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Austin Peay unveils POW/MIA chair at Fortera Stadium

On Saturday, Nov. 17, during Austin Peay’s Military Appreciation Football Game, the University officially dedicated a POW-MIA chair in the stadium.
The chair is in Section G of Fortera Stadium. 

As excitement continues to build around Austin Peay’s football program and fans fill the stands at Fortera Stadium, one seat near the American flag will always remain empty.

“Nobody can sit in it,” Brenden Smith, an APSU chemistry major, said. “That chair is to symbolize all the people who didn’t come home.”

On Saturday, Nov. 17, during Austin Peay’s Military Appreciation Football Game, the University officially dedicated a POW-MIA chair in the stadium. For more than two years, members of APSU’s Sigma Chi fraternity raised money for the memorial. Several sports venues around the country have installed similar chairs, and when Smith, former president of Sigma Chi, saw one at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, he knew he wanted one at Austin Peay.

On Saturday, Nov. 17, during Austin Peay’s Military Appreciation Football Game, the University officially dedicated a POW-MIA chair in the stadium.
Sigma Chi raised more than $1,400 for the chair and plaque. 

“My family is very big in the military, and I’m just one of the fortunate kids where my parents came home,” he said. “I’m really grateful for that.”

Smith’s parents and stepparents served in the military, as do two of his brothers and his uncle. His grandfather fought in Vietnam and his great-grandfather served in World War II.

“I want to give thanks to the men and women who didn’t get to come home because they’re a part of something we can’t forget,” he said. “You may not be in the military, but the families that make sacrifices have influenced your life.”

Smith’s fraternity and the fraternity’s alumni chapter helped collect money for the project, raising more than $1,400 for the chair and a special plaque.

Now, no matter how large of a crowd attends an Austin Peay football game, this chair in Section G will remain empty to remind fans of the sacrifices made over the years by servicemen and -women.