re: I found some UGA yearbooks from 1947-1950 and thought y’all might like some pictures

Well, its actually not in the middle of the stands, but in front of the stands.

And by the 1970's it wasn't there at all.

But my guess would be that flood lamps that covered an entire field back then weren't as powerful as future lamps would be, so they had to be closer to the field to be effective.

Or it could be that Columbus was cheap and bought crappy lights, which isn't an unreasonable option either.