ROBERTS STADIUM

Roberts Stadium, home of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles

Hattiesburg, MS

Known as “the Rock,” Roberts Stadium is one of the few stadiums in college football built in the 1970s. For more than nine decades, the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles have played football at the location of Roberts Stadium. Football here dates back to 1932 when a 4,000 seat stadium known as Foulkner Field was built.

In 1939 stands were built on the east side of the field. The name, “the Rock” was coined during the construction of the east stands as prison work crews helped build these stands. Nearly 5,000 seats were added before the 1950 season on the west side of the stadium. With a seating capacity of 15,000, the Golden Eagles home was too small. In 1976, funds for a new stadium were allotted to construct a larger facility. Built on the same site of Foulkner Field, Roberts Stadium opened on September 25, 1976 when Southern Miss played Ole Miss. The stadium was named after M.M. Roberts who was given credit for the development of Southern Miss as a comprehensive university. When Roberts Stadium opened in 1976 it had a capacity of 33,000. In 1998, a new scoreboard was added and before the 2004 a new type of artificial turf, Momentum Turf was installed at the stadium. In April 2007, Southern Miss began expanding Roberts Stadium. This expansion added 3,700 seats, 34 suites and 320 club seats. A new video/scoreboard was added in the north endzone and a concourse was built connecting the east and west sides of the stadium. At a cost of $31.8 million, this project was complete by the 2008 season and increased the seating capacity to 36,000.