Sun Bowl Stadium

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The Sun Bowl
Location	Sun Bowl Dr El Paso, TX 79968
Broke ground	1963
Opened	September 21, 1963
Owner	University of Texas El Paso
Operator	University of Texas El Paso
Surface	FieldTurf
Construction cost	$275,000 (approximate, original)
Tenants
UTEP Miners (football), Brut Sun Bowl Game
Seats
51,500

Sun Bowl Stadium is an on-campus football stadium at the University of Texas at El Paso. It is home to the UTEP Miners football team, as well as the Brut Sun Bowl game, held annually on the afternoon of New Year's Eve.

The stadium, named for the game it hosts, was opened in September of 1963 with a win against North Texas State. The opening play was a 54-yard touchdown run by Larry Durham of the Miners. The land the stadium sits on was originally donated by the university to the city of El Paso, who built the stadium for the school and the Sun Bowl game. Both had previously used Kidd Field, the school's current track and field stadium, which only seats 15,000. The city had realized that the game could not expand its audience or the list of teams that it could invite without a bigger stadium, so the Sun Bowl was built in a natural bowl lying to the west of the old stadium.

It originally sat 30,000, with only the sideline stands. The current press box was added in 1969, and the stadium reached the current capacity in 1982 with the addition of the north endzone stands and the expansion of the east stands. (The south endzone is still vacant, with the ground of the bowl covered with the school's logos.) The school retook control of the land and stadium in 2001.

The stadium holds the unusual distinction of being the closest major American stadium to a foreign country, sitting less than half a mile from the Rio Grande and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

For a short time before moving to Dudley Field, it was the home to PDL franchise, the El Paso Patriots. They now play at Patriot Stadium.

Starting in 2007, the stadium will host the Texas vs. The Nation all star college football game, scheduled for February 2.

[edit] External link

• The Sun Bowl at UTEPAthletics.com

Football Stadiums of Conference USA
Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium (East Carolina) • Florida Citrus Bowl (UCF) • Gerald J. Ford Stadium (SMU) • Joan C. Edwards Stadium (Marshall) • Legion Field (UAB) • Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (Memphis) • Louisiana Superdome (Tulane) • M. M. Roberts Stadium (Southern Miss) • Rice Stadium (Rice) • Robertson Stadium (Houston) • Skelly Stadium (Tulsa) • Sun Bowl Stadium (UTEP)

Current NCAA Division I-A college football Bowl Game stadiums

Alamodome (Alamo) • Aloha Stadium (Hawaiʻi, Hula) • Alltel Stadium (Gator) • Amon G. Carter Stadium (Armed Forces) • AT&T Park (Emerald) • Bank of America Stadium (Meineke) • Bronco Stadium (MPC Computers) • Cotton Bowl (Cotton) • Dolphin Stadium (Orange) • Florida Citrus Bowl (Champs Sports, Capital One) • Ford Field (Motor City) • Galena Park ISD Stadium (North-South Classic) • Georgia Dome (Chick-fil-A) • Independence Stadium (Independence) • LP Field (Music City) • Ladd Peebles Stadium (GMAC, Senior) • Legion Field (Papajohns.com) • Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium (Liberty) • Louisiana Superdome (New Orleans, Sugar) • Qualcomm Stadium (Poinsettia, Holiday) • Raymond James Stadium (Outback) • Reliant Stadium (Texas, East-West Shrine) • Rogers Centre (International) • Rose Bowl (Rose) • Sam Boyd Stadium (Las Vegas, All-American) • Sun Bowl Stadium (Sun, Texas v. Nation) • Sun Devil Stadium (Insight) • University Stadium (New Mexico) • University of Phoenix Stadium (Fiesta, BCS Nat'l Champ.)