Whether it’s your first game in Tiger Stadium or your 50th, whether you’re a lifelong fan or a welcomed guest, there is no experience like Death Valley. No matter how many times you’ve been there, no matter how many years have passed, it never gets old.
EFCU Financial has proudly served the Greater Baton Rouge Area for 90 years, providing exceptional financial services and community support. As the Centennial Partner, we are honored to celebrate 100 years of unforgettable moments in Tiger Stadium.
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Tiger Stadium, we are thrilled to launch the Give 100 Campaign! This is a great opportunity to directly impact LSU football student-athletes’ NIL opportunities via Bayou Traditions, the Official Collective of LSU Athletics. Join us in commemorating this milestone and paving the way for the next 100 years of excellence. Starting at $100, you have three great options to support.
Starting July 11, 2024, all contributions in support of Bayou Traditions through the Give 100 campaign will receive 4 priority points per $1,000 contributed. These points will count toward your lifetime and philanthropic point totals.
Contributions to Bayou Traditions do not qualify as charitable donations. Contributions received are directly deposited with Bayou Traditions. TAFSC is a service provider to Bayou Traditions and is not compensated based on funds received by Bayou Traditions.
In LSU’s debut on the newly-created SEC Network, Anthony Jennings connected with Travin Dural on a 94-yard TD pass in a 56-0 win over Sam Houston State. The Jennings-to-Dural TD pass stands as the longest in school history.
Kevin Faulk ran for an 80-yard TD and returned a punt 78 yards for a score as the Tigers overcame a 34-14 third quarter deficit to beat Houston, 35-34. Faulk rushed for 246 yards and a pair of TDs as the Tigers scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to win the 1996 season-opener in Tiger Stadium.
Odell Beckham Jr. returned a missed field goal 100 yards for a touchdown – the first time such a feat has been accomplished – in LSU’s 56-17 win over UAB. Zach Mettenberger set the then school-record with 5 TD passes.
Joe Burrow – who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy and set nearly every passing record in school history – makes his Tiger Stadium debut, leading LSU to a 31-0 win over Southeastern Louisiana. Burrow, a transfer from Ohio State, throws 2 TD passes and runs for another score in the win over the Lions.
LSU hosts Grambling in the first-ever matchup between the programs. LSU scores touchdowns on its first 10 possessions of the game on its way to a 72-10 victory.
Head coach Brian Kelly makes his Tiger Stadium debut, leading the Tigers to a 65-17 win over Southern. It also marked the first-ever meeting between LSU and Southern in football.
LSU head coach Ed Orgeron faces his son Cody – the starting quarterback for McNeese – in the first-ever matchup of its kind in Tiger Stadium. LSU goes on to win 34-7 as the Tigers sacked Cody Orgeron 8 times in the game.
Three LSU quarterbacks throw TD passes, three from starter Tommy Hodson, as the sixth-ranked Tigers overwhelm Cal State-Fullerton, 56-12, in the home opener. The game was delayed 30 minutes due to weather.
It’s announced that the New Orleans Saints will play four games in Tiger Stadium in 2005 due to the destruction caused to the Superdome by Hurricane Katrina. The Saints are scheduled to play the Dolphins on Oct. 30, the Bears on Nov. 6, the Buccaneers on Dec. 4 and the Panthers on Dec. 18.
Actor Matthew McConaughey watches as 11th-ranked LSU slugs through a 23-9 win over Vanderbilt in the home opener for the Tigers. LSU’s defense limits Vanderbilt to 210 total yards, while Keiland Williams scores a pair of rushing TDs in the victory.
Tommy Hodson makes his LSU debut, throwing a pair of TD passes, as the Tigers knockoff seventh-ranked Texas A&M, 35-17. LSU would go on to win the 1986 SEC Championship and face Nebraska in the Sugar Bowl. Hodson went on to be a four-year starter for the Tigers, setting the school-record for wins by a quarterback with 31.
