Ole Miss Launches Celebration of First 100 Years of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium

Football stadiums witness a lot of things in 100 years. Triumphs, defeats, fashion cycles, rain, snow, sleet, hail, sun, and on and on.

Ole Miss will celebrate the First 100 Years of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this year, including several opportunities for fans to be uniquely involved in the Ole Miss Football experience.

The Rebels’ stadium, known as Hemingway Stadium for much of its existence, began its historic life in 1915 when University of Mississippi students helped in the construction of the first grandstand at the site of the present field. After a three-year construction project, the stadium made its presence felt in the new college sports landscape as a state-of-the-art 24,000-seat venue.

The stadium has since grown to a capacity north of 60,000 and witnessed 258 Ole Miss wins, 93 losses and eight ties. The first 100 years have seen ecstatic celebrations, heartbreaking losses, devastating player injuries and historic athletic performances.

The next 100 are sure to be thrilling, too.

Ole Miss is in the midst of a $150 million capital fundraising campaign that includes current renovations to the south end zone and west press box and luxury suites and will see further enhancements in the next two years as the north end zone is bowled in and a new edifice and courtyard on the north side help the stadium blend in smoothly with the nation’s most beautiful college campus.

Beginning Monday, Ole Miss Athletics will launch the First 100 Years of Vaught-Hemingway Fan Favorite Ticket Vote. Fans will be asked to submit their fan favorites to be featured on the 2015 football tickets. After the submission process, Ole Miss Athletics will narrow down the submissions to 20 players for a fan vote. The top seven vote getters will be featured on the tickets for the 2015 season.

As part of the submission process, fans will be asked why they selected a player as their favorite. From these submissions, lucky fans for each player that is selected as one of the top seven will have their submission featured on the back of that 2015 ticket. An additional prize for being the fan with the best player submission includes a framed portrait of the tickets.

The submission process will last from April 13-22. Voting will open April 27 and close at noon CST on May 8. Follow Ole Miss Football on Twitter, Facebook and OleMissSports.com to find out how you can vote.

Other elements for the First 100 years of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium include:

• Commemorative logo featured on various forms of publications, marketing materials, stadium signage and concession cups.
• Commemorative coin giveaway to the first 10,000 fans at the Oct. 10 Homecoming game vs. New Mexico State.
• Top 10 Greatest Moments of the First 100 Years (fan voting). Details will be released early this summer.
• 100 Day Countdown: a daily social media countdown that will feature images from each year in the stadium’s history.