University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Football Completes New Playing Surface, Opening a New Chapter in Golden Eagle Football
6/30/2023 10:00:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The 2023 season of Southern Miss football will feature a new playing surface for the Golden Eagles at Carlisle-Faulkner Field at M.M. Roberts Stadium. The installation of the new-look field also serves as the first line of a new chapter in the storied history of Southern Miss football.
When Faulkner Field opened in 1932, few at the dedication ceremony would believe the structure surrounding the site today. In the nine decades since this dedication, countless Golden Eagle legends have helped build – in a few cases, with their own hands – one of the most intimidating and successful venues in all of college football.
The 2023 season will introduce Golden Eagle fans to a state-of-the-art CoolPlay playing surface from FieldTurf. Southern Miss Athletics is no stranger to FieldTurf, as the Golden Eagles also utilize the company at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field and at Pride Field.
The CoolPlay system consists of a three-layer infill system of silica sand, cryogenic (SBR) rubber and a blend of the two laid down into a 2.5 inch tall ClassicHD artificial surface. With 9.2 pounds of infill per square foot, the new-look Carlisle-Faulkner Field's surface has the lowest injury rate in the industry, along with a 40 percent increase in drainage. Additionally, the field is 35 degrees cooler than other traditional sand and rubber systems.
Southern Miss' new surface installation took just over a month and included the complete removal of the old surface and installation of the new surface, including new logo placements and infill. Southern Miss also received new goal posts as part of the project.
Often when replacing older facilities and ideas, the history and tradition can be lost. However, the new-look Rock can trace its legacy all the way back to the original Faulkner Field through 92 years of blood, sweat and tears.
Cornerstones
For the first 20 years and 19 seasons, Southern Miss, then Mississippi Normal College (1912-24) and Mississippi State Teachers College (1924-40), played at Hattiesburg's Kamper Park. In 1932, Louis Edward "L.E." Faulkner, chairman of Hattiesburg's Committee on Unemployment Relief and vice president and general manager of the Mississippi Central Railroad, assembled a team of unemployed men to build an athletic field measured to be 600 feet long and 250 feet across.
The surface received the name "Faulkner Field" at a dedication ceremony on Oct. 29, 1932, in Faulkner's honor. Ninety-two years later, Southern Miss football still takes the field a couple Saturdays each fall. Although the field's surroundings have changed over the years, the legends of Southern Miss have remained unshaken.
The original Faulkner Field featured a wooden grandstand seating 4,000. In 1938, need for housing and an increased capacity led to the wooden stands being replaced by the East Side dormitory and stands which earned the stadium the endearing nickname of "The Rock" by the players who carried the blocks of concrete that make up the seats—an homage to the famous Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco.
The 1938 edition of "The Rock" at Faulkner Field
The Rock as it stood with the 1950 addition to the facility. Southern Miss would go 82-12 in this version of the venue, captuing two conference titles, two national titles and three bowl game slots.
Legends Are Made
Faulkner Field would receive another addition to its west side in 1950, raising capacity to 15,000 fans. In 1976, after a lengthy renovation process which kept the Golden Eagles from playing a home game in 1974 or 1975, "The Rock" became M.M. Roberts Stadium in honor of Dr. M.M. Roberts, an alumnus, letterwinner and supporter of Southern Miss and former member of the Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning. The playing surface remained Faulkner Field with the venue's full moniker now reading Faulkner Field at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Renderings of the planned M.M. Roberts Stadium reconstruction.
New M.M. Roberts Stadium under construction with the original East Side Dormitory underneath. The area pictured is now the south entrance of the Eagle Walk.
In the time between, Mississippi Southern College made a name for itself on the gridiron under Coach Thad "Pie" Vann. From 1949-1968, Vann's group claimed two College Division National Championships in 1958 and 1962 and amassed a 139-59-2 record in his 20-year tenure, elevating the program to the highest levels of college football and making the Black & Gold known throughout the country.
Since Vann's retirement in 1968, the Golden Eagles have followed his winning precedent, posting a 343-291-5 overall record, a 54.1 percent winning percentage, raising the program's cumulative record to 614-453-27.
