Crump Stadium

Crump Stadium was a sports stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, built in 1934 and largely demolished in 2006. It was built as a WPA project with a capacity of 7,500. In 1939 it was enlarged to hold 25,000 spectators. In 1948 and 1949 it staged the NCAA football Delta Bowl; in 1950 the college football game between the University of Arkansas and the University of Texas at Austin was held there. Also the Ole Miss-Tennessee annual game was also held there in 1960s. Memphis State University (now University of Memphis) home football games were played there until the completion of Memphis Memorial Stadium (now Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium) in the mid-1960s. The stadium was named for the late Memphis political boss E. H. Crump. It is now home to Central High School.

The need for a large stadium in Memphis was first proposed by Clarence Saunders, founder of Piggly Wiggly and owner of the Clarence Saunders Tigers, a semi-professional football team. After success against other established teams, it was thought that Memphis would join the fledgling National Football League, but the Great Depression wiped out Saunders, and Memphis missed out on professional football for the first time. In early 1932, plans for a large concrete stadium with a capacity of 25,000 persons was presented to the Mid-South Fair Association with the promise that if it were built, efforts would be made to land "big-time events of the tennis world". On July 17, 1932, the Memphis Park Commission gave tentative approval for a 25,000-seat stadium to be created at the Fairgrounds. Funds for the stadium were to be raised from the public through a "Buy a Barrel of Cement" project. However, that project was shelved in favor of a new field at Central High School. On August 20, 1932, plans for a new stadium for the City of Memphis were drawn up and approved by the city managers. Funding for this Depression-era project was achieved when, on December 16, 1933, a 3-acre (12,000 m²) athletic field was approved by state and federal Civil Works Authority and construction was completed in 1934. The stadium's original configuration was 7,000 seat capacity on wood bleachers 15 rows high with space for another 4,000 on temporary seating. The stadium was under the control of the City Board of Education, but was available to all levels of teams, from high school to professional

...
Wikipedia