The original construction of the east and west sidelines of Tiger Stadium was completed in 1924. The stadium originally seated 12,000 people.
Seven years after Tiger Stadium opened the sidelines were extended upwards to accommodate an additional 10,000 fans, raising the capacity to 22,000.
In 1936, the stadium seating capacity was increased to 46,000, with the addition of 24,000 seats in the north end, making Tiger Stadium into a horseshoe configuration.
The next phase of construction took place in 1953 when the stadium’s south end was closed to turn the horseshoe into a bowl, increasing the seating capacity to 67,720.
The original upper deck atop the west stands was completed in 1978, and it added 8,000 seats to the stadium’s capacity. More seating in two club level sections, which flanked the existing press box, brought the total addition to approximately 10,000 seats and raised the stadium’s capacity to approximately 78,000.
Prior to the 2000 season, 11,600 seats were added with the installation of the east upper deck, bringing the capacity to nearly 92,000. In addition to the new east upper deck, 70 skyboxes, called “Tiger Dens,” were built, giving Tiger fans luxury accommodations. The addition of the 11,600 seats in 2000 marked the first expansion to Tiger Stadium since 1978, when the original west upper deck was completed.
Tiger Athletic Foundation launched a campaign to preserve and restore the look of Tiger Stadium. The 428 windows on the north side of the stadium were completely refurbished. The 300 remaining windows on the east and west sides of the stadium were completed by the 2013 season.
Construction is well underway for 66 suites, approximately 3,000 club seats above the existing south end zone seats, as well as 1,400 general public seats above the new suite and club seating to be completed by the 2014 season. The project, privately funded by Tiger Athletic Foundation, will bring the capacity of Tiger Stadium to 102,321, making it the fifth-largest stadium in the nation.
Tiger Stadium first opened its gates to fans in the fall of 1924 as LSU hosted Tulane in the season finale. Since that inaugural game in Death Valley, LSU has posted a 444-156-18 (.733) mark at the Cathedral of College Football. LSU’s overall home record since the start of football in 1893 is 478-165-19 (.736).
On October 3, 1931, LSU debuted its lights against Spring Hill, securing a decisive 35-0 victory to mark the birth of Saturday Nights in Tiger Stadium. LSU outdrew an undefeated Tulane team – a powerhouse at the time – playing Texas A&M in New Orleans. Night kickoffs would cater to LSU fans statewide, many of whom worked on farms by day, giving them time to catch the Tigers by night.
It is Halloween Night and Cannon Blasts. Not only is Billy Cannon’s 89-yard punt return for a touchdown against third-ranked Ole Miss one of the most memorable plays in LSU football lore, but it also ranks among the most memorable in college football history. Trailing 3-0 late in the game, the 1959 Heisman Trophy winner fielded the punt at the Tiger 11-yard line and began his run into immortality, eluding seven tacklers down the east sideline to cross the goal line of Tiger Stadium for the only score of the game, giving the top-ranked Tigers the 7-3 victory.
With undefeated and No. 6 LSU on the ropes, Bert Jones’ pass to Jimmy LeDoux with four seconds to go fell incomplete in the endzone, sending Ole Miss’ sideline into celebration. The game clock, however, still showed :01 remaining. Following a Rebel timeout, Jones hit Brad Davis, who bobbled the football, and then dove into the endzone tying the game at 16-16. Rusty Jackson’s extra-point provided the winning margin in what was one of the most improbable wins in school history. In the ensuing days, a sign spotted near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line, read: “You are now entering Louisiana. Set your clocks back four seconds.”
With time winding down, and LSU saddled with fourth-and-10 at the Auburn 11-yard line, quarterback Tommy Hodson found running back Eddie Fuller in the back of the endzone for the game-winning touchdown as LSU stunned fourth-ranked Auburn, 7-6, in Tiger Stadium. In what is now known as the “Earthquake Game,” Hodson’s touchdown pass to Fuller with 1:41 left in the contest caused such a thunderous explosion from the 79,341 fans in Tiger Stadium. The LSU Department of Geology registered vibrations on a seismograph machine at the exact moment the TD was scored.
