Greg Thompson grew up at Morris Brown College’s Herndon Stadium.
Born just two years after the stadium opened in 1948, the 73-year-old Thompson has experienced it at every stage.
In elementary school, he climbed the fence to sneak in and watch high school football games. As a Morris Brown student, Thompson’s glory days were on the field as the Wolverine’s quarterback. And as the team’s football coach and athletic director, he played a role in rebuilding Herndon into one the major college football stadiums in Atlanta and a key venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
“I went from kind of climbing the fence to get in games, to ending up with the keys to the stadium,” Thompson said.
All of that has changed.
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
The stadium stands abandoned, in disrepair after years of neglect with heavy chains and padlocks blocking all entry. Weeds have replaced the carefully manicured turf. Overgrown trees and bushes litter the concourses, while graffiti marks all of the walls.
Morris Brown, after two decades of financial disarray, doesn’t even own the facility. The new owner, Clark Atlanta University, is planning to tear it down to make way for development.