Jordan-Hare Stadium

__NOTOC__Infobox_Stadium
stadium_name = Jordan-Hare Stadium


location = 251 South Donahue Drive
Auburn, Alabama 36849
broke_ground =
opened = 1939
closed =
demolished =
owner = Auburn University
operator = Auburn University
surface = Grass
construction_cost =
architect =
former_names = Auburn Stadium (1939-1949)
Cliff Hare Stadium (1949-1973)
tenants = Auburn University Tigers (NCAA (1939-Present)
Record (through September 2008): 264-65-7 (.786)
Auburn High School Tigers (AHSAA, 1939-1947
Record: 22-8-1 (.726)
seating_capacity = 87,451

Jordan-Hare Stadium is the playing venue for Auburn University's football team located on campus in Auburn, Alabama, USA. The stadium is named for Ralph 'Shug' Jordan , the University's winningest football coach, and Cliff Hare, a member of Auburn's first football team. On November 19, 2005, the playing field at the stadium was named Pat Dye Field in honor of former Auburn coach and athletic director Pat Dye. The stadium reached its current seating capacity of 87,451 with the 2004 expansion and is the tenth largest on-campus stadium in the NCAA. By the end of the 2006 season, 19,308,753 non-unique spectators had witnessed a football game in Jordan-Hare.

Jordan-Hare Stadium regularly makes lists of the best gameday atmospheres and most intimidating places to play. [http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=115554] [http://sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/6437023?&_1:col_1=1&_1:col_2=2] [http://www.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1014&CID=444097]

History

The stadium, then known as Auburn Stadium with 7,290 seats, hosted its first game on November 9, 1939, between Auburn High School and Dadeville High School."Lee County Bulletin", November 8, 1939.] About one month later, the stadium was dedicated and the first college football game was played against the University of Florida on November 30, 1939. By the time the stadium was renamed Cliff Hare Stadium in 1949, it had grown to a capacity of 21,500. Shug Jordan became head coach of the Tigers in 1951, and he was still coaching when the stadium was renamed to honor him in 1973, making it the first stadium in the United States to be named for an active coach. [" [http://auburntigers.cstv.com/facilities/aub-facilities-jordan-hare.html Facilities: Jordan-Hare Stadium] ", retrieved July 12, 2008.]

Throughout history, many of Auburn's traditional rivals did not play games in Auburn but instead at neutral sites, due in part to the difficulty in traveling to Auburn in the first part of the 20th century, but primarily for reason that Legion Field in Birmingham had by far the largest seating capacity of any stadium in the state for approximately sixty (60) years. These games included Alabama (played in Birmingham), Tennessee (played in Birmingham or Knoxville), Georgia Tech (played in Atlanta), and Georgia (played in Columbus). Over the years, Auburn was able to get teams to move these games to Auburn, as improvements were made to the stadium, especially with enlarging the stadium capacity. Perhaps the most notable of these matchups occurred in 1989, when Auburn defeated #4 Alabama in the first Iron Bowl played in Auburn.

With the addition of the west upper deck in 1980 and the east upper deck in 1987, the stadium became the largest in the state of Alabama until the 2006 expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium (capacity 92,158) at the University of Alabama. The 2004 stadium expansion extended the east upper deck by an additional section on each end, adding more luxury suites and additional general seating to reach the current capacity of 87,451.

In 1998, artist Michael Taylor was commissioned to paint ten large murals on the east-side exterior of the stadium. The paintings depicted the greatest players, teams, and moments from Auburn's football history to that date. [http://www.plexico.net/sg/jordanhare/jh_murals.html] In 2006, Auburn updated these murals, including images that recognized great moments in Auburn football history up to 2006. [http://www.theplainsman.com/front/2006/sep-06/stadium_gets_new_look_murals]

Before the 2007 season, a new, $2.9 million, convert|30|ft|m|sing=on high by convert|74|ft|m|sing=on wide high definition Daktronics LED video display was installed in the south end-zone of Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn is the first SEC school to install an HD video display and the second in the NCAA (after Texas' Godzillatron). cite web |url=http://auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/032707aaa.html |title=Auburn To Install High Definition Video at Jordan-Hare Stadium |date=2007-03-27 |accessdate=2007-05-21 |publisher=Auburn Athletics Department]

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.auburn.edu Auburn University]
* [http://www.auburntigers.com Auburn University athletics website]
* [http://auburntigers.collegesports.com/facilities/aub-facilities-jordan-hare.html Jordan-Hare Stadium at AuburnTigers.com]
* [http://www.plexico.net/sg/jordanhare/jh_history.html Van Plexico's complete history of Jordan-Hare]

References

succession box
title = Home of the
Auburn High School Tigers
years = 1939 – 1947
before = Drake Field
after = Felton Little Parksuccession box
title = Home of the
Auburn Tigers
years = 1939 – present
before = Drake Field
after = Current