
Without an opportunity
to join the SEC by 1957, MSC continued to build its legitimacy by
scheduling road games against SEC and ACC schools in order to bask
in their opponents’ reputations.
118
118
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 95.
The challenging schedule eventually
paid off as MSC won two NCAA College Division football national
championships in 1958 and 1962. While these championships provided
recognition for the institution, they also made many major schools
(in the NCAA University Division) less likely to schedule MSC in the
1960s. In a bizarre twist, this success on the eld hindered MSC’s
efforts to rise to major college status since the NCAA required teams
in the University Division to schedule at least 60 percent its games
213 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
against other larger schools.
119
119
Ibid., 96.
Faulkner Field Becomes a Real Stadium
Following the disappointment of the efforts to join either the
ACC or SEC in the 1950s, MSC ofcials reected on the quality of the
football stadium and program throughout the 1960s and 1970s as the
school transitioned into the University of Southern Mississippi (USM)
in 1962. Achieving university status motivated school ofcials’ desire
to upgrade Faulkner Field into a modern football stadium.
120
Improving
the facility’s capacity was critical because it was still the primary
source of revenue for the athletic department, which had to provide
monetary guarantees to opponents. At Faulkner Field, visiting schools
were typically guaranteed $5,000 to $18,000. However, SEC member
schools required at least a $35,000 minimum guarantee, with the elite
programs requiring $45,000 to $50,000. This requirement often forced
USM to either play on the road or to continue playing games at neutral
sites like Mobile, New Orleans, and Jackson that possessed bigger
stadiums.
121
120
Jim Cleland, “Southern Could Lose Major Status,” Student Printz, March 3,
1961, p. 2.
121
Fagerberg, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 69, 104.
In 1969, USM contracted with consulting engineers B. M. Dornblatt
and Associates, Inc. of Gulfport and New Orleans to develop a feasibility
study for the prospects of building a new stadium. Enrollment had
increased to nearly 8,000 from 6,300 in 1965 and was anticipated to
grow to 12,000 by 1980. Faulkner Field was condemned for failing to
match enrollment trends unlike regional peers that had successfully
completed their own renovations at this time.
122
The lack of parking at
Faulkner Field was also a hindrance to scheduling home games with
big-name opponents whose fans increasingly enjoyed participating in
tailgating activities.
123
122
B. M. Dornblatt and Associates, Inc., “Stadium Feasibility Study for the
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS,” December 1969, Box 4 Folder
“Stadium Feasibility Study McCain Library and Archives,” University of Southern
Mississippi, 1, 3, 5; “Let’s Go Ahead with a New Stadium,” Hattiesburg American, March
31, 1971, p. 6.
123
Ibid., 3, 5, 14; See “Let’s Go Ahead with a New Stadium,” 6.
With respect to parking, Dornblatt and Associates determined that
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 214
1.1 million cars were registered in Mississippi. With the popularity of
USM’s success, they thought a 30,000- to 40,000-seat facility capable
of expansion and supporting roughly 8,600 cars in ninety acres of
parking was appropriate. Dornblatt and Associates used predictions
for regional population and previous attendance gures as reference
points. For instance, they reported on USM-Alabama games played in
Mobile and Montgomery along with games played at Memphis. Another
point of consideration involved the amount of land USM owned, which
was deemed to be considerable.
124
124
Ibid., 9, 15, 28, 29, 53; See “Engineers Finalize Stadium Study,” The Student
Printz, April 30, 1970, p. 1.
The stadium capacity and design recommendations were
also inuenced by the comparison to stadiums at both Ole Miss and
Mississippi State. However, construction activities completed or
underway at other schools such as North Carolina State, Colorado
State, and Auburn were also of interest. For instance, Dornblatt
and Associates recommended the use of pre-cast concrete similar to
construction at Colorado State that would help save $100,000. Next,
Dornblatt and Associates provided information about the potential
installation of synthetic turf, citing examples of installation costs
(e.g., $250,000) at places like the Houston Astrodome, Camp Randall
Stadium (Wisconsin), Michigan Stadium, and Razorback Stadium
(Arkansas). Referencing a study conducted by Monsanto Company
of 185 schools, Dornblatt and Associates relayed that knee and ankle
injuries are less likely on articial turf than on natural grass (i.e., 1.6
to 9.3).
