It’s a sight to behold, something that stirs pride in Longhorn fans around the world: the gameday evolution of Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
From a quiet campus giant to a football-crazed, burnt orange-bedecked, tailgating, Texas Fighting, Hook ’em Horns-ing, 101,000-fan ecosystem bursting with raw energy and spirit. And then there’s what happens after kickoff.
In honor of the return of Texas Football this Saturday, take a look at the spectacle of gameday in Austin.
The Story Behind the Stadium
- 2014 will be Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium’s 91st season as host of the Longhorns.
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- Memorial Stadium was originally dedicated on Thanksgiving Day in 1924, after the student body decided to name the stadium in honor of the 198,520 Texans who fought in World War I and the 5,280 who lost their lives doing so. In 1977, the stadium was rededicated to veterans of all wars.
- In 1996 the stadium was renamed Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in 1996, in honor of the legendary Longhorns coach who led his teams to three national championships. Royal insisted the original “Texas Memorial” portion of the name remain.
- The largest crowd ever was on Oct. 6, 2012, when 101,851 fans attended the game against West Virginia. The remaining top-10 crowds: Rice (2011), Ole Miss (2013), UCLA (2010), Kansas (2009), Baylor (2012), Wyoming (2010), Texas Tech (2009), Colorado (2009) and University of Texas at El Paso (2009).
- Attendance for the first game in 1924 was 13,500.
- Texas’ all-time record at DKR is 358-102-10 (.772)
- Artificial turf was first applied to the Memorial Stadium floor in 1969. It has since gone through multiple surfaces. A new FieldTurf surface was installed in 2013.
- The stadium offers gameday concessions from 20 different vendors, including Chi’Lantros Korean-Mexican fusion, Juice Dawgz organic freshly squeezed juice and Pok-E-Jo’s BBQ.
- The stadium is open for public tours.
- The video scoreboard in the south end zone, affectionately called “the Godzillatron” by fans, is 55 feet high and 134 feet wide. When it was installed in 2006 it was the nation’s largest high-definition video display board.
Finally, check out the incredibly accurate model of the stadium one fan built from Legos:
Stadium facts source: Texas Athletics.
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— UT Austin (@UTAustin) August 29, 2014
