Fred G. Hughes Stadium
Encyclopedia
Fred G. Hughes Stadium at 3950 Newman Road is a 7,000 seat football stadium for Missouri Southern State University
in Joplin, Missouri
The stadium opened in 1975 and cost $1.7 million. It claims to be the first state college stadium in Missouri to use artificial turf. In 2003 its turf was replaced with Sprinturf. The previous turf in place in 1988 has been BaspoGrass-S.
Its capacity is 4,700 fans on the west side and 2,300 spectators on the east.
It is name for the president of the College Board of Regents at the time of construction and was designed by Joplin architect firm Allgeier, Martin, and Associates.
In February 2011, the Robert W. Plaster Foundation announced two seven figure gifts to the school to build baseball field and a multi-purpose athletic facility adjacent to the football field and to renovate Fred G. Hughes Stadium. The whole complex is to be named Robert W. Plaster Sports Complex (there is another complex of the same name at Missouri State University
). After additional funding is raised for the Hughes renovations, that field is to be renamed Robert W. Plaster Stadium. School officials are debating renaming the entrance to the Hughes Entrance Plaza.
The field was used as the first temporary morgue on May 22, 2011 after the 2011 Joplin tornado
destroyed much of the community.
Missouri Southern State University
Missouri Southern State University is a public, state university located in Joplin, Missouri. Missouri Southern State University was formerly Missouri Southern State College and is also known as Missouri Southern, MSSU, or MoSo for short. Established in 1937 as Joplin Junior College, Missouri...
in Joplin, Missouri
Joplin, Missouri
Joplin is a city in southern Jasper County and northern Newton County in the southwestern corner of the US state of Missouri. Joplin is the largest city in Jasper County, though it is not the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 50,150...
The stadium opened in 1975 and cost $1.7 million. It claims to be the first state college stadium in Missouri to use artificial turf. In 2003 its turf was replaced with Sprinturf. The previous turf in place in 1988 has been BaspoGrass-S.
Its capacity is 4,700 fans on the west side and 2,300 spectators on the east.
It is name for the president of the College Board of Regents at the time of construction and was designed by Joplin architect firm Allgeier, Martin, and Associates.
In February 2011, the Robert W. Plaster Foundation announced two seven figure gifts to the school to build baseball field and a multi-purpose athletic facility adjacent to the football field and to renovate Fred G. Hughes Stadium. The whole complex is to be named Robert W. Plaster Sports Complex (there is another complex of the same name at Missouri State University
Missouri State University
Missouri State University is a public university located in Springfield, Missouri, United States and founded in 1905. It is the state's second largest university, with an official enrollment of 20,802 in fall 2011...
). After additional funding is raised for the Hughes renovations, that field is to be renamed Robert W. Plaster Stadium. School officials are debating renaming the entrance to the Hughes Entrance Plaza.
The field was used as the first temporary morgue on May 22, 2011 after the 2011 Joplin tornado
2011 Joplin tornado
The 2011 Joplin tornado was a devastating EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, USA late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak sequence and reached a maximum width of in excess of during its path through the southern part of...
destroyed much of the community.