125
125
Ibid., 15, 32, 33, 36, 38.
Inside the facility, Dornblatt and Associates also suggested
that USM construct a state-of-the-art press box and install $75,000
worth of lighting capable of providing sufcient power for television
broadcasts. Furthermore, they recommended the construction of a VIP
or President’s Box, which had gained popularity in football stadium
renovations throughout the nation. Other observations argued
for more restrooms and particularly women’s restrooms based on
“discussion with stadium managers.” The study also proposed improved
accommodations for visiting teams, along with a modern scoreboard
and stadium sound system.
126
126
Ibid., 44, 45.
Overall, Dornblatt and Associates
anticipated their recommendations for a new stadium could range from
215 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
$6.15 to $6.38 million. Moreover, they offered several viable nancing
strategies, which included a combination of revenue bonds, an alumni
campaign, and federal assistance (via College Housing Program, Open
Space Land Program, and Advance Acquisition of Land Program).
127
127
Ibid., 48, 50.
Unfortunately, Hurricane Camille, one of the strongest storms
ever to make landfall in the continental United States, slammed
into the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969 and disrupted planning for a
new stadium. However, renewed enthusiasm for the potential project
emerged from several prominent individuals and groups.
128
President
William D. McCain (1955-1975) thought athletic programs should
be built to win and that football should have a new stadium because
athletics were a major factor in the previous growth and development of
the school.
129
To complement the last point, the student body was behind
a new stadium along with many USM alums and the local media, who
“organized concentrated campaigns in every corner of the state.” Next,
several state legislators via the State Building Commission worked for
a prospective USM stadium project. The commission initially approved
$2 million in funding in 1970, recognizing that previous appropriations
provided to USM were substantially less than Ole Miss and Mississippi
State.
130
128
Fagerberg, “A History of Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University of
Southern Mississippi,” 108.
129
Ibid., 74, 77. This information came from an interview Fagerberg completed with
McCain in January 1970.
130
“Let’s Go Ahead with a New Stadium,” 6.
Coach Vann and athletic director Green strongly supported the
project, arguing that football is big business and that a modern stadium
was a necessary prerequisite for any school to claim or assume status
as a major institution. Again, Green promoted the idea that football
and athletics generally brought important publicity to the school
and again cited wins against SEC schools as support for his thesis.
Coach Vann further remarked that any plans to join a conference or
to develop USM into a strong independent like Notre Dame, Syracuse,
and Penn State required a major football-playing facility to establish
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 216
legitimacy.
131
131
Fagerberg, “A History of the Intercollegiate Athletic Program at the University
of Southern Mississippi,” 85, 98, 102, 145, 306, 334; This information came from an
interview Fagerberg completed with Vann in February 1970. Steve Sparks, “Feasibility
Study Gives Green Light,” Student Printz, April 16, 1970, p. 4; The notion that football
and athletics generally were big business is supported by a review of the nancial
records. For instance, from 1958 to 1968, the athletic department made $100,000 prot,
and football was the only revenue producing sport.
There were obviously some critics of the proposed stadium project.
For instance, some citizens felt that millions in state monies should be
used for educational programs rather than sport facilities.
132
Moreover,
some condemned the idea that a new football stadium should have
priority over new classrooms. State senators Ed Pittman and Bill
Burgin discovered this rst-hand when a small but vocal minority
criticized their support for a new stadium.
133
Ultimately, this criticism
pushed USM to compromise and pursue the renovation of Faulkner
Field because the subsequent renovation plan was cheaper and still
viewed as an attractive alternative.
134
132
Mickey Edwards, “They Say,” Hattiesburg American, March 26, 1971, p. 14.
133
“Senate Votes $2 million for Stadium or Something,” Hattiesburg American,
March 26, 1971, p. 1; “Pittman Amends Burgin Bill,” Student Printz, January 21, 1971,
p. 1.
