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 Sun Bowl Stadium opened in 1963.
The first Sun Bowl game was played on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1935, as a fund-raising event for the El Paso Kiwanis Club. The club was seeking to raise money for underprivileged children and to finance improvements to the El Paso High School Stadium, the site of the first game. The game featured a team comprised of El Paso high school all-stars against the Ranger (Texas) High School Bulldogs. The All-Stars came from behind in the third quarter and held on in the fourth for an exciting 25-21 victory over the 1934 state runner-ups.
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Sun Bowl Attendance Figures |
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The first three Sun Bowl games were played at El Paso High School stadium. In 1938, the game was moved to Kidd Field, a 15,000-seat stadium at Texas Western College (now UTEP). The first game played in the new Sun Bowl Stadium was in 1963 when the seating capacity was just over 31,000. An expansion to the eastside stands increased the Sun Bowl seating capacity to over 51,000. The first game played in that expanded stadium was on Christmas Day, 1982. In 2001, hundreds of seats were removed in order to soccer-size the stadium, which gave the Sun Bowl a capacity of 50,426. Following is a list of Sun Bowl attendance figures (from highest to lowest):
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Largest Crowds At Sun Bowl Stadium |
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In all, 10 of the 20
largest crowds to watch a football game at Sun Bowl Stadium have been
to witness the annual Sun Bowl game. Since the Sun Bowl was expanded in
1982, only two games have been a sellout of the Sun Bowl (2004 &
2005). Prior to that, the facility has had three sellouts. Before 2004,
the closest the Sun Bowl has come to selling out came in 1994, when
Texas played North Carolina in front of 50,612 fans. The current
stadium capacity is 50,426, after the stadium was reconfigured for
soccer in 2001.
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