Bragg Memorial Stadium
 | |
| Location |
1500 Wahnish Way Tallahassee, Florida 32310 |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 30°25′34″N 84°17′30″W / 30.42611°N 84.29167°WCoordinates: 30°25′34″N 84°17′30″W / 30.42611°N 84.29167°W |
| Owner | Florida A&M University |
| Operator | Florida A&M University |
| Capacity | 25,500 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1957 |
| Renovated | 1982 |
| Construction cost | $4 million (renovations) |
| Tenants | |
| Florida A&M Rattlers (NCAA) (1982–present) | |
Bragg Memorial Stadium is a 25,500-seat football stadium in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It opened in 1957 and was renovated in 1982. It is home to the Florida A&M Rattlers football team.
Built in 1957, Bragg Memorial Stadium is home to Florida A&M Football. The stadium is named in memory of two of the school's earliest figures in its storied intercollegiate athletic program—the "First Family of Rattler Football"—the father and son combination of Jubie and Eugene Bragg.
Jubie Bragg was one of the school's first athletic directors, being one of the key figures in the football program gaining varsity status in 1906. He returned after a brief stint at Tuskegee to become the school's first head football coach and athletic director at FAMU from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1930 to 1932.
Bragg's son, Eugene, one of the school's first All-America gridders (1927), took over the reins of the program in 1934, coaching through 1935, when an automobile accident ended his life. Until the stadium's construction in 1957, the Rattlers played on a cow pasture south of the campus and then on a grass field, first known as Bragg Field located on a hill directly behind the current Gaither Gymnasium, where the present track and field complex is located.
The field was moved to that location, so that fans could use the bathroom facilities in the nearby dormitories. At the previous location in the cow pasture, it was a walk of a quarter mile to the nearest restroom. However, thanks to appropriations from the Florida Legislature, the all-steel stadium on the campus' westernmost edge was built in 1957. That configuration featured 10,500 permanent seats and bleachers elevated the capacity to 13,200.
But by the 1980s, the stadium had fallen into disrepair and had grown too small for the Rattler Football Program. The 1980 season saw the stadium condemned by the State of Florida engineers, prompting the Legislature (thanks to heavy lobbying by the FAMU Administration) to appropriate over a half million dollars for the stadium's renovation and expansion to begin 1981 with remodeling, to make the stadium suitable for crowds again.
By 1982, the renovation and expansion had made the stadium a 25,500-seat facility with press box elevator, a $125,000 scoreboard with message center, a built-in sprinkler and drainage system, improved restroom, concessions and ticket booths and paved parking areas.
The project was completed in 1983, with the unveiling of the Galimore-Powell Fieldhouse, located adjacent to the stadium's south end zone.
That structure contained coaches' offices, conference room, equipment and training/treatment rooms (with X-ray machines), two locker rooms, one for each team, plus an official's locker room and a weight training room.