Davis Wade Stadium

Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field
Construction

Former names	New Athletic Field (1914–1920) Scott Field (1920–2000)
Location	90 B.S. Hood Drive, Mississippi State, MS 39762^[1]
Coordinates	33°27′23″N 88°47′37″W / 33.45639°N 88.79361°W / 33.45639; -88.79361Coordinates: 33°27′23″N 88°47′37″W / 33.45639°N 88.79361°W / 33.45639; -88.79361
Owner	Mississippi State University
Operator	Mississippi State University
Capacity	Unknown (1914–1927) c. 6,000 (1928–1935) 20,000 (1936–1947) 35,000 (1948–1982) 32,000 (1983–1985) 40,656 (1986–2000) 45,286 (2001) 52,884 (2002) 55,082 (2003–2013) 61,337 (2014–present)^[2]
Record attendance	62,945 October 11, 2014 vs Auburn^[3]
Surface	Prescription Athletic Turf (Tifway 419 Bermuda Grass)
Opened	1914
Renovated	1928, 1982, 2002, 2014
Expanded	1936, 1948, 1986, 2002, 2014
Construction cost	Original Unknown $15,000 (1928 renovation) $7.2 million (1986 expansion) $21 million (2002 renovation) $75 million (2014 renovation)
Architect	Original Unknown W.P.A (1936 expansion) Warren, Knight, & Davis, Ltd. Architects (1986 expansion) Foil Wyatt Architects (2002 expansion) LPK Architects & 360 Architecture (2014 expansion/renovation)^[4]
Tenants
Mississippi State Bulldogs football (NCAA) (1914–present)

Davis Wade Stadium, officially known as Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field, is the home playing venue for the Mississippi State Bulldogs football team. Located in Starkville, Mississippi, the stadium has a capacity of 61,337. Originally constructed in 1914 as New Athletic Field, it is the second-oldest stadium in the Football Bowl Subdivision behind Georgia Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium, and the fourth oldest in all of college football behind Penn's Franklin Field, Harvard Stadium, and Bobby Dodd Stadium.

History

The stadium was built in 1914, as a replacement for Hardy Field,^[5] and was called New Athletic Field. The first game it hosted was a Mississippi State win over Marion (Ala.) Military Institute, 54-0, on Oct. 3, 1914.^[6] In 1920 the student body adopted a resolution to name the field Scott Field in honor of Don Magruder Scott, an Olympic sprinter and one of the University's football stars from 1915-16.^[7] Prior to the 2001 season the stadium was named Davis Wade Stadium in honor of longtime MSU supporter Floyd Davis Wade Sr., co-founder of Aflac, because of a large financial contribution he made toward stadium expansion. The playing surface retained the name Scott Field and the official name of the facility is "Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field".^[8]

Renovations and expansions

Davis Wade Expansion 2014

In 1928 permanent seating for 3,000 was built on the west side—the lower level of the current facility's west grandstand. In addition, there were portable stands with a similar capacity bringing the seating total to around 6,000. In 1936, with the use of WPA labor, concrete stands seating 8,000 people were added to the west sidelines and steel bleachers were built on the east sideline and end zones. This brought the total capacity to 20,000. 1948 saw the stadium enlarged once again with the expansion of the west sideline structure and the addition of 12,000 concrete seats and stands in both end zones to bring the total capacity to 35,000. In 1983, the end zone seating was removed, reducing the capacity to 32,000. A 1986 expansion costing $7.2 million, raised without state budget appropriations, added almost 9,000 seats, consisting primarily of a 5,500-seat upper deck as well as permanent lighting and a computerized scoreboard which was replaced in 1997 with a Sony JumboTron. The Frank Turman Fieldhouse received an additional floor to its facility in 1990. Named Leo W. Seal M-Club Centre in honor of Leo W. Seal, Sr., a 2-year letter winner at State, it is a meeting place for the letterman organization, the M-Club.

