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Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. Veterans Memorial Stadium is the home field of the Jackson State Tigers football team. The stadium was originally known as War Veterans Memorial Stadium then later as Hinds County War Memorial Stadium before finally being christened with its current moniker. In the past it has served as an alternate home stadium for The University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. From 1973 to 1990 the Egg Bowl was played there and from 1992 to 2013 it hosted the Mississippi High School Activities Association state championship football games. In addition to college and high school games it has hosted several National Football League (NFL) preseason games.〔(A History of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium From Mississippi Sports Magazine )〕 == History == Construction on the facility began in early 1949 and it opened in 1950 with a seating capacity of 21,000. By 1953 temporary seating had brought the capacity up to 25,000 and in 1961 the stadium was expanded to hold 46,000 and in 1981 it underwent an expansion that brought total capacity to 62,512, although subsequent renovations dropped the current seating to the official 60,492 seats.〔(Fans no longer flock to Jackson stadium )〕 In 1960 the state legislature took over control of the stadium and it remain under their supervision until 2013 when "operational, administrative and managing powers and duties" were transferred to Jackson State University.〔(MS Code § 55-23-6 (2013) )〕 The stadium hosted its first football game on December 9, 1950, a contest between Holmes Junior College Bulldogs and the Kilgore College Rangers of Kilgore, Texas. A crowd of 18,000 saw Holmes fall to the visiting Rangers 32-12. The first Division I-A game took place on November 11, 1952, when Southern Mississippi defeated Louisville 55-26. Ole Miss first played their first game there on September 19, 1953, defeating Chattanooga 39-6, and on Halloween day of that same year, Mississippi State played there for the first time, suffering a 20-27 loss to Texas Tech.〔 Current tenant Jackson State's first game at the stadium was an October 1967 contest versus Grambling State. JSU won that game 20-14〔(Jackson State Athletics )〕 From the 1960s through the 1990s, Ole Miss (The University of Mississippi), Mississippi State and Southern Miss regularly played selected "home" games there, including "SEC doubleheader Saturdays" in which one school would host a conference opponent in the morning or afternoon and the other would host a conference opponent at night.〔(A History of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium from Mississippi Sports Magazine )〕 Notably, the annual Egg Bowl contests between Ole Miss and Mississippi State were held there from 1973 through the 1990 contest, after which the game returned to the two schools' respective campuses.〔 Shortly after the 1980 expansion both Ole Miss and Mississippi State decided to enhance their on-campus facilities to develop the same home-field advantage of their fellow Southeastern Conference members, and gradually stopped playing games in Jackson altogether. The last game played there by an SEC school was a blowout win by Ole Miss over Division I-AA VMI in 1996; the Rebels' last conference game at Jackson was a 1993 win over Arkansas. Mississippi State's last home game at Jackson was a 34-22 victory over LSU in 1990 and their last game of any sort there was the 1990 Egg Bowl where they lost to the Rebels 21-9 playing as the visiting team.〔(A History of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (from championship subdivision news) )〕 Southern Miss made regular appearances as well, playing both UM and MSU as well as games against such schools as Texas A&M (which joined the SEC in 2012) The Golden Eagles played their final home game there in 1988, a 38-21 win over Mississippi State.〔(A History of Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium (from Mississippi Sports Magazine) )〕 From 2000 to 2004 Veterans Memorial was home of the renewed Backyard Brawl between Millsaps College and Mississippi College. On September 2, 2000, after a 40-year hiatus, the two schools resumed their football series and in front of a reported crowd of 10,200 spectators Millsaps defeated Mississippi College 20-19.〔(10,200 turn out to watch Mississippi backyard brawl )〕〔(Backyard Brawl )〕〔(Millsaps College vs Mississippi College (Sep 02, 2000) )〕 The stadium was also host to the annual Capital City Classic between Jackson State and Alcorn State University, both of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, from 1993 to 2010. Starting in 2011 the game began to alternate between Veterans Memorial Stadium and Alcorn State's home field, Jack Spinks Stadium, in Lorman, Mississippi when The Braves exercised the their right as the home to host the game on their campus. In a document published on the Alcorn State website University President M. Christopher Brown II and interim athletic director Dwayne White informally dubbed the game the "Soul Bowl”.〔(Jackson, Miss. to Lose Capital City Classic in 2012 )〕 From 1992 to 2013 the Mississippi High School Activities Association state championship football games were played at the stadium, but on July 20, 2014 MHSAA executive director Don Hinton announced that those games would begin rotating between Davis Wade Stadium at Mississippi State and Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at Ole Miss.〔(MHSAA football championships to move to college campuses )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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