The Golden Eagles are a whopping 300-100-3 at home since 1932 – a 74.8 percent clip. In that 86-season span, Southern Miss has enjoyed 32 undefeated seasons and 10 10-game win streaks.
Eight conference titles and 27 bowl appearances have either been won and celebrated at M.M. Roberts Stadium/Carlisle-Faulkner Field and 54 Golden Eagles have been named to All-America teams. Bower, Collier, Cook and Dixon; Favre, Guy, McElroy, Nix and Pepper; Phillips, Thomas, Vann and Winder. Few names have been enshrined in the Southern Miss Legends Club but many are the memories made at The Rock.
M.M. Roberts Stadium at Faulkner Field hosts a capacity crowd against Jackson State on Oct. 31, 1987
Saturdays at The Rock mean something different to us all. Almost every Golden Eagle fan's favorite memory involves M.M. Roberts Stadium/Carlisle-Faulkner Field. Family, friends, tailgates and football unite all members of the Black & Gold, present, past and future.
Artificial Flavoring – Same Great Taste
In 2004, one of Southern Miss' most generous supporters, Gene Carlisle, a 1964 Southern Miss alumnus pledged the vast majority of a $500,000 sum to install the program's first artificial playing surface.
The 2004 edition of Faulkner Field, now renamed Carlisle-Faulkner Field.
Faulkner Field became Carlisle-Faulkner Field in Carlisle's honor for the 2004 season. The new Momentum Turf by Sportexe served the Golden Eagles through the 2012 season. Southern Miss claimed the Conference USA title and an undefeated record in 2011 on the turf. While the new surface began with great success, no one disagreed that something needed to change following the 2012 season.
However, on Feb. 10, 2013, an EF4 multiple-vortex wedge tornado devastated Southern Miss, Hattiesburg and the Pine Belt as a whole. Outside of levelling multiple buildings in the area, the storm left such a large amount of debris on the surface that Southern Miss found itself in need of a turf replacement.
New Beginnings
Over the summer of 2013, Hellas Sports Construction installed a new Matrix Turf surface, the second artificial surface in the program's history.
Now that the field had been rebuilt, new head football coach Todd Monken began the rebuild of the team that would use it. The surface's first season did not feature a Golden Eagle win, in fact, Southern Miss would not claim its first win on the new field until the 2014 season's home-opener against Alcorn State.
After two seasons, new Carlisle-Faulkner field owned a 2-9 record, but 2015 would more than double the turf's wins.
The season may not have begun with a win over rival Mississippi State, but the stadium-record 36,641 spectators ushered in a new era of Southern Miss football. The 2015 squad finished 9-5 and returned to postseason play for the first time since 2011.
Good times rolled through The Rock through 2019 as Southern Miss posted a 21-8 record at home. However, the success of the mid-to-late 2010s did not last.
Southern Miss returned to the doldrums in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, finishing with three wins in back-to-back seasons from 2020-2021. The Golden Eagles managed to win three games in 11 tries at The Rock in this span, including a 37-0 romp over Grambling for Will Hall's first home victory at Southern Miss in the 2021 home-opener.
As Southern Miss opened its 2022 season, a new conference logo graced the surface of the field for the first time since 1995. Coach Hall and company have made their presence known in the new Sun Belt Conference.
The final season Carlisle-Faulkner Field No. 2 saw Southern Miss return to and win a bowl game for the first time since 2016. As with year's past, the replacement of Carlisle-Faulkner Field's surface precedes a change in Golden Eagle football.
A New Dawn
With new turf laid down at M.M. Roberts Stadium this summer, a new day of Southern Miss football is dawning for the Golden Eagles. Coach Hall's group returns key players and the 2023 campaign looks to be one of the most exciting in Southern Miss football's long and storied past.
M.M. Roberts Stadium at Carlisle-Faulkner Field receives a new playing surface ahead of the 2023 season.
The 2023 season begins on Saturday, Sept. 2, at The Rock against Alcorn State. Tickets for the 2023 football season are available at SouthernMissTickets.com.