In 1999, the Turman Fieldhouse underwent numerous changes, including remodeled dressing rooms for both teams, and an all-new recruiting lounge, and the stadium began a $50 million expansion and renovation partially funded by Floyd Davis Wade, Sr.. The expansion was completed in 2002 bringing the total capacity to 55,082, including 50 skyboxes, 1,700 club-level seats and a second upper deck seating 7,000.

In the fall of 2008 construction was completed on an all-new $6.1 million 112 ft (34 m) wide by 48 ft (15 m) tall high-definition video display board in the south end zone above the Leo Seal M-Club Center. The LED video system is the tenth largest high-definition video board in college football. The new board was used for the first time on November 1, 2008, during the Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. Kentucky Wildcats football game. The main video display is complemented with two high definition LED advertising boards on each side of the main board, as well as a high definition LED "ribbon ticker" which spans the width of the structure below the main board. Therefore, the total video board square footage (on one structure) is 6,896 sq. ft.^[9] To complement the all-new video system, a new state-of-the-art sound system has been installed by Pro Sound, headquartered in Miami, Florida.^[10]

A $75 million expansion, completed in August 2014, increased the capacity of the stadium to 61,337, created new concessions and restrooms, and created a new west side concourse. Part of the expansion included sealing off the north end zone and installing a large high definition video board, similar to the one in the south end zone which replaced the JumboTron that was installed there in 1997.^[11] The expansion made Davis-Wade Stadium the largest football stadium in Mississippi.^[12]

Attendance records

Davis Wade Stadium on the Mississippi State University campus

**Davis Wade Stadium attendance records**
Rank	Attendance	Date	Game Result
1	62,945	10-11-2014	#3 Mississippi State 38, #2 Auburn 23
2	62,531	09-13-2015	#25 Mississippi State 19, #14 LSU 21
3	62,435	11-14-2015	#20 Mississippi State 6, #3 Alabama 31
4	62,307	11-01-2014	#1 Mississippi State 17, Arkansas 10
5	62,265	11-28-2015	#23 Mississippi State 27, #19 Ole Miss 38
6	61,889	08-30-2014	Mississippi State 49, Southern Miss 0
7	61,651	10-17-2015	Mississippi State 45, Louisiana Tech 20
8	61,574	09-19-2015	Mississippi State 62, Northwestern State 13
9	61,421	11-08-2014	#1 Mississippi State 45, Tennessee-Martin 16
10	61,168	10-24-2015	Mississippi State 42, Kentucky 16

Traditions

The Junction on a home football game day on the campus of Mississippi State University.

The Junction, located on the south side of the stadium, is a grassy park where Bulldog fans tailgate under tents during sports weekends. It is named The Junction for the railroad that ran through the tailgating area in the campus' past. It also replaced "Malfunction Junction", a set of adjacent intersections where 6 different streets converged on campus. The streets were rerouted around the area and a pedestrian park was built on the site. While many Bulldog fans tailgate in other places on campus, The Junction is unique in that it allows thousands of fans to tailgate under tents directly in front of the stadium without cars or traffic. The Junction has been referred to as the “premier tailgate experience” by the Birmingham-based firm contracted for its design and development.^[13]
The "Dawg Walk" is held approximately 3 hours before each home game. This is where the team and coaches walk through The Junction to the stadium with the Famous Maroon Band band performing and thousands of Bulldog fans lining the walk, cheering the players on.
Beginning with the first game of the 2014 season Mississippi State started a new tradition when head coach Dan Mullen asked the DJ at Davis Wade Stadium to play "Don't Stop Believin" between the third and fourth quarters of each Bulldog home game. MSU fans took to the song and began to sway and ring their cowbells in sync with the beat while singing along and have done so at every home contest since.^[14]
One of the Bulldogs' proudest and longest traditions is the ringing of cowbells. From 1977 to 2009, "artificial noisemakers" were banned by the SEC, including cowbells, but fans continued to bring them in even though administrators encouraged fans not to use cowbells and security guards "search" you upon entry. There could be as many as 40,000 cowbells in the stadium during a big game. In the 2010 season, a compromise was reached on a trial basis allowing fans to legally bring cowbells under SEC rules to games at Davis Wade Stadium as long as the cowbells were only used at sanctioned times: Pregame, quarter breaks and Half-time, Time Outs, and when Mississippi State scores.^[15] Prior to the 2014 season the SEC adopted a new policy stadium sound policy that gave MSU fans even more leeway to use the cowbells. The new policy "allows schools to play music and use their sound systems at any time during a game, with except from the time the center stands over the football to when the ensuing play is whistled dead. The new rule also includes traditional institutional noisemakers, including MSU fans' cowbells".^[16]

