357K002.Alex Box

Alex Box Stadium was built in 1937-1938 under the Works Progress Administration. It is the home of the LSU Tigers baseball team, winners of the National Championship in 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2009. 

It was named after World War II hero, Simeon Alex Box, from Quitman, Mississippi. He began his college education in 1938. He came to LSU on a football scholarship. He played wingback his sophomore year but dislocated his shoulder in a 1939 game against Holy Cross. Undeterred, Box turned to baseball and was a letterman on the 1940 and 1942 teams.

With America’s entry in WWII, Second Lt. Box became a combat engineer. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second highest decoration for heroism when in November 1942, he singe-handily destroyed six enemy machine gun nests with hand grenades. 

Sadly, in February 1943, Alex was killed in a mine explosion. His body is buried in North Africa. He is remembered as an American hero and a baseball player who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. In spring of 1942, the LSU Board of Supervisors voted to name the school’s baseball facility Alex Box Stadium. 

A new Alex Box Stadium was completed for the 2009 season. The “Box” was torn down to make room for a parking lot. The new stadium retained the name “Alex Box Stadium,” and the field is named after legendary baseball coach Skip Bertman.

For almost a century, Alex Box Stadium has been called the home to college baseball’s greatest fans.