As we reflect on the history of the home of Golden Eagle football, the shared home of generations of Southern Miss fans, let us look fondly back on past glories and charge forward into a new and brighter future as Southern Miss continues its climb to the top.
When Faulkner Field opened in 1932, few at the dedication ceremony would believe the structure surrounding the site today. In the nine decades since this dedication, countless Golden Eagle legends have helped build – in a few cases, with their own hands – one of the most intimidating and successful venues in all of college football.
The 2023 season will introduce Golden Eagle fans to a state-of-the-art CoolPlay playing surface from FieldTurf. Southern Miss Athletics is no stranger to FieldTurf, as the Golden Eagles also utilize the company at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field and at Pride Field.
The CoolPlay system consists of a three-layer infill system of silica sand, cryogenic (SBR) rubber and a blend of the two laid down into a 2.5 inch tall ClassicHD artificial surface. With 9.2 pounds of infill per square foot, the new-look Carlisle-Faulkner Field's surface has the lowest injury rate in the industry, along with a 40 percent increase in drainage. Additionally, the field is 35 degrees cooler than other traditional sand and rubber systems.
Southern Miss' new surface installation took just over a month and included the complete removal of the old surface and installation of the new surface, including new logo placements and infill. Southern Miss also received new goal posts as part of the project.
Often when replacing older facilities and ideas, the history and tradition can be lost. However, the new-look Rock can trace its legacy all the way back to the original Faulkner Field through 92 years of blood, sweat and tears.
Cornerstones
For the first 20 years and 19 seasons, Southern Miss, then Mississippi Normal College (1912-24) and Mississippi State Teachers College (1924-40), played at Hattiesburg's Kamper Park. In 1932, Louis Edward "L.E." Faulkner, chairman of Hattiesburg's Committee on Unemployment Relief and vice president and general manager of the Mississippi Central Railroad, assembled a team of unemployed men to build an athletic field measured to be 600 feet long and 250 feet across.
The surface received the name "Faulkner Field" at a dedication ceremony on Oct. 29, 1932, in Faulkner's honor. Ninety-two years later, Southern Miss football still takes the field a couple Saturdays each fall. Although the field's surroundings have changed over the years, the legends of Southern Miss have remained unshaken.
The original Faulkner Field featured a wooden grandstand seating 4,000. In 1938, need for housing and an increased capacity led to the wooden stands being replaced by the East Side dormitory and stands which earned the stadium the endearing nickname of "The Rock" by the players who carried the blocks of concrete that make up the seats—an homage to the famous Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco.
The 1938 edition of "The Rock" at Faulkner Field
The Rock as it stood with the 1950 addition to the facility. Southern Miss would go 82-12 in this version of the venue, captuing two conference titles, two national titles and three bowl game slots.
Legends Are Made
Faulkner Field would receive another addition to its west side in 1950, raising capacity to 15,000 fans. In 1976, after a lengthy renovation process which kept the Golden Eagles from playing a home game in 1974 or 1975, "The Rock" became M.M. Roberts Stadium in honor of Dr. M.M. Roberts, an alumnus, letterwinner and supporter of Southern Miss and former member of the Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning. The playing surface remained Faulkner Field with the venue's full moniker now reading Faulkner Field at M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Renderings of the planned M.M. Roberts Stadium reconstruction.New M.M. Roberts Stadium under construction with the original East Side Dormitory underneath. The area pictured is now the south entrance of the Eagle Walk.
In the time between, Mississippi Southern College made a name for itself on the gridiron under Coach Thad "Pie" Vann. From 1949-1968, Vann's group claimed two College Division National Championships in 1958 and 1962 and amassed a 139-59-2 record in his 20-year tenure, elevating the program to the highest levels of college football and making the Black & Gold known throughout the country.
Since Vann's retirement in 1968, the Golden Eagles have followed his winning precedent, posting a 343-291-5 overall record, a 54.1 percent winning percentage, raising the program's cumulative record to 614-453-27.
The Golden Eagles are a whopping 300-100-3 at home since 1932 – a 74.8 percent clip. In that 86-season span, Southern Miss has enjoyed 32 undefeated seasons and 10 10-game win streaks.
