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Greenville’s Sirrine Stadium makes a return to college football in a couple of weeks. Furman will host an open practice at their former home from 1936 to 1980 on August 8th. Outside of numerous Paladin moments, the stadium has a rich 90-year history, hosting multiple HBCU classics and even an AFL preseason game in 1961 between the New York Titans and Houston Oilers.
Now, the stadium has a humble existence, hosting high school football. While Furman’s open practice may be a small gesture to generate buzz and nostalgia, it could be the start of a college football revival at Sirrine Stadium.
Multiple Division II programs could ideally “host” a home game at Sirrine Stadium. North Greenville makes the most sense, being 33 minutes away in Tigerville, but may be reluctant to move a game off-campus.
Erskine may be a more logical choice despite being 50 minutes from Sirrine Stadium. The Flying Fleet do not have an on-campus stadium and play at J.W. Babb Stadium, a high school facility.
The program has struggled with attendance over the past three seasons. The program has had eight home crowds below 700 fans since 2023, including three games with 407 fans or fewer.
An opportunity cost accompanies every game that a program chooses to move off-campus. Due to the low attendance, that cost would be minimal for Erskine in moving a home game to Sirrine Stadium.
A game at Sirrine Stadium would create an appealing game day experience for a program that has had little to cheer about since its revival in 2021. The Flying Fleet have accumulated a record of 8-43 since returning from a 70-year hiatus. This proposed neutral site game would create a de facto “in-season bowl” for Erskine.
To increase local interest, the Flying Fleet can host an HBCU. As mentioned before, Greenville has hosted multiple HBCU classics, most recently in 2019. Erskine has played several SIAC and CIAA schools, including nearby Allen University and Elizabeth City State, a school that HBCU Classics routinely overlook. Moving an Erskine home game against an HBCU cuts through the red tape finding two HBCUs willing to give up a home game to play in Greenville.
Furman moving a practice to Sirrine Stadium could be a small gesture after all, but the foundations are there for a revival for one of the South’s most historic stadiums.