134
Jack Elliott, “Hopes for New Stadium Depend on Compromise, Student Printz,
March 31, 1971, p. 1.
Recognizing USM was already late to the stadium game, state
senator Ray Chatham reported on January 5, 1973, that a “joint study
of the State House and Senate would recommend to the legislature
a $2,886,000 appropriation to expand Faulkner Field” rather than
build a new stadium.
135
135
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 147; The state legislature ultimately approved
$4.8 million.
Preliminary plans for a 36,000-seat facility
were provided by Finch and Heery (Atlanta) to the lead architect
Steve H. Blair, Jr. (Hattiesburg) and Polk Construction (Columbia,
Mississippi). The renovated facility was envisioned to possibly be
larger than that of both Ole Miss and Mississippi State and designed
to expand, possibly to 60,000.
136
136
Rick Cleveland, “USM Stadium Work May Begin March 18,” Hattiesburg
American, March 6, 1974, pp. 1, 6; Polk Construction Company (Columbia, MS) won the
construction contract with its $5,784,338 bid.
Also included in the proposed facility
were other recommendations by Dornblatt and Associates, such as a
modern press box and a scoreboard capable of electronic messaging.
The construction activity over 1974 and 1975 required USM to play
eleven road or neutral site games that would previously have been
217 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
played at home. More specically, USM rescheduled homes games to
be played in Jackson (1974 Texas-Arlington, 1975 BYU), Birmingham
(1974 Alabama), Mobile (1974 VMI and Bowling Green), Biloxi (1975
Cal-State Fullerton), and New Orleans (1975 Lamar).
137
137
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 147, 151-152. A beverage contract with Coca-Cola
helped cover the expense of the scoreboard.
The new facility opened as M. M. Roberts Stadium in September
of 1976 with a seating capacity of 33,000. Roberts was a 1917 graduate
and football player on MNC’s 1915 and 1916 teams. Roberts was also a
longtime member of the IHL Board of Trustees, even serving a term as
president. As an advocate for USM for nearly fty years, Roberts was
instrumental in helping the institution raise faculty and staff salaries,
address various legal matters the school faced, and provide nancial
support to nearly 500 students via scholarship programs. Roberts
was also a well-recognized supporter of USM athletics as an active
participant in the school’s Century, Big Gold, and Hardwood clubs,
which were often used not just to support athletics but also academics
at the institution. His support of athletics led to his being named
the 1973 recipient of the annual USM Department of Intercollegiate
Athletics Distinguished Service Award.”
138
138
M. M. Roberts Stadium: USM vs. Ole Miss Game Program—Stadium Dedication,
September 25, 1976; “Howard Sit, USM Construction: Up, Up, and Away,” The Southerner
(Hattiesburg, MS: University of Southern Mississippi Press, 1975), 284.
For the record, it should be noted that Roberts strongly opposed
integration. As president of the IHL Board of Trustees, he voted to
withhold a degree from James Meredith, who had integrated the
University of Mississippi. Roberts also worked with the Mississippi
State Sovereignty Commission, a state sponsored spy agency that
fought advances in civil rights for African Americans. He further
sought unsuccessfully to ban civil rights leader Charles Evers from
speaking on Mississippi college campuses.
139
139
Ashton Pittman, “Protesting Racism, USM Football Players March From
Stadium Named For Segregationist” Mississippi Free Press, August 30, 2020.
A Conference to Call Home
The next signicant change to M. M. Roberts Stadium did not occur
until 1985 when new locker rooms, coaches’ ofces, a meeting room,
and a weight room expansion project were added. The renovation was
supported by a large single donation of $250,000 recruited by the Big
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 218
Gold Club. According to athletic director Roland Dale, the gift was
“largest single cash donation the school has ever received.”
140
The single
meeting room accommodated up to 150 people while the addition of two
new ofces for coaches brought that total to nine.
141
The weight room
facility doubled in size and received air-conditioning in addition to
offering a welcome space for visitors in an enlarged lobby area.
142
These
facility upgrades were supported by President Aubrey K. Lucas (1975-
1996) as part of a clean campus initiative and highlighted both student
and student-athlete recruiting as a point of emphasis and motivation
for renovation.
