Texas Stadium was an American football stadium located in Irving, Texas, a suburb west of Dallas. Opened on October 24, 1971, it was known for its distinctive hole in the roof, the result of abandoned plans to construct a retractable roof.
The stadium was the home field of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys for 38 seasons, through 2008, and had a seating capacity of 65,675. In 2009, the Cowboys moved to Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium) in nearby Arlington.
Texas Stadium was demolished on April 11, 2010, by a controlled implosion.
History
The Cowboys had played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas since their inception in 1960. However, by the mid-1960s, founding owner Clint Murchison, Jr., felt that the Fair Park area of the city had become unsafe and downtrodden, and did not want his season ticket holders to be forced to go through it.Shropshire, 1997 pg. 138-139 Murchison was denied a request by mayor Erik Jonsson to build a new stadium in downtown Dallas as part of a municipal bond package.Shropshire, 1997 pg. 139
Murchison envisioned a new stadium with sky boxes and one in which attendees would have to pay a personal seat license as a prerequisite to purchasing season tickets.Shropshire, 1997 pg. 139-140 With two games left for the Cowboys to play in the 1967 season, Murchison and Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm announced a plan to build a new stadium in the northwest suburb of Irving.
Texas Stadium, along with Schaefer Stadium (1971), Arrowhead Stadium (1972), Rich Stadium (1973), and the Pontiac Silverdome (1975), was part of a new wave of football-only stadiums (all with artificial turf) built following the AFL–NFL merger. More so than its contemporaries, Texas Stadium featured a proliferation of luxury boxes, which provided the team with a large new income source exempt from league revenue sharing.
It hosted its first Cowboys game on October 24, 1971, a 44–21 victory over the New England Patriots, and became an icon of the Cowboys with their rise in national prominence. The Cowboys entered the season as defending NFC champions and won their first world title in Super Bowl VI in January 1972. The field was surrounded by a blue wall emblazoned with white stars, an iconic design that was replicated in its successor, AT&T Stadium. In its inaugural season in 1971, the wall was plain concrete gray. It was painted blue for the 1972 season, and the white stars were added in 1975.
Texas Stadium's field alignment (between the goal posts) was southwest-to-northeast, perpendicular to the Cotton Bowl, which is southeast-to-northwest.
Roof The most distinctive element of Texas Stadium was its partial roof, the only one in the NFL. The roof was originally supposed to be the first retractable roof in the NFL. However, it was discovered that the structure could not support the additional weight. This resulted in a partial roof that covered most of the stands but not the playing field itself. Cowboys linebacker D. D. Lewis once famously said that "Texas Stadium has a hole in its roof, so God can watch His favorite team play".
The open roof allowed snow to cover the field in the Thanksgiving Day game against the Miami Dolphins in 1993. The unusual roof also introduced a unique difficulty in televising games, as sunlight would cover part of the field and make it hard for television cameras to adjust for the changes in light.Shropshire, 1997 pg. 140
The roof was repainted in the summer of 2006 by the city of Irving, the stadium's owners. It was the first time the roof had been repainted since Texas Stadium opened.
Other events Football
Texas Stadium hosted five NFC Championship Games. The 1973 Pro Bowl was held at Texas Stadium in front of 47,879 spectators.
The first football game played at Texas Stadium was on October 15, 1971, when Texas Southern defeated 34–21 in a college football game. The stadium hosted numerous neutral-site college football games and was the home field of the SMU Mustangs for eight seasons, from 1979 through 1986. After the school returned from an NCAA-imposed suspension in 1988, school officials moved games back to the school's on-campus Ownby Stadium to signify a clean start for the football program (since replaced by Gerald J. Ford Stadium in 2000). The 2001 Big 12 Championship Game was held at the site.
In November and December, Texas Stadium was a major venue for high school football. It was not uncommon for there to be high school football tripleheaders at the stadium. Texas Stadium served as a temporary home for two Dallas-area high schools, Plano Senior High School in 1979 after its home stadium was damaged by a prank gone awry, and Highland Park High School while a new stadium on campus was being built.
The stadium has also played host to the two largest capacity crowds for Texas high school football playoff games. In 1977, Plano defeated Port Neches-Groves 13-10 in front of a record crowd of 49,953. In 2006, the matchup between Trinity High School from Euless, and Carroll Senior High School from Southlake, in the second round of the playoffs, ended in a 22-21 Southlake victory (on their way to a fourth 5A state championship in five years) before an announced crowd of 46,339 at Texas Stadium. These games marked two of the top three all-time attendance figures for a Texas high school football game and the stadium recorded three of the top 20 attendance records.
In 1988, Texas Stadium hosted the Class 5A championship game, where Dallas Carter, led by future New York Giants Pro Bowl linebacker Jessie Armstead, defeated Converse Judson 31-14. The University Interscholastic League later stripped Carter of its title due to numerous rule violations. Carter advanced to the final by defeating Odessa Permian 14-9 in the semifinals at Memorial Stadium in Austin in a game highlighted by the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream and its film adaptation.
In 1994, the stadium hosted the John Tyler vs. Plano East high school football regional playoff, whose wild seesaw finish won it the 1995 Showstopper of the Year ESPY Award.
Soccer
In addition to American football, the Dallas Tornado of the NASL used it as their home stadium from 1972 to 1975 and again from 1980 to 1981 when the team folded.
On November 21, 1991, the U.S. Men's National soccer Team played a friendly match against Costa Rica.
