STARKVILLE – When former Mississippi State second baseman Brooke O’Hair looks at her husband Tony, she thinks of the MSU softball stadium and field.
The pair had been dating for a year and a half, when he surprised her on a 2002 October evening with a ring and a proposal of marriage at second base.
That memory sticks with her today and it makes the $6 million renovation the stadium is undergoing now, bittersweet.
“As soon as the renovations started being discussed, I was overly excited,” O’Hair said. “However, when the renovations started happening and I saw videos and pictures of the demolition, it ended up being a little heartbreaking.”
The new facility will have 1,000 chairback seats, a new athletic training room, state-of-the-art video board in left field and numerous other enhancements. The stadium will also be attached to a viewing area for tennis.
Demolition of the old stadium started after MSU’s last home game on April 22. It is expected to be finished in January and the softball team will christen the stadium Thursday, Feb. 11 2016 against Georgia Southern. The Eagles are led by former MSU assistant Annie Smith. Smith spent nine seasons in Starkville under Jay Miller.
The new stadium will also be the home of the 2016 Southeastern Conference Tournament. The 12-team event is broadcast nationally on the SEC Network and ESPN.
O’Hair played for the Bulldogs from 2000-03 and was an assistant coach in 2004. The now Mississippi College coach married her husband on June 26, 2004, and the proposal was perfect in her book.
The night was supposed to be a celebration of their year-and-a-half together, but Tony decided to take it to the next step. He wanted the proposal and the site of the proposal to be a surprise so he put a blindfold on her and drove around Starkville, finally arriving at the field.
Brooke didn’t know where they were going or what was about to happen.
“When we walked down the set of stairs entering the first base dugout, I started thinking it was the field,” Brooke recalls. “Then we we walked up the dugout stairs to walk onto the field, I knew for sure. He kept me blindfolded as he walked me out to my position at second base.
“When he told me to take off the blindfold, he was down on one knee with the ring held out and asked me to marry him. Without hesitation, I said yes.”
The pair have been married for 11 years and are expecting their second child in January.
Current MSU coach Vann Stuedeman has been pushing for a new facility since she was hired in 2011. It has taken sometime, but she is excited to get next season underway.
Stuedeman has talked to other former players, but she was touched by the memory O’Hair shared with her.
“I said, ‘You built the future of this program,'” Stuedeman told O’Hair. “She was excited for our new facility and plans coming on up in the spring. It was a really cool exchange because it was bittersweet.”
The renovation is just for the stadium, so the dugouts and field will remain intact.
O’Hair has reached out to several other former players and has enjoyed reminiscing about times spent in the stadium and on the field. She has also found many former players feeling the same she does.
“They all pretty much echo my comments,” she said. “The cool thing about it all is that, yes the stadium is getting a facelift and although some memories aren’t as visible anymore with the demo, the field itself didn’t move locations. Therefore, it has allowed us to still have many memories that come back every time we come back to support our team.”
Stuedeman has been keeping a watchful eye on the renovations this summer, while most of her players are at home or playing in summer leagues. Her players share her excitement and she can’t wait to get them back on campus this August and get ready for the upcoming season.
“When they left they were talking about, ‘When we come back, this place is going to look totally different.’ I think that they just are ecstatic about it,” Stuedeman said.
The Bulldogs will not host any games in the fall and are planning on occasionally finding other places to practice to give the construction crew ample room and time to get the renovation finished on schedule.
O’Hair will be pretty busy herself when the calendar turns to February, but she is planning on attending the first game against Georgia Southern. She will have an opportunity to cheer on the Bulldogs and Smith’s Eagles.
“Considering I played one year for Annie and coached one year with her and have continued to have a great relationship with her, I am going to do everything I can to attend,” O’Hair said. “I just hope the dates and times work themselves out. My plan is to attend. I would sure hate it if I couldn’t be there.”
Ben Wait is a sports writer for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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