In 1948 the curved stands of the South Stadium were added at a cost of $1.5 million. As part of the stadium expansion, 166 dormitory rooms (half of them for players), space for Athletics Department functions, and a dressing room for visitors were constructed. Each dormitory room provided housing for 3 men, so a total of 498 men could be housed. Each room was furnished with blonde maple furniture. Rentenbach Engineering and Professor Armor T. Granger, head of the Civil Engineering Department, designed the addition.
The addition was 74 feet high, 141 feet wide at the ground, 745 long around the outside base, and 283 feet long on the inside. The addition was paid for entirely by the UT Athletics Department and income from room rentals. Governor Jim Nance McCord, chairman of the UT Board of Trustees, accepted the addition for the university in a ceremony before the UT vs. Mississippi State football game in 1948.
South Stadium was partially renovated in 1971 to provide offices for personnel then housed in substandard facilities. Some members of the Anthropology Department were the first to learn that they would move from the overcrowded McClung Museum to the new quarters.