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Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium first opened in 1965, and has served as the home field for both the Memphis Tigers and the post-season Liberty Bowl ever since; it replaced the former's usage of Crump Stadium. The venue has also served as the annual host to the Southern Heritage Classic between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Alcorn State since 1990.

Overall, NC State had a record of 2-0 at this field, winning both of their appearances in neutral site, post-season bowl games.

  * Non-conference games

Memphis had long discussed the need for a dedicated stadium, with talks dating back to the 1930s. Initially, interested parties had keyed in on a portion of the Mid-South Fairgrounds, though ultimately opted to locate their new field elsewhere at the behest of fair ownership. Instead, in 1934 they opened Crump Field on a parcel of land in suburban Memphis. This quashed talks for a while, but discussion began anew in the late 1950s as improvements to the venue became increasingly difficult: it was on too small a parcel of land to enlarge, and too deep in suburbia to realistically account for more spectators anyhow. Despite lingering reticence among fair officials, it was felt that improving Crump Field would only "stir up a dead horse and make the smell worse." Though fair officials threatened that the venue may force them to pull up stakes and find somewhere new, Memphis officials flexed their muscles, exercising their ownership of the fair's facilities and moving forward with development.

Machinations for what eventually became the new stadium really hit their stride in early 1963, and construction on the $3.7 million (over $38 million in 2025) plant began in November. The Memphis Memorial Stadium was a statement piece, with a modern, electric scoreboard featuring 2,998 bulbs, a 3-story press box, powerful lighting for drawing night games, and a reinforced concrete bowl seating 50,160 in an offset formation with a higher west (press box) side than the east, which some likened to a sombrero. It hosted its first action on September 18th, 1965, when Memphis State met Ole Miss before a capacity crowd [1].

The multi-million dollar plant saw a lot of action immediately. In addition to all 5 of the Tigers' home games for the season, the Tennessee-Ole Miss rivalry, which was held in Memphis annually from 1936-1949 and mostly biennially since 1950, was on the docket. More intersectional games were scheduled for the coming years, as were NFL preseason exhibition matches between the NFL's Eagles and Bears, and the Dolphins and Broncos. They also forged a lasting partnership early when the Liberty Bowl, beleaguered by lackluster attendance due to cold weather in its previous climes, moved southward from Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium (after a layover in Atlantic City, NJ), formalizing the agreement in late October [2].

Despite repeated studies and political hand-wringing over enlargement of the stadium, it took over two decades for new seats to be added. City representatives played a game of chicken: one on hand, expansion was a necessity in order to attract an NFL team, while on the other hand, attendance for most games at the bowl were generally well within the existing capacity. Further marring plans were proposals to determine the efficacy of a dome. The plant was formally renamed in honor of the host Liberty Bowl after the 1975 season, and the playing surface named for Rex Dockery following the 1983 season after the former coach passed in an airplane crash just weeks prior. A new scoreboard was installed in the north end of the stadium in 1977, and the main south endzone scoreboard was replaced in 1983. Seats were renumbered in 1985, resulting in a 614-spot boost [3].

Enlargement finally came in 1987, with work on the $22 million (just under $63 million in 2025) expansion beginning in February. The work added nearly 15,000 seats and the shells for future luxury sky boxes, as well as other improvements to the lighting, concessions, restrooms, the press box, and the field, where a ring of artificial AstroTurf was installed along the sidelines; this was later replaced in 1993 after poor drainage led to premature aging. Capacity was announced as 62,384 persons, though this was sans the 40 luxury boxes which were roughed in but not finished. After a few years' of waiting, it was announced that the boxes would be delayed until the ever-ellusive NFL team arrived. As prospects of a new franchise's arrival heated up in the early 1990s, the skyboxes were finished up, yielding a revised seating of 62,953 by the end of the 1991 season, though many news sources continued to report the number as 62,380 for years to come [4].

Despite fielding interest from the Colts and Cardinals, Memphis never landed an NFL franchise. Never really, that is. When talks of moving the Houston Oilers to Nashville emerged, the city took an early lead in serving as a potential host site in the interim years between the end of the Oilers' lease in Texas in 1996 and the completion of a new stadium (Nissan Stadium) in 1999. The logic was simple: firstly, other major stadiums in the state weren't viable -- Tennessee's Neyland Stadium a) lacked luxury boxes, and b) prohibited the sale of alcohol, while Vanderbilt Stadium was seen as too small, even on an temporary basis; and secondly, the city had long clamored for a franchise of their own, hosting teams from the World Football League, US Football League, and even the Canadian Football League in repeated efforts to show the sincerity of their interest in professional football. The latter opportunity even saw the city float the idea of permanently modifying the stadium to better fit a Canadian-rules field, though the work was later dropped.

The single season the Tennessee Oilers spent in Memphis was an unmitigated disaster. Locals felt slighted, cast as the best man to a bride they'd courted for decades longer than the sophomoric groom in Nashville. By and large, Memphis sports fans refused to affiliate with a team they knew would be gone in two years' time. Fans from Nashville, meanwhile, had to fight through hours of construction work to see a game. Attendance was horrific, and after one short season, the Oilers packed their bags and played out their last migratory season in Vanderbilt Stadium.

Having closed the book on their bid for an NFL franchise once and for all, stadium improvements began shifting gears from expansion-focused renovations to quality-of-life niceties. The Oilers' premature departure also meant stadium officials had a new chunk of change to work with thanks to a settlement. In 1998, the stadium's much-maligned old yellow bleacher seats were replaced with blue vinyl bench seats, alongside improvements to the press box, skyboxes, and playing surface (the field was re-sodded). The stadium's first ever JumboTron was installed in the south endzone in 1999; that same season, the 500 eastern box seats were replaced with new seating. A similar endeavor was undertaken on the west side of the stadium but required an elevated aluminum structure which proved disruptive to surrounding spectators. They were scrapped and replaced with about 2,700 wooden seats. After all that, Tiger officials tarped off about 12,000 seats in the endzones for home games, lowering the effective capacity to about 50,000; actual seating was 61,008 [5].

The next major change came in 2005, when the venue tore out the natural grass which had graced the playing surface since its inception and replaced it with FieldTurf. Further action came in 2013 when the venue was modified to meet the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act, dropping capacity to 59,308. It held at this number until 2016, when school officials elected to replace all 800 existing chairback seats and install 4,839 new chairback seats on both the east and west stands. Work lowered the total seating; at the time, the number was reported to be 58,207 seats, though modern estimates write the number was 58,325. Work in 2019 emphasized improving the facility's locker room and replacing the scoreboards, which had been added in 2012. It was renamed Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in 2021 thanks to a partnership with the Arkansas-based financial institution.

In January 2024, the City of Memphis relinquished ownership of the plant, giving the University of Memphis control over the venue; whatever stake the Mid-South Fair had in the affair vanished when the festival opted not to renew their lease following the 2008 edition. This allowed the Tigers to embark on a series of major renovations to the stadium, including upfits to the towers on both sides of the stadium -- revamping the press box and luxury suites -- and work to the north endzone tunnel, with the goal of hosting year-round events in the space. While the work is ongoing, the venue's capacity has been lowered to just 33,691 spectatots, but once completed in 2026, it is slated to seat about 45,000 persons [6] [7].

Pictures of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium