September 21, 1963 was opening day here at the Sun Bowl, the outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. This is home to the UTEP Miners of the Mountain West Conference and hosts the late-December college football bowl game, the Sun Bowl. The stadium opened in 1963 and carries a nominal seating capacity of 51,500, although UTEP currently lists the capacity as 45,971.
Picture its first day: on September 21, 1963, Texas Western beat North Texas State, and the opening play was a 54-yard touchdown run by Larry Durham of the Miners. The land here was originally donated by the university to El Paso County, which built the stadium for the school and the Sun Bowl game — both had previously used Kidd Field, now the track and field venue that seats 15,000. The city realized the game could not expand its audience or the list of teams without a bigger venue, so the Sun Bowl was carved into a natural bowl adjacent to the west and originally sat 30,000 with only sideline grandstands.
The playing field runs nearly north–south, tilted about 10° NW–SE, inside the natural bowl carved beside Kidd Field.