I Can't Study, The Game's Too Loud

For many years, LSU's Tiger Stadium did double duty as a football stadium and as student housing. When it opened in 1924, seating was on either side of the football field, with open areas at each end zone. In the 1930's, Huey P. Long wanted to add more seats to the stadium, but the state budget had designated funds only for new dormitories at LSU, not stadium improvements. So Huey put the dormitories in the stadium, closing the north end zone to make a horseshoe, and as one commetator put it, built a roof that looked like stadium seating.

The dorm rooms were small, dark, and had no air conditioning, but they were cheap places to live. The campus radio station, KLSU, was once located in the East Stadium Dormitory. When I lived on campus in the fall of 1990, they were closing the stadium dorms. Only a few students were still living there, and many of the rooms were being used for storage.