143
140
Chuck Abadie, “Renovation Project Planned,” Hattiesburg American, March 29,
1985, p. 1C.
141
Ibid., 4C.
142
Van Arnold, “Renovations Refresh USM,” Hattiesburg American, July 28, 1985,
p. 2C.
143
Abadie, “Renovation Project Planned,” 1C; Arnold, “Renovations Refresh USM,”
p. 2C.
In 1986, expenditures in college athletics were rising nationally and
at USM, although the university experienced a $417,000 decrease in
state funding as the state of Mississippi set a new policy not to provide
more than $300,000 for school athletics.
144
This development prompted
USM football to look for new opportunities to increase revenue. USM
agreed to a television deal with the College Football Association (CFA)
for $140,000 following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in NCAA v.
Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma case in 1984. This
decision provided institutions and conferences the ability to control
their own television contracts rather than rely or depend upon the
NCAA to manage such affairs for them. Before the end of the 1980s,
television contracts were a growing source of revenue even though gate
receipts still remained the largest source for athletic departments.
145
144
Teresa L. Hollield, “USM Football Revenue Expected to Increase by $325,000
This Year,” Student Printz, July 9, 1986, p. 1.
145
NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 468 U.S. 85 (1984).
Following the last of the renovations in the 1980s (i.e., installation of
a new drainage system in 1989), USM joined Conference-USA (C-USA)
in its inaugural season in 1995.
146
146
Smith, “Stadium Field Gets Drainage System,” 1.
C-USA was initially comprised of
twelve member institutions, six of which would compete for the league’s
rst football championship in 1996 with the winner going to the St.
219 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
Jude Liberty Bowl in Memphis.
147
After USM joined C-USA, athletic
director Bill McLellan stated, “This is the most important step that
Southern Miss has ever taken in its athletic history.” Most important
were the television contracts C-USA enjoyed with ESPN, ESPN2,
ABC, CBS, and Fox Sports Net who produced a “game of the week” for
the new conference.
148
147
Cox & Bennett, Rock Solid, 226. Other C-USA schools vying for the conference
crown were the University of Houston, Tulane University, University of Memphis,
University of Cincinnati, and University of Louisville.
148
Ibid.
To prepare for competition in the new conference, USM athletics
added a new scoreboard and signage to spruce up the stadium.
Handrails, exterior fences, and south end speaker towers were painted
black, and unsightly barbed wire around the stadium was removed.
Associate athletic director Nick Floyd stated, “Some of the things we’re
doing were suggested by our fans.” The changes to the stadium and
move into a conference provided an immediate boost in attendance.
Facilitating the attendance growth was the creation of a new support
campaign called “Sellout ‘95” that helped sell “blocks of tickets to local
businesses and organizations.”
149
149
Ibid.; See Tim Doherty, “USM Stadium Gets Facelift,” Hattiesburg American,
August 20, 1995, p. 1B.
One year later, USM continued to improve Roberts Stadium through
the addition of a new $1.3 million state-of-the-art video display board
by Daktronics, a popular scoreboard manufacturer. The new video
board was a signicant upgrade that showed live action and replays
along with graphics, statistics, and animations. It also used LED lights
that “last three times longer than cathode-ray tubes and use half as
much energy.” Regarding this point, David Bounds, USM assistant
athletic director, acknowledged the school wanted the stadium to use
less energy. The video board was nanced through advertising sales
and collectively accepted as improving the spectator experience and
enhancing the overall appearance of the venue and university.
150
150
Tim Doherty, “Lighting Up the Board” Hattiesburg American, April 5, 1998, pp.
1B, 4B.
Over 2002 and 2003, a new 60,000-square foot building opened
that housed the athletic department’s administrative ofces and
coaches’ ofces, along with training space and locker rooms for the
players. Approximately 25 percent of the money for the addition came
from a 1996 state appropriation, while the remainder of the funding
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 220
was provided by private donations from the Circle of Champions,
a support group that promised to donate $10,000 per year for ten
years.
