Vaught-Hemingway Stadium

Jon Vaught (Dad of the lovely Angelina Jolie) decided to open his own stadium to win her back from Billy Bob Thornton. Unfortunately all it did was push her into Brad Pitt’s arms. Hopefully not into Brad Pitt’s armpits because that would be gross and clichéd too.
So Oxford is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, I should know, I was born and raised there. The one in England is nice, too.
First-​Hand Experience: Info on my personal visit to this stadium — not my fave stadium in the world and the crowd wasn’t as loud as I thought. I’ve now played 3 concerts in Oxford MS, none of them were in this stadium… haha. And the second and third time, I visited this stadium before or after my show. I do love it because it’s a gem in a tiny little sleepy place like Oxford, but I don’t think it’s one of the best stadiums in the country, not even close.
Also they don’t sell alcohol here which is unusual. And the stadium doesn’t look as big on the inside as it does on TV.
I’ve been to every cool stadium in the UK & North America, due to my obsession with travel & sport. I’ve toured America as a musician for 7 or 8 years. In that time, I’ve seen sports games at, or visited when empty (and usually both), at almost every major stadium in US and Canada. I have pictures of most which I will upload at some point. Also, on future travels, I plan to take new pix, and add more stadia! Watch this space!
***back to regular review***
This 60.5k seat stadium is one of the best in the South, with a really intense atmosphere for watching Olé Miss play, and of course Archie Manning once played here, and he spawned both Peyton and Eli (and three Superbowls). They also serve fried chicken here, how awesome.
It needs to be a bit more bowled-​in to get that 5^th star, to intensify the atmosphere.

The best tailgating, stadium and overall football game experience in the world. People are so friendly and there is food everywhere in the Grove. Eating fried chicken under those huge majestic oaks in the Grove is an experience like no other.

OK, well, now I HAVE been to a game at the Vaught. (Texas A&M beats Olé Miss in an epic nail-​biter, 41 – 38.)
It’s a pretty good stadium with an excellent game-​day atmosphere. It dumped buckets on the Grove right before I got there, but it was fun anyway. Fortunately, I was with an Olé Miss football player most of the time, so I was able to get drinks. Most people were very friendly if engaged, though most did not engage strangers (though to be fair, there were a ton of people there).
A shout out to Bill Hall (I think was his name) who invited us to his tailgate and offered us all the beer and food we wanted. Very nice folks.
The stadium itself is fairly old, and I was up in the end-​zone bleachers with the rest of the Aggie fans. We were pretty loud (so I’m told by relatives who were in the Olé Miss portion of the stadium) but I’d have to say when Olé Miss mounted a comeback, the fans’ «dee-​fense» chant was the loudest I’ve ever heard (if only because Aggies don’t use the «dee-​fense» chant). You could tell the students had a good time taunting Johnny Football, though we got the last laugh. The fans are way louder and more into the game than the fans of that burnt-​orangey school here in Austin.
The outside of the stadium has a couple of chokepoints that make it hard to get around, but the ticket-​takers are way faster than at A&M, and even with a huge line, we got into the stadium before the game started (not doing so makes me very nervous and unhappy).
Vaught definitely lives up to its excellent gameday reputation. I’m sure it was rockin’ even more the next Saturday when Olé Miss beat LSU. That would have been fun to see.
It’s also worth noting that I didn’t get a single «Aggies suck» yelled at me before or after the game. Most fans were very friendly before and after the game, and we got a lot of congratulations when we left (I doubt Miss State or LSU get that treatment, but still, nice folks for the most part).
Oh, and the «Walk of Champions» was fun to see close up (aforementioned player, a relative, was in it) and I appreciate the way Olé Miss kids slapped my back and said «good luck» as a sneaky way to stick Olé Miss stickers on the back of my Aggie jersey. Well played, young sirs.

I’ve been to plenty of college football stadiums in my life, but hadn’t gone to Oxford until recently. I was impressed with the place. It was a last-​minute decision to take off and drive up there to catch a 8pm ESPN2 game. I didn’t get there early enough to really take in The Grove, but I did walk through it a bit. I must say I was a little underwhelmed with The Grove… probably because I’d heard SO much about it over the years. It’s much smaller than I imagined, and it seems like if it’s raining, you could walk all over the place without getting out from under the droves of canopies and tents covering the grounds. I guess it simply wasn’t what I expected.
Back to the stadium, it’s in a beautiful area, on a beautiful campus, next door to a really impressive baseball facility, and really nice inside. It doesn’t have the largest seating capacity, but they’ve done really well with the place, considering. The fans are great, of course they dress to impress, and the girls are gorgeous (but then, that’s pretty normal for the entire SEC). I’ll definitely attend here again.

