(A View of) Sirrine Stadium

Sirrine Stadium is one of the last standing symbols of Furman University’s downtown campus. (Feel free to skip the trip if you'd rather now cross over busy Church Street, although good restaurants sit in-between). Sirrine Stadium was Furman’s former football home from 1936 until 1980, and is currently home to the Greenville High School Red Raiders.

Sirrine was built in 1934 and named after James Edward Sirrine, a prominent engineer in the Upstate and a Furman alumnus of 1890. After noticing that Manly Field, where Furman athletics previously took place, could no longer handle the increasing crowds and excitement around Furman football, the University under Bennette Eugene Geer decided it was time for a football stadium. Sirrine took it upon himself to design the stadium and fundraise for it. He raised $20,000 and received $30,000 in federal loans to complete the stadium. Furman University would later pay off those federal loans and take complete ownership of the stadium and the land it sat on.

Sirrine and his firm broke ground with approval from the Furman Board of Trustees in 1934, and took only two years to build a stadium that held upwards of 15,000 fans–a state-of-the-art venue at the time. As construction finished, the stadium was set to open for Furman's first game of the season in 1936. However, after torrential rainfall during the summer of 1936 saw the new stadium under 8 inches, the opening was delayed.

Furman, whose ‘36 football team was known as the “House of Magic,” hosted Davidson on October 31, 1936 for Sirrine Stadium’s first game. Led by star player Bob King, Furman defeated Davidson 14-13.

In its 1936 inaugural season in the stadium, King helped lead the Hurricanes to a 7-2 record, boasting wins over both South Carolina and Clemson. However, that success didn’t sustain as WWII led to a 3-year hiatus for the program starting in 1943. When the Hurricanes retook the field in 1946, they struggled to remain a relevant program, and did not find success on the gridiron for the following decades. King graduated from Furman in 1937 and became head football coach from 1958-1972, rebuilding the program.

In 1961, the Furman student body took a vote to adopt a universal school mascot for all athletic teams, getting rid of the Hurricanes and adopting the Paladins. In 1974, Rodney Acker (whose audio you can listen to above) desegregated the Furman football team. They continued to struggle as a football team until 1978 when they won their first SoCon Championship, the only championship ever won in Sirrine Stadium. In 1980, the Paladins left downtown Greenville to join the rest of campus in Paladin Stadium. The Paladin football program took off from there, becoming the winningest program in SoCon history with 14 Conference Championships, not to mention the 1988 National Championship victory.

Despite the move of Furman University from its downtown campus to its current home on Poinsett Highway in 1961, Sirrine Stadium remained the football home. The University only decided to build Paladin Stadium (on campus) for the 1981 season.

Although the Paladins moved, Sirrine Stadium continues to play an important role in the city of Greenville. Not only is it the current home of the Greenville High School Red Raiders, but it hosted the Historical Black College Football Classic in 2005.

Sources Used:

Bainbridge, Judith. “Sirrine Was a Prominent Engineer in Greenville.” The Greenville News, The Greenville News, 7 Aug. 2017, www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2017/08/07/joseph-sirrine/98142526/.

Bainbridge, Judith. “Sirrine Stadium Became 'Purple House of Magic'.” The Greenville News, The Greenville News, 13 Apr. 2017, www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/greenville-roots/2017/04/12/furman-sirrine-stadium/98142368/.

Daniel, Robert Norman. Furman University, a History. Furman University, 1951.

Mason, Charles. “Purple Hurricane Reaches Full Strength for Davidson Game in Sirrine Stadium Saturday”. The Furman Hornet. 29 Oct. 1936.

Stewart, Jim. “A Fond Farewell to Sirrine Stadium.” Furman Magazine, 1980.