The History
of Jordan-Hare Stadium
by Van Plexico
vplexico (at) gmail.com
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II. THE EARLY YEARS 1949: Cliff Hare Stadium Despite the stadium's success, only twelve home games were played there between 1939 and 1949, as Auburn continuted to struggle to convince other teams to travel to East Alabama. "We began to play more important games at home," Beard remembers, but notes that most were still played at other sites. "The only advantage we had playing on the road had to do with financing. We could still make more money by playing in the bigger stadiums on the road." To make matters worse, in the final three years of the decade, the team won only three games. Fortunately, even in the lean times, the seats had been filled. With such an obvious financial incentive, by the end of 1948, the time had come for expansion. In a press release issued on New Year's Eve, 1948, the Board of Trustees of A.P.I. "authorized President Ralph Draughon to contract for the construction of 13,000 additional seats at the Auburn Stadium." The wooden bleachers on the east side were to be replaced with concrete seats and the west stands expanded to bring the total capacity to 21,500. The Board also voted to name the newly expanded facility Cliff Hare Stadium. David Housel, writing in the 1973 Auburn Football Illustrated, tells of Shug Jordan's long afternoon talks with the aging Cliff Hare. "Fesser Hare told me how he and Dr. Sanford--for whom the stadium in Athens is named--used to come to Auburn every year after the Auburn-Georgia game in Columbus and divide the money. They would sit down in the Hare kitchen, take the money out of an old cigar box, and spread it across a marble table top and say, 'a dollar for you and a dollar for us' until the game proceeds were divided equally between the two schools." From these experiences, Hare saw the advantage of a larger stadium in Auburn at least as clearly as anyone else.
In addition, the resolution called for a new press box "to replace the existing temporary and inadequate press box section." Clearly, this matter was of some importance to the Board and the president. Draughon and Beard had come to realize that by playing at Auburn, they could save the money they were paying Columbus and other cities to rent out their stadiums. Draughon stated that the project would be "started as early as possible...in order to have facilities ready by the opening of the football season." The resolution was adopted without dissent, although in a bow to the true mission of the college, a resolution adopted several weeks later took pains to note the expansion was actually "for the benefit of the college and the students in attendance thereat." A memorandum from Beard to Draughon, dated June 3, 1955, shows that Batson-Cook Company of West Point, Georgia, won the contract to build the additions for $275,000.00. Beard remembers that the crews "walked off the job on the last day of August. The stadium was complete." With the capacity of the stadium having reached 34,500, Auburn could host four home games in 1955. This, Beard says, "was a great feeling for those of us who were tired of traveling. Four games showed us what a great advantage it was to play at home." The commitment had at last been made to bring Auburn's opponents to the campus to play. Even so, still no major rivals would play in Auburn. Beard and Jordan next would turn their attention to this problem, with their focus first on Georgia Coach Wally Butts. Continue to Part Three: Becoming a Competitive Arena, 1955-1970 |
