Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium

The Jacksonville State University Board of Trustees approved the naming of its football facility Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium in the summer of 2010 and the Gamecocks will play their 71st season there this year.

The football playing facility has been called Paul Snow Stadium since the 1961 season, but now also honors former coach Bill Burgess, who led the Gamecocks to the 1992 NCAA Division II National Championship.

Long ago, in the days when Jacksonville State University went by Jacksonville State Teachers College and the athletic teams were nicknamed the “Eagle Owls,” football was played in a field next to John Forney National Guard Armory.

In 1946 as JSU began to change, enrollment began to rise and so did the popularity of football. Seeing the need for a new facility, the school built a stadium in the present location and it was dedicated in front of an overflow crowd at the 1947 Homecoming game against Pembroke. The Gamecocks went on to win that game and posted a perfect 9-0 season, including a 7-0 win over Florida State.

The “College Bowl” as it was called, was renamed in 1961 to honor longtime JSU supporter Paul Snow. Then in July of 2010, the stadium was renamed Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium.

The stadium got a facelift in 1965 when seating was expanded from 5,000 to 8,500 and a new press box was installed on the north side of the facility. Under the supervision of long-time Athletic Director Jerry N. Cole, the field house was constructed in 1977 and the expansion of the stadium was complete in time for the 1978 season when the student section was added to bring the capacity to 15,000.

JSU Stadium completed a $47 million expansion just in time for the 2010 season. The new facility consists of seven stories, with the bottom four floors dedicated to nearly 400 dorm beds. The top three floors includes 33 luxury skyboxes, a new press area, coaches booths, radio and television broadcast facilities, and a game management booth. The stadium was also expanded and now includes 24,000 seats.

The natural playing surface was replaced during the summer of 2005 with an artificial playing turf. It was the first major renovation to the stadium since the 1978 season. It took three months to install at a cost of just over $700,000 and was completed in time to hold summer graduation on the new playing field. That field was replaced before the 2016 season with another ProGrass surface.

Prior to the 2017 season, the standard definition video board that was installed in 2007 was replaced by a new board that includes a full high definition display that measures 12 feet in height and 80 feet in width.

On the Gamecock Field House, a new scoreboard was installed in 2007, making Burgess-Snow Field the only on-campus facility in the OVC to feature two scoreboards.

Jacksonville State’s first win in renovated Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium came the hard way, in 2010, but it is one Gamecock fans remember well.

After a lightning delay that pushed kickoff back 86 minutes, the 22,186 in attendance saw the fifth-ranked Jacksonville State football team score 21 unanswered points to pull off its second fourth-quarter come-from-behind win of the season, a 21-17 thriller over Chattanooga.

One week after the second-largest crowd to ever watch JSU play saw the Gamecocks rally for a double-overtime win over Ole Miss, the largest home crowd in Gamecock history saw junior Marques Ivory find junior James Shaw for a 72-yard touchdown strike with 1:16 remaining as the Gamecocks claimed the win in the renovated stadium.

The record for a single-game crowd for a football game at Burgess-Snow Field at JSU Stadium was set in the season opener in 2017 versus Liberty when 23,944 fans witnessed the Gamecocks claim a 37-10 win over the Flames.