Exhibit 5.1

                                January 16, 2002
                                                            FILE NO. 023395-0004


Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc.
451 Industrial Lane
Birmingham, Alabama 35211


            Re:   Registration Statement No. 333-_______;
                  180,000 shares of Common Stock, par value $.01 per share
                  --------------------------------------------------------

Ladies and Gentlemen:

      In connection with the registration of the sale of 180,000 shares of
common stock of the Company, par value $.01 per share (the "Shares"), owned by
The SK Equity Fund, L.P. and SK Investment Fund, L.P., under the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended (the "Act"), by Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc., a Delaware
corporation (the "Company"), on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the "Commission") on January 16, 2002 (File No. 333- ____) (the
"Registration Statement"), you have requested our opinion with respect to the
matters set forth below.

      In our capacity as your special counsel in connection with such
registration, we are familiar with the proceedings taken by the Company in
connection with the authorization, issuance and sale of the Shares. In addition,
we have made such legal and factual examinations and inquiries, including an
examination of originals or copies certified or otherwise identified to our
satisfaction of such documents, corporate records and instruments, as we have
deemed necessary or appropriate for purposes of this opinion.

      In our examination, we have assumed the genuineness of all signatures, the
authenticity of all documents submitted to us as originals, and the conformity
to authentic original documents of all documents submitted to us as copies.

      We are opining herein as to the effect on the subject transaction only of
the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, and we express no opinion
with respect to the applicability thereto, or the effect thereon, of the laws of
any other jurisdiction or any other laws, or as to any matters of municipal law
or the laws of any local agencies within any state.

      Subject to the foregoing, it is our opinion that the Shares have been duly
authorized, and are validly issued, fully paid and nonassessable.

      We consent to your filing this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration
Statement and to the reference to our firm contained under the heading "Legal
Matters".

                                    Very truly yours,

                                    Latham & Watkins