Tiger Stadium (LSU)

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Tiger Stadium
"Death Valley"

Location	Stadium Dr Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Broke ground	1924
Opened	November 25, 1924
Owner	LSU
Operator	LSU
Surface	Grass
Tenants
LSU Tigers (1924-Present) New Orleans Saints (2005)
Capacity
92,400

1 General Information
2 Death Valley
3 Construction
4 Lore
5 Hurricane Katrina
6 Notable Tiger Stadium Games
7 Trivia
8 External links

[edit] General Information

Tiger Stadium is the home field of Louisiana State University football team. It is the sixth largest college football stadium in the nation and third largest stadium in the SEC after Tennessee's Neyland Stadium and Georgia's Sanford Stadium, holding 92,400 fans. Tiger Stadium is generally considered one of the loudest and most electrifying college football atmospheres in the country.

[edit] Death Valley

Tiger Stadium is commonly referred to as "Death Valley," due to its high noise levels during games. For example, during a nationally televised game against Auburn in 2003, ESPN recorded a noise level of 117 decibels at certain points in the game. Famed Alabama head coach coach Bear Bryant once remarked that Tiger Stadium is the worst place in the world to be a visiting team because playing there is "like playing inside of a drum." However, it should be noted that Bryant was known for hyping up opponents, and in actuality posted a 10-1-1 record against LSU in Tiger Stadium, the sole defeat coming by a mere five points in 1969.

[edit] Construction

Westside of Tiger Stadium

When the stadium opened in 1924, the seating capacity was 12,000, with stands on both sides of the playing field. In 1931, 10,000 more seats were added onto the existing grandstands. The stadium more than doubled capacity in 1936. The north end saw an addition of 24,000 seats, making a horseshoe shape. This made the stadiums seating reach 46,000. The horseshoe was enclosed in 1953, with the south end grandstands constructed. Unlike the rest of the stadium at the time, they were double-decked in order to fit the field in the space provided (although the 2nd deck actually matches seamlessly with the rest of the lower deck). The first of the two upper decks was added to the west side of the stadium in 1978. Capacity was raised to about 78,000.

The 1980s saw many upgrades made to the aging structure. In 1985, the east and west grandstands were waterproofed and chair back seats replaced the bench seats. The playing surface was moved to the center of the field in 1986, by moving the goalposts 11 ft. to the south. The north and south ends of the stadium were waterproofed and chair back seats added in 1987 to bring them up to date with the 1985 improvements. Also in 1987 the press box was redecorated, and a few more seats were installed at the upper portion of the west lower stands, and the stadiums seating arrangement was renumbered to make all seats a uniform size. By the end of the 1980s the stadium held 80,150 spectators.

The official capacity of the stadium was lowered to 80,000 in 1994. Some of the seating had to be removed to renovate the visiting team locker room. The east end of the stadium received an upper deck in 2000. A total 11,600 seats brought the capacity to 91,600. The west upper deck was torn down at the end of the 2004 season, and construction began on "The Stadium Club". The new suites contain over 3,200 special amenity seats as a well as a state-of-the-art press box to Tiger Stadium. Construction on this addition was scheduled to be completed by the beginning of September 2005, but delayed due to Hurricane Katrina. The construction has since been completed for the 2006 season, bringing the stadium's capacity to 92,400. During construction on the Westside, a record-breaking crowd of 92,664 fans packed Tiger Stadium in a game against Auburn University on October 22, 2005, as LSU defeated Auburn in overtime 20-17.

[edit] Lore

Tiger Stadium was the site of the legendary "Earthquake Game" against Auburn in 1988. LSU won the game, 7-6, when quarterback Tommy Hodson completed a game-winning touchdown pass to running back Eddie Fuller in the waning seconds of the game. The crowd reaction registered on a seismograph in the LSU Geology Department.

Other famous moments include the Billy Cannon touchdown run on Halloween night in 1959 to win against Ole Miss, the last-second Bert Jones touchdown pass in 1972 against Ole Miss, and the 28-21 upset over top-ranked Florida.

Moreover, Tiger Stadium is also known for night games, an idea that was first introduced in 1931 against Spring Hill (a 35-0 LSU victory). In 2006, LSU celebrated its 75th year of playing night football in Tiger Stadium. Since that first night game in 1931, LSU has played the majority of its games at night and the Tigers have fared much better under the lights than during the day. Since 1960, LSU is 201-59-3 (.773) at night in Tiger Stadium compared to an 20-22-3 (.476) record during the day over that span.

[edit] Hurricane Katrina

Tiger Stadium at LSU served as a temporary relocation site for the New Orleans Saints for four games of the 2005 NFL season after Hurricane Katrina damaged the Superdome and left much of New Orleans under water. The Saints, however, utilized only 79,000 of Tiger Stadium's seats, though the attendance for each of the games was somewhat below that figure.

[edit] Notable Tiger Stadium Games

October 31, 1959: Billy Cannon returns a punt 89 yards for a touchdown as LSU downed undefeated Ole Miss, 7 - 3.
October 8th, 1988: "The Earthquake Game" - LSU beats Auburn 7 - 6
October 11th, 1997: Unbeaten and ranked #1, Florida loses to LSU 28 - 21. This is the first time in Tiger Stadium history the goal posts were pulled down.
November 4, 2000: LSU beats Alabama for the first time in Tiger Stadium in 31 years (1969).
October 30th, 2005: The first NFL game ever in Tiger Stadium takes place as the Miami Dolphins(21) defeat the New Orleans Saints(6).
November 6, 2005: New Orleans Saints (17) vs. Chicago Bears (20)
December 4, 2005: New Orleans Saints (3) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10)
December 18, 2005: New Orleans Saints (10) vs. Carolina Panthers (27)

[edit] Trivia

Satellite image of Tiger Stadium

Pregame in Tiger Stadium

Tiger Stadium's structure includes several dormitories which are no longer in use. These became part of the stadium because the budget included money for dormitories but not the stadium expansion desired by Louisiana governor Huey Long. In order to get around the budget restrictions, Long had the dorms built into Tiger Stadium and included seating for football games..
Unlike most football fields, where only the yard lines ending in "0" are marked, Tiger Stadium also marks the yard lines ending in "5".
Tiger Stadium is one of only three Division I-A schools that still use the classic double-posted goal posts. They received special permission from the NCAA prior to the November 20, 1993 game against Tulane in conjunction with LSU's football centennial. These goal posts remained intact for the 4 New Orleans Saints games held in 2005, with special permission from the NFL. Under NFL rules in place since 1967, goalposts for NFL games must be "slingshot" style with a single post and bright gold in color. Tiger Stadium's goalposts are white. The only other I-A stadiums that use goalposts with two posts are Doak Campbell Stadium at Florida State and Martin Stadium at Washington State.