Vaught-Hemingway Stadium
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| Hollingsworth Field | |
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| Former names | Hemingway Stadium (1915-1982) |
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| Location | All-American & Hill Dr, University, MS 38677 |
| Coordinates | 34°21′43″N 89°32′3″W / 34.36194°N 89.53417°WCoordinates: 34°21′43″N 89°32′3″W / 34.36194°N 89.53417°W |
| Broke ground | 1912 |
| Opened | October 1, 1915 |
| Owner | University of Mississippi |
| Operator | University of Mississippi |
| Surface | AstroPlay |
| Scoreboard | Daktronics 48' by 84' HD jumbotron |
| Capacity | 60,856 |
| Tenants | |
University of Mississippi Rebels (NCAA) (1915-present)  Judge William Hemingway in 1915 (left) Coach Johnny Vaught in 1947 (right) Namesakes of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium |
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Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field is an outdoor football stadium located on the University of Mississippi's main campus in Oxford, Mississippi. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Ole Miss Rebels.
Built starting in 1915 as a federally-sponsored project, a series of expansions and renovations have gradually expanded the stadium and modernized its amenities, allowing the Rebels to play all of their home games on campus. Prior to the early 1990s, Ole Miss would play many of its big rivalry games, including the heated feuds with LSU, Mississippi State and University of Southern Mississippi, at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in the state capital of Jackson, located approximately 170 miles south of the Ole Miss campus. The Ole Miss-MSU game, commonly referred to as the Egg Bowl, was held in Jackson every year from 1973 through 1990 before returning to a home-and-home series.
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[edit] Expansions and upgrades
The most recent expansion, completed in 2002, replaced the south end zone bleachers with a rounded bowl, adding luxury boxes and covered club seating in an upper deck, as well as additional general admission seating for students and season ticket holders; these renovations expanded seating capacity by nearly 10,000, giving Vaught-Hemingway a capacity equal to that of the stadium in Jackson. Long-term plans call for similar improvements to the north end zone, to complete the "bowl".
Other notable upgrades include the installation of lights in 1990, a jumbotron in 1997 and the replacement of the natural grass turf, which had become increasingly hard to maintain, with an AstroPlay artificial turf surface in 2003. Ironically, the stadium had been among the first in the nation to switch from a natural grass playing surface to artificial turf in 1970, and then one of the first of those stadiums to switch back to natural grass in 1984.
[edit] Indoor practice facility
In 2004, a 150,000 square foot indoor practice facility and locker room facility was opened. This facility, which represents Mississippi's only full sized indoor football practice facility, is linked to the existing stadium via a secured, underground tunnel that provides players with gameday access to and from the state of the art training features and expansive meeting areas housed there.
[edit] Video display
For the 2008 season, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium got a new high definition Daktronics video board to replace the Sony Jumbotron that had been installed in the north Endzone in 1997. The new board is the second largest high definition screen in the Southeastern Conference and measures 48 ft (15 m) by 84 ft (26 m) (4,032 square feet). It cost $6 million, all of which was paid by Telesouth Communications as part of a multimedia rights agreement with the University. [1]
[edit] Naming history
When the stadium opened, it was named for Judge William Hemingway, a professor of law and chairman of the University's Committee on Athletics. October 12, 1982 saw the addition of legendary Ole Miss coach Johnny Vaught's name to the stadium. September 5, 1998 saw the field named for longtime supporter Dr. Jerry Hollingsworth, bringing the current official title to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Hollingsworth Field.
[edit] Attendance record
To date, the highest attendance at Vaught-Hemingway was in November 2003, when the Rebels lost by three points (by a score of 17-14) to the eventual national champion LSU Tigers. Ole Miss was playing for its first SEC Western Division Championship and the right to play in the SEC Championship Game. The official attendance was 62,552.
 Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, before a 2007 football game |
 Ole Miss' new high definition display |
[edit] Tailgating
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- VIDEO: Virtual tour of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Ole Miss
- OleMissSports.com Vaught-Hemingway Stadium page
- VaughtHemingway.com - Seating charts, photos, & history
- Daktronics Ole Miss page
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