Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium has been used by the Tigers since 1939; it replaced Drake Field, their first formal on-campus athletic field.

Overall, NC State had a record of 1-1 at this field, splitting their only two meetings with Auburn.

  * Non-conference games

Auburn's first home field was Drake Field, a multipurpose stadium which opened in 1911. Though just over two decades old, by the 1930s, the field was so inadequate that the Plainsmen just plain stopped playing football there: Starting in 1931, Auburn had played just one home game per season, and those games which did come off at home were played largely against minor competition. Drake Field had scarcely any permanent seating, with some modern sources noting it held just 700 persons. Auburn played their last game on-campus on November 21st, 1936, spurning their home field for frequent dates on the road, peppered with "home" games in Birmingham's Legion Field or Montgomery's Cramton Bowl. This penchance for playing away from home had earned Auburn the monicker of Alabama's "football nomads."

Juxtaposed with their itinerant nature was the long-standing murmur stadium project. Despite the numerous previous false starts, excavation work at "Vet Valley" in October 1937, a natural depression just west of Drake Field, eventually yielded Auburn Stadium. In early 1938, grading work was completed and a combination track and football field with a built-in field house was on the docket thanks in part to a combination of Public Works Administration (PWA) monies and private funding. By June 1939, the west concrete bleacher, seating about 7,580 persons, was taking shape, and by September, wooden bleachers, holding about 4,500 spots, began to take shape on the eastern side of the venue; including endzone seating, about 15,000 persons could be accomodated. The setting seemed downright pastoral: "Dark, thickly growing pine woods shadow the southern end of the development," wrote Randall Sugg. "Perhaps the most impressive beauty of the stadium is its trademark, the tree-framed view of Samford Hall's towers, since the beginning the proud symbol of all that is Auburn." The work cost about $180k (just under $4.1 million in 2024), $160k of which was covered by the PWA [1].

Auburn Stadium held its first action on November 10th, 1939, when the freshmen team of Auburn met and defeated the Georgia Tech's frosh team; the Baby Tigers won 10-to-nothing before a crowd of 4,000, including the varsity team. And after three full years battles in hostile climes, Auburn's upperclassmen returned home on November 30th, 1939 -- Alabama's Thanksgiving Day that year*. The Plainsmen pulled off a 7-7 tie in miraculous fashion, scoring in the 4th quarter after falling behind before halftime. The tie formally dedicated the venue, which was known initially as Auburn Stadium. The stadium also came with a cinder track and a fieldhouse, though the latter remaind under construction the day of the game.

Despite the new haunts, Auburn didn't exactly quit their life on the road. They played only a single game on campus 7 times between 1939 and 1950, and never played more than two. The main reason for this was that the aforementioned alternate home cities had much larger stadiums and were much more accessible for visiting teams and fans. Starting ahead of the 1946 season, this was compounded by the old wooden stands becoming condemned, lowering the capacity back down to about 8,000. This forced the Clemson game to be relocated to Montgomery after having been slated for Auburn's home plant initially [2].

In April 1948, it was announced that the stadium would be augmented by a 13,000-seat addition to the eastern stands; the following January, it was renamed Cliff Hare Stadium in honor of a life-long chemistry professor and ardent supporter of Auburn athletics. Inaugurated on November 5th, 1949, the revamped venue opened with a capacity of 22,500 persons. A new scoreboard was also erected in the north endzone. Just six years later, in 1955, about 7,000 seats were added to the western stands, increasing capacity to about 30,000, though work lagged into the football season, which by now featured four home games, though construction lagged into the season: only about 2/3rds of the new stands were ready in early October. A new press box was also included in the work [3].

In 1960, Auburn added permanent stands to the south side of the stadium for the first time, building a roughly 13,000-seat addition. Though typically seen as an undesirable spot for viewing, they were improved slightly by their proximity to the field -- 20 yards closer than the sideline seats -- and a steep incline to improve the view. "We have glamorized the end zone seat to a point where it has become about the best seat in the stadium" raved Athletic Director Jeff Beard. The work enlarged Auburn's stadium capacity to 42,000 persons, plus another 2,000 temporary seats, likely in the north endzone. This work was major for Auburn because they finally became an innovator in the field of fields: though the capacity was only just in the range of that of Legion Field, perennial leader Birmingham's Legion Field looked to immitate the close-to-the-ground construction, spurning the true bowl shape. The stands also included a tunnel beneath them through which the players could enter [4].

North endzone seating was added ahead of the 1970 football season, pushing capacity to 61,261; the south endzone was also lowered to ground level, eliminating the cinder track. Shortly thereafter, in 1973, the plant was christened Jordan-Hare Stadium in honor of head coach "Shug" Jordan, who had led the Tigers since 1951; he had also played for them 1928-1932. In 1980, an upper deck was added to the west side of the stadium, as well as nights, allowing the Tigers to host a home night game for the first time in school history. Work took nearly two years to complete, but gave Auburn a capacity of 72,169 persons.

Part of the purpose for this expansion was to bring more home games home. Dissatisfaction had been percolating for years over the somewhat disinterested rooting of the Magic City's "home" crowd, though that was small potatoes compared to the travel expenses of the team and lost revenue to the home town. Nearly all of their stadium improvements were made in order to compete with Legion Stadium, improving and enlarging amenities. After winnowing down their off-campus games for several years, Auburn finally made a break after the 1987 football season [5].

In 1987, the east deck of Jordan-Hare was enlarged to match that of the west deck. Replete with skyboxes and a near-identical design to that of the west upper eck, the work added about 13,000 seats, bringing Auburn's capacity to 85,214 seats. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the women's bathrooms were found to be woefully inadequate, forcing some of their female fans to wait nearly an hour to use the facilities. Concerns about the availability of toilet facilities led to some speculation that the Auburn-Alabama series may be relocated back to Birmingham, contrary to university plans, though this did not come to fruition. An extra row was added to each endzone, pushing the capacity to 86,063 persons; this followed an alteration to the locker rooms in 2000 which somehow brought the number up to 85,612. About 1,000 seats were added to the east side of the stadium in 2004, pumping the capacity figure to 87,451, a number at which Auburn held pat juntil 2023. That season, premium seating was broadly increased, pushing capacity all the way up to 88,043 persons [6].

* President Franklin Roosevelt shifted the date of Thanksgiving nationally to be the second-to-last weekend in November, rather than the traditional last weekend in November, in August 1939. Because of the short notice of the declaration (which was made non-binding for similar reasons), Alabama was among 22 states across the US that elected to retain the later date.

Photos of Jordan-Hare Stadium