Yeah this place has always been a pain as you have to sneak your liquor in and play cops and robbers/​strip search molestation with security. The university has lost a FORTUNE by not selling booze here. EVERYBODY I know sneaks in liquor and I would have preferred to have consumed beer all these years inside the stadium. The «outlawing» of the Rebel Flag was a real blow to fan morale and the recent abomination of the utterly stupid black bear mascot was a travesty that made Olé Miss a national laughingstock. The sneaky changing of Confederate Drive running past the stadium to All-​American Drive reeks of anti-​historical political correctness and won’t be excused! Personally I’m just staying in the Grove and I doubt I will ever enter back inside this stadium. Thanks Robert Khayat, Dan Jones and Pete Boone for causing such amazingly unwarranted trouble with the stupid black bear and PC historical revisionism!
Old Khayat’s lovely little perception survey he contracted Mr. Burson to do proved that the historical Southern «symbols» and traditions had no negative impact on the image of Olé Miss and it was mainly Jones and Khayat’s fear of «embarrassment» from PC Yankees that drove their anti-​Southern rampages. The imagined huge negative impact on football recruiting was emphasized by Boone as a pathetic excuse for his dismal performance and now that Boone, Khayat, and Jones have largely gotten their way the football team sucks worse than ever and we would be in a better place if they would have left everything alone.
I love the South and demonizing our traditions and symbols while attempting to rewrite history is simply caving in to ignorant elitism of Yankees and the individual feelings of inadequacy of the minority of Southern people who fear they might be looked down on by people from outside the South for being different than the rest of America. The Southern dialect is universally demonized and Southern culture and people are all incessantly made the brunt of jokes and insults. No matter what changes are made the PC liberal freaks and East and West coast «elites» will ALWAYS look down on the South and most of the rest of the country.
The reason for the Yankee disdain and the true reason for why Southern tradition and symbols should be preserved is that they are a powerful reminder of how the Federal government used military force and waged war upon the civilian population of the South to destroy their homes, lives, and livelihoods. The suffering inflicted by the Federal Government during the War Between the States and Reconstruction should never be forgotten and all Yankees should be thoroughly ashamed of what was done to the South in those days. Many places in the South, including Oxford, were looted and burned to the ground by Yankee troops. We should NEVER forget that as it could very likely happen again! The Yankees and other parts of America that have no experience of the South will always disdain it. However, once those ignorant people visit and see what Olé Miss and the South are all about most of them stand in awe and wish they had such a rich culture and hospitable tradition.
I love Olé Miss but I’m NEVER going to be a fan of New Miss so that black bear and all those that conspired the fake vote to create him can go to hell as Col. Reb will always be the only true mascot!

Geaux to Hell Olé Miss! Geaux to HELL!!!
Attended the epic 2003 #3 LSU vs #15 Olé Miss game.
If LSU won, they would have the inside shot to win the SEC-​West and possible BCS Championship spot.
If Olé Msis won, they would represent the SEC-​West in the SECCG.
The game featured nation’s #1 ranked defense in LSU vs the eventual NFL #1 Draft pick and eventual Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning.
Long story short… Defense Wins Championships, and Eli literally fell on his ass on a key 4^th down late in the game. LSU 17 — Olé Miss 14
Until I go to a game at Mississippi State or Vanderbilt, Olé Miss will be the least impressive SEC stadium i’ve been to, to date.
There is one part of the stadium where it’s only bleachers. The kind of bleahcers you see at high school stadiums. Next, imagine how awesome it is to be standing under the bleachers with drinks dripping down from above. Well, Olé Miss puts half of the visiting fans in the bleachers with the concession stands underneath the bleachers. Awesome combo.
Concessions:
The line at halftime…45 minutes. I ended up missing the first 5 minutes of the 3^rd quarter. What a half-​assed way to do an expansion. Do it right!
Mis