151
Soon after the completion of the new athletic department
building, USM athletic director Richard Giannini heralded the
stadium renovation capital campaign entitled “Building Dominance”
as the most comprehensive building endeavor in the department’s
history. The “Building Dominance” campaign expanded and renovated
M. M. Roberts Stadium, but it also provided enhancements to other
athletic venues.
152
To put into perspective the need for athletic facilities
upgrades at USM, Giannini stated, “Many of our facilities have had
an only cosmetic renovation since their construction and, by today’s
standards, are fast becoming obsolete. To remain competitive in C-USA
and in NCAA Division I-A, this is a move we have to make.”
153
151
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 250.
152
Ibid., 256.
153
“Athletic Facilities Renovation Unveiled,” University of Southern Mississippi
Athletic Department, para. 4, accessed https://southernmiss.com/news/2003/4/10/
Athletic_Facilities_Renovation_Plan_Unveiled.aspx.
The “Building Dominance” campaign raised roughly $32.7 million
to renovate Roberts Stadium mainly through the establishment of
premium football seating and enclosing the south end zone. Designed
by Trahan Architects (Baton Rouge, LA), additional renovations
included the installation of new articial turf, a refurbished press box,
new concession space and restrooms, and updated dressing rooms for
visiting teams.
154
The success of the fundraising campaign permitted
the USM Athletic Department to create the “Touchdown Terrace” of
thirty luxury suites that seated twenty to twenty-four people at a cost
of $26,000-$31,000 per year on ve, seven, or ten-year leases.
155
Finally,
more than 3,000 club seats were added in the end zone and east side of
the M. M. Roberts Stadium, while more than 1,800 bench seats were
added to the south end zone. Elsewhere, the west side club section
added 650 new seats that swelled the stadium capacity to 41,300.
156
154
Daimon Eklund, “USM Details Facility Plan,” Hattiesburg American, April 11,
2003, pp. 1B-2B.
155
Eklund, “USM Details Facility Plan,” 2B.
156
Cox and Bennett, Rock Solid, 256.
Giannini stressed the importance of the upgrades by stating, “In
today’s world of college athletics, you’re either moving ahead or you’re
falling further behind. Maintaining the status quo is not an option.”
157
157
“Athletic Facilities Renovation Unveiled.”
221 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
USM felt they would fall behind Ole Miss and Mississippi State,
which were well ahead of USM in the number of premium suites and
club seats after renovations during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
158
Furthermore, an overwhelming number of USM supporters believed
that luxury boxes and club seats were symbols of legitimacy because
they help get more people to games and convey to prospective students
that USM is a major university. Luxury suites and club seats also
are attractive to businesses. Since Hattiesburg is near several large
southern cities with well-to-do alumni and businesses, the stadium
improvements were perceived as capable of potentially producing
the revenue needed to be perceived as legitimate by other schools.
159
USM fans and business partners responded by leasing all the suites
for the 2006 season. USM coordinator for athletic development and
community relations Reggie Collier considered the suite designs to be
on par with other institutions around the country.
160
158
Peegor and Seifried, “Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium,” 169; Seifried
and Novicevic, “Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field and Ole Miss,”142.
159
Stan Caldwall, “Most USM Sky Boxes Leased,” Hattiesburg American, October
26, 2004, p. 8A.
160
Daimon Eklund, “USM Leases All Suites for Roberts Stadium,” Hattiesburg
American, March 23, 2005, p. 6A.
In 2004, Giannini revealed that the football eld would be
renamed, Carlisle-Faulkner Field at M. M. Roberts Stadium.
161
USM
athletic and university ofcials renamed the facility in honor of USM
graduate and Golden Eagle supporter, Gene Carlisle, who donated
money to install a hybrid natural-articial turf eld (Momentum Turf)
in Roberts Stadium.
162
The new Momentum Turf cost approximately
$300,000 and was supposedly capable of maximizing “player stability,
speed, and performance, while maintaining a natural grass surface.”
Giannini also added that the new surface reduced maintenance costs.
163
161
“Carlisle-Falkner Field to be Dedicated on Saturday,” University of Southern
Mississippi, October 20, 2004, accessed https://southernmiss.com/news/2004/10/20/
Carlisle_Faulkner_Field_To_Be_Dedicated_On_Saturday.aspx.