DateCompetitionTeam 1Team 2ScoreNovember 21, 1991 Friendly United States Costa Rica 1-1
Supercross
Texas Stadium hosted a round of the AMA Supercross Championship from 1975 to 1977 and 1983 to 2008.
Bull riding
The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) held a Bud Light Cup event at Texas Stadium known as the "Battle of the Bulls"PBR Tour: Battle of the Bulls at Texas Stadium (April 22, 1995) during the organization's first two years of existence (1994 & 1995). In both instances, the event was won by three-time PBR world champion Adriano Morães (in 1994 he was the co-champion along with Pat Yancey). The 1995 event was also notable because of rain which turned the dirt into mud, affecting the performance of several bulls.
Lacrosse
On May 25, 2008, Texas Stadium hosted the first ever professional lacrosse game in Texas when the two-time defending Major League Lacrosse champions Philadelphia Barrage played the Long Island Lizards. The Barrage disbanded after the 2008 season while the re-named New York Lizards remained as a member of MLL's Eastern Conference until 2020 when the MLL merged with the Premier Lacrosse League.
Professional wrestling
From 1984 to 1988, the stadium hosted the annual World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) David Von Erich "Memorial Parade of Champions" professional wrestling card every May. The initial 1984 card drew more than 40,000 fans, the highest attendance of any wrestling card in the state of Texas at that time.
Religious gatherings
The stadium hosted religious gatherings such as Promise Keepers and Billy Graham crusades; a Graham crusade was the first event held at Texas Stadium.
From October 17 to October 20, 2002, evangelist Billy Graham held the Metroplex Mission crusade in Texas Stadium. Several Christian musical groups also played during the event. Former president George H. W. Bush gave an introduction for Graham on the first night of the crusade.
Concerts DateArtistOpening act(s)Tour / Concert nameAttendanceRevenueNotesJuly 31, 1974Crosby, Stills, Nash & YoungThe Beach Boys The Band
Jesse Colin YoungCSNY 197460,000— July 13, 1984 The Jacksons — Victory Tour 120,000 $3,564,090 July 14, 1984 July 15, 1984 July 26, 1987 Madonna Level 42 Who's That Girl World Tour 40,601 / 41,000 $812,020 September 17, 1988 INXS — Calling All Nations World Tour October 14, 1988 George Michael — Faith World Tour 38,564 / 41,000 $846,923 April 7, 1990 Paul McCartney — World Tour 57,337 / 57,337 $1,863,453 March 14, 1992 Willie NelsonNeil YoungJohn Mellencamp and many others — Farm Aid VI — — May 7-8, 1992 Genesis — We Can't Dance Tour — — This was the opening show to the tour. June 13, 1992 The Cure CurveCranes The Wish Tour — — September 5, 1992 Guns N' RosesMetallica Faith No More Guns N' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour 44,391 / 44,391 $1,220,753 Faith No More lead guitarist Jim Martin joined Metallica onstage for their cover of the Misfits song "Last Caress". September 24, 1993 Garth Brooks — The Garth Brooks World Tour — — The first show was recorded and broadcast on NBC, titled This is Garth Brooks, Too! (a follow-up to Brooks' 1992 televised concert). It was later included in Brooks' The Entertainer DVD collection, released in 2006. September 25, 1993July 3, 1994EaglesMelissa EtheridgeHell Freezes Over Tour—— October 22, 1994 Carman — — 71,132 — August 14, 1999*NSYNCJordan Knight 5iveBoys of Summer Tour November 14, 1999 Shania Twain — Come On Over Tour 40,000 — This concert was filmed for a CBS TV special which aired on Thanksgiving night. July 9, 2000 Metallica KornKid RockPowerman 5000System of a Down Summer Sanitarium Tour — — Metallica lead singer James Hetfield was unable to attend the concert as he hurt his back during a jet skiing accident while in Georgia before the Atlanta show. Metallica bassist Jason Newsted, along with other lead singers from the other bands on hand, sang most of the songs. Metallica did return in August to perform two make-up shows at the Starplex in Dallas a month later. July 15, 2001 Dave Matthews Band Angelique KidjoWyclef Jean 2001 Summer Tour — — August 3, 2003 Metallica Linkin ParkLimp BizkitDeftonesMudvayne Summer Sanitarium Tour — —
In television The stadium appeared in numerous episodes of the television series, Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2001), which was filmed in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
The stadium made an appearance on MTV's Headbangers Ball in early 1994, when host Riki Rachtman interviewed Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown of Pantera on the field in promotion of the band's then-new album Far Beyond Driven; the band and Rachtman then played some football with fans who won a contest to appear on the show.
The stadium appeared in the 1999 movie Any Given Sunday being the home of the "Dallas Knights" in the film.
The stadium has also appeared in the season one finale of Friday Night Lights as a setting for the State Championship game between the Dillon Panthers and the West Cambria Mustangs.
Throughout the network run of the television series Dallas, a number of scenes were filmed on location at Texas Stadium. An overhead shot of the stadium (looking down at the field from the hole in the roof) was also featured prominently as part of the show's opening credits for each of its thirteen seasons on CBS. This trend has continued with the new series with AT&T Stadium taking its place.
Seating capacity Years Capacity1971–1972 65,0001973 65,1111974–1984 65,1011985–1988 63,8551989–1994 65,0241995–1996 65,8121997–2000 65,6752001–2002 65,6392003–2008 65,529
The Cowboys' departure