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South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium has been used by the Gamecocks since 1934; it replaced their combined usage of Melton Field and Fair Grounds II (primarily for their rivalry game against Clemson).

Overall, NC State had a record of 8-12-1 at this field, going 3-5-1 in conference games (1-0 in the Southern Conference and 2-5-1 in the ACC), and 3-1 in match-ups where either team is ranked.

  * Non-conference games

The Gamecocks had been playing their on-campus games in the same one-block radius since the gridiron sport arrived on campus in the 1880s. And since the 1896, they had met Clemson at the state fair, first at Fair Grounds I and then at Fair Grounds II. Because of the dual-field arrangement, the Sandlappers kept improvements to their home grounds to a minimum: in rare instances where a game was ever too big for either Davis or Melton Field, it could be relocated without significant headache.

But then, their games started getting too big for the Fair Grounds. Despite quadrupling in size over the course of its life, the "Big Thursday" game between Clemson and South Carolina continued to push the bounds of the fair. The demand for tickets exceeded the Fair's final enlargement by 1927; nonetheless, the fair association declined expansion requests from the Garnet and Black, with some Columbians also alleging the rival Tigers demurred. In addition to the size concerns was also the matter of the structural safety of the Fair Grounds. There was also considerable repair costs associated with their upkeep, as well as a latent fear that the "rickety" old wooden stands would collapse during a big play.

Then and there, South Carolina began planning to build their own mega-stadium. But what started as a University issue soon became a civic issue: having secured funding through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), local representatives felt it would not be appropriate to build a collegiate stadium in the face of the Great Depression, so the project was reimagined as the public Columbia Municipal Stadium instead. The 18,200-person plant, designed by engineering professor Dr. Robert Sumwalt, was constructed over the course of 14 months at a cost of $83,000 -- just over $2 million in 2025. Opening maneuvers were delayed twice in order to keep good on their promise to make the 1934 VMI game the opening affair, relocating a high school game and a displaced game against Erskine to keep the schedule.

Due to inflation between the start and stop of construction, the funds proved insufficient, but the Gamecocks had no choice to forge on with what they had; as a result, the stadium was decidedly spartan, with no fence surrounding the field, and niceties like locker rooms and the press box constructed on a shoe-string budget. However, the new stadium did not stay in city hands for long: within a year, the city felt the plant was losing money and agreed to transfer the property to the University, so long as they took on the associated debts. These were paid off in 1941, officially transferring the title to the collegians; the name was then changed to Carolina Stadium [1].

In 1949, the stadium was enlarged by significantly, constructing about 8,000 permanent seats to the south side of the field, as well as about 2,600 in the north endzone and several thousand stands at the bottom of the bowl; all told, the final capacity was about 34,000 persons. At the same time, the old press box was removed and a new one installed atop the western stands. Plans had been okayed a year before but delayed after repercussions from the Berline Airlift left steel production in a pickle [2].

Lighting was installed in 1948 on the original schedule, with wooden posts going up in front of the southwest and northeast bleachers. The Gamecocks hosted Newberry in the first-ever night game at Carolina Stadium. However, the installation proved unpopular, with high school games providing most of the stadium's night action. The posts were removed in October 1953 because of their disruption to viewership, replacing them ahead of the 1954 season with a system supported by large metal towers located behind the stands [3].

Following the 1956 season, the bowl was completed by removing the old semi-permanent north endzone stands and replacing them with an 8,000-person unit to match the southern endzone. Only 6,000 of those seats were ready at the opening of the season, with the full compliment of 42,388 ready by the following week. A new 45-foot long scoreboard, featuring a digital game timer, was also installed in the south endzone, as was a PA system in the north. For the first time, the bowl was completed, yielding what was at the time the second-largest stadium in the ACC [4].

The next batch of renovations came to pass in 1971, and they were nothing to squawk at. On the ground level, the field's natural grass was replaced for the first time with a synthetic surface (AstroTurf), while up high, a new cantilevered upper deck was built on the west side of the stadium, bumping capacity to about 56,100 persons. Ahead of the 1972 season, the old lower western bleachers (seating 15,785) were sold to Saluda High School and replaced with modern stands, complete with practice rooms and other amenities beneath them. Revised seating numbers, once the club level was included, were 53,685. Finally, that season also marked the inauguration of a new name: Williams-Brice Stadium, named for Mrs. T. H. Williams, née Brice, whose $3.5 million (just over $27 million in 2025) will donation stipulated her name be attached to any structure on the University's campus benefiting from her funding [5].

The east side of the stadium received a matching upper deck in 1982, allowing the venue to hold 72,400 spectators. There was some concern about the safety of the addition after fans noted the seating would noticeably sway, with the somewhat-rushed timeline of construction being called into question. Ultimately, however, the construction was found to be within proper specs. New lights were added at the same time, and in 1984, the stadium's astroturf was replaced with real grass, citing injury concerns. A new press box was added in 1995, and in 1996 7,600 seats were added when the south endzone had its own upper deck built. Revised seating was 80,250 [6].

That covers the bulk of the major changes at "Willy B." Going back some, new scoreboards were installed in 1974, 1987, 1996, and 2012. The final major improvement was a club area renovation that dropped the capacity to 77,559 but created four new club and entertainment areas. Opened during the 2020 football season, it wasn't until 2021 that they could be appreciated in their full capacity due to the Covid-19 pandemic [7].

Pictures of Williams-Brice Stadium