162
Ibid.
163
Jared Florreich, “New Football Turf Unveiled,” Student Printz, April 20, 2004,
p. 1.
In 2013, a new $550,000 articial surface called Matrix Turf was
installed by Hellas Construction as a result of damage to the eld from
a tornado that earlier swept through Hattiesburg.
164
164
Tim Doherty, “End in Sight for Turf Work,” Hattiesburg American, May 2, 2013,
p. 1B.
There was also the
installation of a new high denition videoboard in the north end zone to
FIGHTING FOR LEGITIMACY 222
improve the spectator experience.
165
In December of 2015, USM athletic
director Bill McGillis revealed that $1.6 million had been allotted
for the renovation of a new football locker room, an expansion of the
strength and conditioning center, and the development of a nutrition
center for athletes. McGillis stated, “There may be bigger places, but
the quality and functionality and aesthetics of what we’re about to
have, we won’t have to take a back seat to anybody that we compete
against. This locker room will be as nice as any in the SEC, as nice as
any in the Pacic-12 Conference, as nice as any in America.”
166
Head
football coach Todd Monken further claimed, “To have a championship
program, you’ve got to have great facilities. We’ve had that, we want to
sustain that, we want to build upon it. We’re on the cutting edge. We
want to be ahead of our competition, not even, we want to be ahead of
our competition.”
167
165
Anna Grissett, “M. M. Roberts Stadium-Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles,”
October 6, 2016, accessed https://stadiumjourney.com/author/anna-grissett/.
166
Alan Hinton, “Southern Miss Announces $1.6 Million Upgrade of Football Locker
Room, Strength and Conditioning Facilities,” Sun Herald, December 14, 2015.
167
Ibid.
Conclusion
Collectively, the information in the present article demonstrates
that reexive thinking by key social actors (e.g., student-athletes,
administrators, coaches, fans, alumni, and business partners)
showcases their focus as often strategically employed to establish and/
or pursue legitimacy. Further, the pursuit of legitimacy was often
motivated by interest in increasing enrollment, alumni relationships
and gifts, business partnerships, brand awareness, and revenue.
Therefore, press boxes were built for media groups, premium seats
for well-to-do patrons, businesses, and alumni, and advertising
spaces like scoreboards with advanced technology were added. Next,
internal spaces (e.g., weight rooms, locker rooms) and amenities (e.g.,
restrooms, concessions) were improved for fans and participants, along
with the development of campaigns to help raise funds for athletics
and academics. Overall, these advances helped improve the football
program, its facilities, and the institution of USM over time. However,
we also found the timing, scale, and frequency of changes to USM
football and its facilities did not always meet the rate of progress
223 THE JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY
shown by aspirational peers, thus preventing USM from accelerating
its institutional status.
Finally, we show the pursuit of legitimacy by enhancing the
football program and improving the stadium has provided other
benets for USM. For instance, efforts to join a conference (SIAA, GSC,
and C-USA) and/or successful afliation with high-prestige football-
playing institutions in the South (SEC schools) or beating them (e.g.,
the ve wins against the University of Alabama) boosted USM’s
reputation and nancial situation. Moreover, these afliations and
commitment to football and stadium development provided USM with
the opportunity to join the Sun Belt Conference in 2022. In this instance,
the Sun Belt Conference made sense to USM and its supporters for a
variety of the previously stated reasons that USM pursued changing
conferences. First, the Sun Belt was attractive because its reputation
and play has improved substantially in recent years, thus lending
additional external legitimacy to USM. Second, USM athletic director
Jeremy McClain noted that playing more regional peers will decrease
yearly travel expenditures by $500,000 for the athletic department,
thus providing internal legitimacy. Third, the Sun Belt actually has a
more attractive television agreement (i.e., coverage range and slight
nancial improvement) with ESPN than what C-USA offered with the
CBS Sports Network, which is less viewed and heralded.
168
168
Rick Cleveland, “Southern Miss Move to Sun Belt Makes Sense on so Many
Levels,” Mississippi Today, October 26, 2021.
