THE ASTRODOME WAS HOME TO UH COUGARS FOOTBALL FROM 1965 THROUGH 1996.
Here’s one link from Harris County Judge Ed Emmett’s office on the plans for tonight’s Astrodome 50th Anniversary Party this Thursday, April 9, 2015. Cars should enter from the Kirby at McNee entrance for free parking in Red Lot 4 – and don’t forget to bring your own folding chairs for the outside event that will include free tours inside the Astrodome.
http://www.judgeemmett.org/news_release.asp?p=7&intRelease_ID=8005&intAcc_ID=66
Let’s all try to keep in mind that the long-term goal here is building support for preserving Houston’s iconic symbol to the world – and to doing it in a way that gives genuine long-term value to a “re-purposed Astrodome”. Lest we forget, the original attraction of crowds to the Astrodome in 1965 was its futuristic bells and whistles personification as the place where even baseball could be protected from the weather and played as scheduled.
Over time, however, as “the novelty and newness wore off,” it was the substance of baseball, football, groundbreaking basketball, the rodeo, and appearances by Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, and the Republican Party that made its place in history the deeper substance of our memories.
ELVIN HAYES AND UH-EX BILL McCURDY IN RECENT TIMES. ON JANUARY 20, 1968, “THE BIG E” LED UH TO A 71-69 WIN OVER # 1 UCLA BEFORE 50,000 FANS AT THE ASTRODOME THAT CHANGED THE BIG STAGE COURSE OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL FOREVER.
The idea of the indoor park is fine for openers, we think, but let’s try to keep in mind that we are not simply looking for the cheapest way to build an in-door version of downtown’s “Discovery Green” – as one that will fade like the bloom of the rose once the novelty again wears thin. We, hopefully, are looking for a place that will continue to educate people on the history of Houston during the Dome’s first incarnation – and also a place that will grow as a resource/educational/entertainment venue as a particular service to researchers, community planners, and school children on the heart of history that has pumped all the present life into our fourth largest city in the nation.
Museums on everything from the individual sports to the ship channel to the petrochemical industry to the rodeo to whatever could blend together into a presentation that is beyond anything else operating anywhere else – until now – and supported by commercial enterprises offering food at all levels, collectibles, and top level public entertainment.
And, after all, wasn’t that exactly what the original Astrodome did?
Tags: Astrodome Party Tonight
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