President Ronald Reagan was invited to deliver the commencement address at LSU’s spring commencement in Tiger Stadium in May 1990. This was the only time a President of the United States has set foot in Tiger Stadium.
Oct. 11, 1997, marked the first time LSU defeated the No. 1 ranked team in the nation when the Tigers upended top-ranked Florida, 28-21, in Tiger Stadium. LSU jumped out to an early lead, but the Gators would score a touchdown with 6:44 remaining in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to single digits. LSU’s defense sealed the victory when Raion Hill intercepted a Florida pass with less than three minutes to play, and the Tigers ran out the clock to set off one of the greatest celebrations in Tiger Stadium history.
LSU won the first of what would be nine straight home games in Death Valley against Auburn, 27-14, to clinch the Tigers’ first berth in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. Auburn and LSU were supposed to meet on Sept. 15, 2001, which would have been the third game of the regular season for each team, but every game in the country was canceled that Saturday due to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Quarterback Matt Mauck rolled to his left, fired to the endzone and found wide receiver Skyler Green for an over-the-shoulder 34-yard touchdown with 3:03 remaining as No. 11 LSU outlasted No. 7 Georgia, 17-10, in an early SEC thriller at a raucous Tiger Stadium. All-American Corey Webster sealed the victory with an interception in the final minute. With ESPN College GameDay on hand for the first time since 1997, the win catapulted the Tigers onto the national scene where they would eventually go on to claim their first national title since 1958.
In one of the most exciting games ever played in LSU’s storied Tiger Stadium, No. 1-ranked LSU overcame a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to beat defending national champion and ninth-ranked Florida, 28-24, in front of 92,910 strong. Tailback Jacob Hester plunged into the endzone from 1-yard out to give LSU its first lead of the game, sending Tiger Stadium into pandemonium with 1:06 to go in the fourth quarter. It marked LSU’s first national primetime game on CBS since 1981.
George Strait, the King of Country Music, headlined the 2014 Bayou Country Superfest as a part of the final leg of The Cowboy Rides Away Tour. “The only thing better than two days of Bayou Country Superfest is three days of Bayou Country Superfest,” added Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne. “Having Baton Rouge selected as a stop on George Strait’s farewell tour is recognition that Tiger Stadium has become one of the premier venues for country music giants.”
Headlining Bayou Country Superfest, in a standalone concert the night before the festival began, megastar Taylor Swift returned to Baton Rouge for her second appearance in Tiger Stadium for her first stadium show of her 1989 US Tour.
Joe Burrow tosses three touchdown passes and Clyde Edwards-Helaire runs for two more, as LSU shuts out No. 7 Florida in the final 25 minutes of a 42-28 victory. The high-powered LSU offense records an average of 10.6 yards per play, the third-most in school history and the most by LSU against an SEC opponent.
When country music star Garth Brooks arrived in Baton Rouge for a historic, sold-out concert, LSU’s Raspberry Shake seismograph – hosted in the Nicholson Building – captured evidence of LSU fans once again making the earth move as Garth Brooks belted out his 1993 hit “Callin’ Baton Rouge” – a pregame staple of the Tiger Stadium soundtrack since at least the mid 2000s.
No. 10 LSU saw an opportunity to beat No. 6 Alabama, and first-year head coach Brian Kelly took it, electing to attempt a two-point conversion while trailing 31-30 in the first overtime period. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels sprinted to his right and completed the three-yard pass to freshman tight end Mason Taylor, who scored just inside the front-right corner of the South end zone to give the Tigers a 32-31 victory. On the first play of LSU’s overtime possession, Daniels had scrambled 25 yards to paydirt, cutting the Crimson Tide advantage to 31-30 before the Tigers executed the game-winning two-pointer.
Attendance Since 1943
5th-Largest Stadium in the Nation
Home Record through 2023
