The Paladin Stadium is only the third stadium to house the Furman football team.
In 1919, Manly Field was constructed on the old Furman campus. It was home to Furman football until 1936 when the team moved to Sirrine Stadium.
Furman won its first game in the newly built stadium 14-13 against Davidson. The Paladins were also victorious in Sirrine Stadium’s closing match in 1980.
Against their arch rivals, The Citadel, Furman claimed its first outright Southern Conference football championship 28-15.
Following tradition, Furman won their initial game in Paladin Stadium. They massacred East Tennessee 21-0 in the opening game of the 1981 season.
The stadium was originally designed with 13,200 seats, but was expanded to 16,000 seats prior to the 1985 season. That year the football field was renamed Eugene Stone Field in honor of Stone, who was responsible for the additional seating.
A new 13×32 video and scoreboard was added by the school in 2009.
Now, Furman is again in the process of updating the football complex. The renovation plans include turning the box tower into a four-story 44,000 square foot building.
A new meeting space, new locker rooms, and new coaches’ offices are also in the plans. For the fans, Furman is developing a fan-friendly building called Heritage Hall and will add a club level area to the stadium.
This area will include concessions and special seating, a high-tech press box, and presidential suites.
Paladin Plaza is the welcome area of the Paladin Stadium and was dedicated in 2003. The Plaza is 12,000 square feet with custom landscaping and brick walkways edged in granite.
Its centerpiece is a seventeen foot bronze statue of a knight astride a rearing horse.
The statue was designed by artist John Hair and was donated by Irwin Belk. It is a symbol of Furman’s mascots Sir Paladin and Fury.
For over a decade Dave Hanson, Sir Paladin, and his grey Quarter Horse, Fury, have led the Furman football team onto the field for home games.
There is an urban legend about the original mascot of Furman University.
Many people believe that the school’s nickname used to be the Christian Knights, making for an unfortunate acronym
Indeed, prior to 1961 the only Furman team known as the Paladins was the basketball team. The nickname was coined by a Greenville sportswriter in 1930.
During this time the baseball team was called the Hornets while the football team was known as the Purple Hurricane.
Despite varying names, none of the teams were ever called the Christian Knights.
On Sept. 15, 1961 the student body voted to adopt the Paladins as the official nickname of all of the schools athletic teams that still continues to exist today.