Facts

Between October 2009 and September 2014, Davis Wade Stadium hosted 31 consecutive sellouts. That stretch included 9 of the top 10 crowds to attend a game at the stadium. The streak ended with a contest against the University of Alabama at Birmingham (the crowd was one of the top 10 in stadium history but was not enough to keep the sellout streak alive in the newly expanded stadium).^[17]^[18]^[19]
The original Bulldog mascot, Bully I, is buried on the 50 yard-line under the players bench.^[20]^[21]^[22]
The high definition video board is currently the 4th largest video board in the SEC and the 10th largest on-campus video board in the nation. (List of largest scoreboards in NCAA college football)
The entire concourse area underneath the East Upper Deck is sealed and climate-controlled.
Davis Wade Stadium is one of the locations of the Egg Bowl, the annual rivalry match up between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Ole Miss Rebels of the University of Mississippi. The game alternates between Davis Wade Stadium and Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on the Ole Miss campus. The 100th game between the teams was played at Davis Wade Stadium. Because of the way the locations alternate from year to year, Mississippi State hosts on the odd-numbered years and Ole Miss hosts on the even-numbered years.
The first Division I-A college football game played post 9-11 was in this stadium between Mississippi State and the South Carolina Gamecocks on September 20, 2001, and broadcast on ESPN.
Mississippi State is credited with being the first to use the song Who Let The Dogs Out? at a sporting event. MSU used the version recorded by Chuck Smooth rather than the Baha Men version. It was played before and during Mississippi State football games and was used for the Dawg Pound Rock once it was moved from the field to the sidelines. Although put on hiatus during Sylvester Croom's tenure as Mississippi State head coach, the Dawg Pound Rock and the song made a popular return in the 2009 season.
In 2011 Bleacher Report called it one of college football's top 50 stadiums to see before you die.^[23]

References

External links

Official Mississippi State facility webpage

Mississippi State Bulldogs football

Venues	Davis Wade Stadium (1914–present)

Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Alabama Kentucky LSU Ole Miss: Egg Bowl

Culture & lore	Bully "Hail State" Famous Maroon Band

People	Head coaches NFL draftees Statistical leaders

Seasons	1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Football stadiums of the Southeastern Conference

Eastern Division	Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (Florida) Sanford Stadium (Georgia) Commonwealth Stadium (Kentucky) Faurot Field (Missouri) Williams-Brice Stadium (South Carolina) Neyland Stadium (Tennessee) Vanderbilt Stadium (Vanderbilt) EverBank Field (Florida vs. Georgia)

Western Division	Bryant–Denny Stadium (Alabama) Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (Arkansas) Little Rock War Memorial Stadium (Arkansas, alternate) Jordan–Hare Stadium (Auburn) Tiger Stadium (LSU) Davis Wade Stadium (Mississippi State) Vaught–Hemingway Stadium (Ole Miss) Kyle Field (Texas A&M) AT&T Stadium (Arkansas vs. Texas A&M)

SEC Championship Game	Georgia Dome (1994–present) Legion Field (1992–1993)

College football venues in Mississippi

Division I
FBS

Conference USA	M. M. Roberts Stadium (Southern Miss)

SEC	Davis Wade Stadium (Mississippi State) Vaught–Hemingway Stadium (Ole Miss)

Division I
FCS

SWAC	Jack Spinks Stadium (Alcorn State) Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (Jackson State) Rice–Totten Field (Mississippi Valley State)

Division II

Gulf South	Parker Field (Delta State) Robinson–Hale Stadium (Mississippi College)

Division III

ASC	H. T. Newell Field (Belhaven)

SAA	Harper Davis Field (Millsaps)

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 22, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.