Eight conference titles and 27 bowl appearances have either been won and celebrated at M.M. Roberts Stadium/Carlisle-Faulkner Field and 54 Golden Eagles have been named to All-America teams. Bower, Collier, Cook and Dixon; Favre, Guy, McElroy, Nix and Pepper; Phillips, Thomas, Vann and Winder. Few names have been enshrined in the Southern Miss Legends Club but many are the memories made at The Rock.
M.M. Roberts Stadium at Faulkner Field hosts a capacity crowd against Jackson State on Oct. 31, 1987
Saturdays at The Rock mean something different to us all. Almost every Golden Eagle fan's favorite memory involves M.M. Roberts Stadium/Carlisle-Faulkner Field. Family, friends, tailgates and football unite all members of the Black & Gold, present, past and future.
Artificial Flavoring – Same Great Taste
In 2004, one of Southern Miss' most generous supporters, Gene Carlisle, a 1964 Southern Miss alumnus pledged the vast majority of a $500,000 sum to install the program's first artificial playing surface.
The 2004 edition of Faulkner Field, now renamed Carlisle-Faulkner Field. Faulkner Field became Carlisle-Faulkner Field in Carlisle's honor for the 2004 season. The new Momentum Turf by Sportexe served the Golden Eagles through the 2012 season. Southern Miss claimed the Conference USA title and an undefeated record in 2011 on the turf. While the new surface began with great success, no one disagreed that something needed to change following the 2012 season.
However, on Feb. 10, 2013, an EF4 multiple-vortex wedge tornado devastated Southern Miss, Hattiesburg and the Pine Belt as a whole. Outside of levelling multiple buildings in the area, the storm left such a large amount of debris on the surface that Southern Miss found itself in need of a turf replacement.
New Beginnings
Over the summer of 2013, Hellas Sports Construction installed a new Matrix Turf surface, the second artificial surface in the program's history.
Now that the field had been rebuilt, new head football coach Todd Monken began the rebuild of the team that would use it. The surface's first season did not feature a Golden Eagle win, in fact, Southern Miss would not claim its first win on the new field until the 2014 season's home-opener against Alcorn State.
After two seasons, new Carlisle-Faulkner field owned a 2-9 record, but 2015 would more than double the turf's wins.
The season may not have begun with a win over rival Mississippi State, but the stadium-record 36,641 spectators ushered in a new era of Southern Miss football. The 2015 squad finished 9-5 and returned to postseason play for the first time since 2011.
Good times rolled through The Rock through 2019 as Southern Miss posted a 21-8 record at home. However, the success of the mid-to-late 2010s did not last.
Southern Miss returned to the doldrums in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, finishing with three wins in back-to-back seasons from 2020-2021. The Golden Eagles managed to win three games in 11 tries at The Rock in this span, including a 37-0 romp over Grambling for Will Hall's first home victory at Southern Miss in the 2021 home-opener.
As Southern Miss opened its 2022 season, a new conference logo graced the surface of the field for the first time since 1995. Coach Hall and company have made their presence known in the new Sun Belt Conference.
The final season Carlisle-Faulkner Field No. 2 saw Southern Miss return to and win a bowl game for the first time since 2016. As with year's past, the replacement of Carlisle-Faulkner Field's surface precedes a change in Golden Eagle football.
A New Dawn
With new turf laid down at M.M. Roberts Stadium this summer, a new day of Southern Miss football is dawning for the Golden Eagles. Coach Hall's group returns key players and the 2023 campaign looks to be one of the most exciting in Southern Miss football's long and storied past.
M.M. Roberts Stadium at Carlisle-Faulkner Field receives a new playing surface ahead of the 2023 season.
The 2023 season begins on Saturday, Sept. 2, at The Rock against Alcorn State. Tickets for the 2023 football season are available at SouthernMissTickets.com.
As we reflect on the history of the home of Golden Eagle football, the shared home of generations of Southern Miss fans, let us look fondly back on past glories and charge forward into a new and brighter future as Southern Miss continues its climb to the top.
– @USMGoldenEagles | @SouthernMissFB –
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