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By: Andy Baeuerle
College football has become one of the biggest pastimes since its start in the 1800s. One of the main things contributing to this sport’s everlasting love is where our favorite teams call home. While Mississippi State plays in the second oldest stadium in the country and Ole Miss has the largest in Mississippi, there’s one that has shone for 92 years and seen some great and bad times. This stadium is the home of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, Carlisle-Faulkner Field at M.M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg.
Since 1912, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles have played football in Hattiesburg. In that 111 years, they have only played in two stadiums and two more as alternate sites. Kamper Park, located near the Hattiesburg Zoo, is where Southern Miss’s early teams, the Tigers, Normalities, and Yellow Jackets played football. But by the late 1920s, it was decided an on-campus stadium was needed. In 1930, this field was renamed “State Teachers Field.” While at Kamper Park, from 1912 to 1929, the Tigers/Normalities/Yellow Jackets posted a home record of 34-21-7.
L.E. Faulkner, chairman of the Hattiesburg Committee on Unemployment Relief and vice president of the Mississippi Central Railroad, organized a group of unemployed men to build a 600 feet by 250 feet athletic field on the Mississippi State Teachers College campus. Finished in 1932 and named “Faulkner Field,” this stadium featured a 4,000-seat wooden grandstand. From 1930 to 1938, the Yellow Jackets boasted a 30-9-3 record at home.
In 1938, the need for more dorms arose on campus, so the wooden grandstand was torn down and replaced with a 10,000-seat concrete stadium. The stadium also earned its famous nickname, “The Rock,” then. This name originated from players who carried the heavy stone blocks that made up the seats, also a tribute to Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco. From 1939 to 1949, this stadium started hosting teams such as Ole Miss, Louisiana Tech, and Louisville. In those ten years, the Yellow Jackets/Southerners put up 32 wins, five losses, and one tie at home.
In 1950, a 5,000-seat stand was added across the field, bumping Faulkner Field’s capacity up to 15,000. It was also at this time, in 1949, that coach Thad Vann was hired to coach the Southerners. Coach Vann would lead the Southerners for 20 seasons, winning two Gulf States Conference Championships and two NCAA Division II National Championships. After Vann retired in 1968, the Southerners kept the winning tradition under P.W. “Bear” Underwood, who coached from 1969 to 1974. From 1950 to 1973*, the Southerners/Golden Eagles boasted an amazing home record of 81-14.
In 1975, following the success of punter Ray Guy and head coaches Thad Vann and Bear Underwood, the Southern Miss fanbase experienced a large growth and it was agreed a larger stadium would be needed. Throughout the 1974 and 75 seasons, so much work was being done on the new stadium that USM never played a home game in Hattiesburg that year. Home games alternated between Biloxi’s Municipal Stadium and the MS Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. In Bobby Collins’ first year as Golden Eagle head coach, the stadium, renamed “Faulkner Field at M.M. Roberts Stadium” after Dr. M.M. Roberts, a member of the USM Board of Trustees, saw a double in the capacity as the seating went from 15,000 to 33,000. In 1987, during head coach Jim Carmody’s tenure, M.M. Roberts hosted a game that would change college football in Mississippi forever. On October 31, 1987, the Golden Eagles hosted the Jackson State Tigers in front of a record-setting crowd of 33,687. This was the first time one of Mississippi’s Big Three schools played an HBCU. Southern Miss would defeat Jackson State 17-7 and open the door for other teams to play the HBCUs. The attendance record would be beaten again in 2003 when #15 Nebraska came to Hattiesburg. Though the Eagles fell 14-38 to the Cornhuskers, a sold-out crowd of 36,152 showed up to watch. Under the prosperous reign of head coaches Bobby Collins, Jim Carmody, Curley Hallman, and Jeff Bower, the Golden Eagles boasted a home record of 105-35 from 1976 to 2006.
In Jeff Bower’s final year, M.M. Roberts Stadium received a major upgrade: a 3,000-seat expansion on the south end zone. This expansion also added box suites, something the stadium lacked for years. In the inaugural 2007 season of this new addition, Bower’s Golden Eagles ended the season with a 7-6 record, at fourth place in the C-USA West Division. Now, with a capacity of 36,000, M.M. Roberts Stadium has become one of the main factors of the Hattiesburg skyline. M.M. Roberts Stadium hit the 36,000 mark twice since the expansion. In 2015, a new attendance record was set at 36,641 as the Golden Eagles fell 36-14 to Mississippi State. The 30,000 mark has also been hit 15 times since this addition. Following Southern Miss’ first year in the Sun Belt Conference, new turf and field designs were added, giving the field a sleek, modern look. From the 2007 expansion to the end of the 2022 football season, Southern Miss has gathered a 53-43 record at The Rock**.
For 91 years, The Rock has played host to many amazing games for the Golden Eagles, such as a 2003 matchup against #10 TCU, in which the Golden Eagles took down the Horned Frogs, which included Golden Eagle fans rushing the field and carrying off the goalposts after the game. But for this article, we have some input from fans and players for the Golden Eagles on their favorite games. Take a look:
Question: “What was the best game you’ve seen at M.M. Roberts Stadium as a fan, or as a player and a fan?”
“The best game I played in M.M. Roberts was against Houston in ‘97. We clinched the Conference USA title and smashed Pitt in the Liberty Bowl. The best game I’ve seen as a fan was last year’s Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns game. Had a blast!”
- Marchant Kenney, USM Class of ‘98, former USM Linebacker
“The last Louisville game [2012] was a good one. It rained so much in that game that the field flooded. We lost in the fourth quarter because Lousiville drove so hard down the field, and we couldn’t stop them. It seemed we always beat Louisville at home except in the rain.”
- A Longtime Devoted USM Fan
“In 2003, Nebraska came. It was a big game for us, especially since Nebraska was ranked #15 in the country then. We lost 38-14, but the game was sold out, and I remember everything being so hyped up that week because Nebraska was coming to Hattiesburg.”
- Another Longtime USM Fan
“The first game Brett Favre played in [1987.] Tulane was beating us and we brought a kid in I didn’t know at quarterback and the rest is history.”
- Teddy Dyess, USM Class of ‘92
“When they played Jackson State, the environment was through the roof. It was nice to see the state of Mississippi be so passionate about football. As a player, our Thursday night game against ULL [2022], because we won and it seemed that our program was finally heading in the right direction.”
- Chandler Pittman, USM Class of 2025, Current USM Running back
*Southern Miss did not play home games in Hattiesburg through the ‘74 and ‘75 seasons. In 1974, home games were played at Ladd Stadium in Mobile and MS Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. In 1975, home games were played at Municipal Stadium in Biloxi and Memorial Stadium in Jackson.
**For all 91 years that have been played at The Rock, USM has a total W-L-T Record of 301-106-3 (73.4% At Home Pctg.) For all 111 years of USM at home, including Kamper Park, Ladd Stadium (74), Memorial Stadium (74 & 75), and Biloxi Municipal Stadium (75), the Golden Eagles have a total W-L-T record of 339-128-10 (71.1% At Home Pctg.)
Special thanks to the University of Southern Mississippi for the pictures.
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