Troy

Veterans Memorial Stadium is a stadium in Troy, Alabama. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Troy University... Trojans. Veterans Memorial Stadium opened in 1950. Originally dedicated to the TSTC students and Pike County residents who had died in World War II, the stadium solely consisted of a small, 5,000-seat grandstand on the west side of the running track, and was built into the natural slope of the ground. It was expanded several times, including the addition of upper deck in 1998 that brought capacity up to 17,500, before the most recent renovation was carried out for completion in 2003, the season which saw the Trojans make the move to Division I-A. The old press box area, which had cut into the 1998 upper deck, was filled in and a larger press box and luxury box area was added behind the now completed upper deck. The track was removed and the field was lowered, and permanent seating was placed over the old berm area behind the south grandstand. The now-30,000 seat stadium is a flattened "U" shape, with the north end still open. The natural grass surface was replaced with AstroPlay synthetic grass.
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Clarence Smith, better known as Pinetop Smith or Pine Top Smith was an American boogie-woogie style blues pianist. His hit tune, "Pine Top's Boogie... Woogie," featured rhythmic "breaks" that were an essential ingredient of ragtime music. He was a posthumous 1991 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Smith was born in Troy, Alabama and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his nickname as a child from his liking for climbing trees. In 1920 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked as an entertainer before touring on the T. O. B. A. vaudeville circuit, performing as a singer and comedian as well as a pianist. For a time he worked as accompanist for blues singer Ma Rainey and Butterbeans and Susie. In the mid 1920s he was recommended by Cow Cow Davenport to J. Mayo Williams at Vocalion Records, and in 1928 he moved, with his wife and young son, to Chicago, Illinois to record. For a time he, Albert Ammons, and Meade Lux Lewis lived in the same rooming house.
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Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 23rd-most populous of the 50 United States. Alabama ranks second in the area of its inland waterways. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states,... suffered economic hardship, in part because of continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries and urban centers, white rural interests dominated the state legislature until the 1960s, while urban interests and African Americans were under-represented. Following World War II, Alabama experienced growth as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and technology. In addition, the establishment or expansion of multiple military installations, primarily those of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, added to state jobs. Alabama is unofficially nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird.
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