South Carolina State University Athletics

Oliver C. Dawson Bulldog Stadium was erected in 1955 and has undergone several renovations since the last one in 2006.The stadium is primarily used for football and women’s soccer.

Called Bulldog Stadium for years, the facility, in 1984, was named in honor of Oliver Cromwell Dawson, who served for many years as a professor, athletic director, coach and administrator at then South Carolina State College.

A Georgia native, Dawson coached five sports at SC State from 1935-1976 and won championships in four of them. He also served as athletics director and initiated the school’s Health and Physical Education program.

But it was his prowess as the college’s head football coach that earned Dawson recognition when SC State’s current football stadium was named after him in 1984.
As the school’s head football coach in 1947, Dawson led the team to an undefeated regular season, which propelled it into the national championship for black colleges and universities.

In 1974, Dawson became the first African-American inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 1983, he became a charter member of the South Carolina State College Athletic Hall of Fame. Dawson died in February 1989 at the age of 78.

Semi-permanent seats were added in 1972 to increase capacity to 10,000. Additional renovations included increasing the seating to 15,000 and remodeling the press box.
In 1994, a $4.5 million refurbishment project raised the seating capacity to its present level of 22,000. The refurbishment entailed re-sodding the playing field, adding extra restrooms and again remodeling the press box.

In 2006, S.C. State installed synthetic turf to replace the natural grass in the stadium at a cost of $552,000 and added a $427,000 state-of-the-art scoreboard. The field was also configured to accommodate SC State soccer games.

The stadium, situated on Buckley Street on the campus of SC State, has witnessed much success. The Bulldogs have won or shared 16 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference football titles, nabbed four Black National Championships and earned six NCAA Division 1-AA/FCS playoff berths. The soccer team has won one Divisional Championship.

The field at the historic facility bears the name of SC State head coach emeritus Willie Jeffries, the winningest football coach in school history and the press box is named for longtime, retired sports information director William (Bill) Hamilton, who served in the position some 40 years.

The weight room, which was officially named the Bull’s Boys Weight Room during the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the facility in 2011, has undergone an extensive renovation with state-of-the-art weights added.

Also, the locker rooms have been renovated and new lockers installed, and the athletic training office received an extensive upgrade in 2010.