Mike Sullivan's new mural at DKR
I must say I am pretty impressed with Mike Sullivan’s work. I think I might have to pick up a print of this once it is available.
Update: Tentatively postponed until Sept. 26th due to Hurricane Ike.
Check out the details below:
UT Head Coach Mack Brown to Dedicate Permanent Fixture At Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Friday, Sept. 12
AUSTIN, TX – Highly-regarded sports artist Mike Sullivan, known for his unique chiseled style featuring bright, contrasting colors on a black background, will dedicate a 13′ x 12′ mural honoring the history and achievements of The University of Texas football program on Friday, September 12, 2008 at 2 p.m. at the legendary Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. (Photo of mural on page 2)
A short presentation will begin at 2 p.m. Central. Hosted by Bill Little, the event will include a short speech by Sullivan before Texas head coach Mack Brown dedicates the mural in front of fans, alumni, university officials and former Longhorns players.
The painting pays tribute to the winning-tradition and success of The University of Texas football program, a program which, in its storied past has:
- Won four National Championships
- Been led by two Heisman Trophy winners
- Had three players selected No. 1 overall in the NFL draft
- Had 16 Longhorns players and coaches inducted into the Collegiate Football Hall of Fame
Featuring the national championship trophy, the Longhorns’ mascot Bevo, a hard-charging Texas running back, and members of the UT Spirit Squads running with flags, all against the backdrop of the orange-lit UT Tower, the mural captures these achievements and the passionate support Longhorns fans have given the program for more than a century.
“Texas football has such a rich history of on- and off-field success, outstanding student-athletes, legendary coaches and a winning strength that inspired me to pay tribute to the program,” said Sullivan. “It is truly an honor for me to have this mural at The University of Texas. I hope the mural will serve as a tribute to Longhorns past, present and future.”
This is the third in a large-scale series of permanent murals Sullivan is installing in professional stadiums and on college campuses across the country. His first, a tribute to Arizona State legend and American war hero Pat Tillman, is showcased at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ. Earlier this year, Sullivan garnered attention for his mural “Tradition,” installed at the Los Angeles Coliseum, home of the University of Southern California Trojans.
Notre Dame Stadium and Touchdown Jesus
Of all of the college football stadiums in the country, none have the aura or mystique of Notre Dame Stadium. Maybe it’s because I have watched the movie Rudy so many times (greatest sports movie ever), but there is just something about this stadium that makes we want to watch a game there. And even though I usually feel Notre Dame is the most over-hyped team in the nation, they still have the best stadium in college football.
The following quote probably sums up everything best:
“This is not merely a football field,” says Notre Dame’s Official Campus Guide. “It is an experience, a uniquely Notre Dame synthesis of sport, tradition, pride, loyalty, and belief.
It is haunted by a thousand ghosts of glorious seasons past: the Four Horsemen riding into immortality on the words of Grantland Rice; the multi-talented George Gipp and “Jumpin’ Joe” Savoldi; Joe Montana, a field general in a green jersey; Raghib “The Rocket” Ismail flying toward the end zone; and, of course, Knute Rockne, pioneer of the forward pass, master of the locker room speech, brilliant motivator, relentless innovator, and though gone from the gridiron since 1930, still the most victorious coach (winning an amazing .881 of his games) in college football history.”
I know this might not be everyone’s favorite, but it is definitely mine. Check back soon for more of our Top 5’s.
College football’s best stadiums
Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (aka The Swamp)
First off I would like to say that I am definitely not a Gators fan. In fact, they are probably in my Top 5 least favorite college football teams. But the one thing they have going for them in my book is The Swamp. Bottomline is that opposing teams really just don’t have much of shot to win there. Steve Spurrier was 68-5 in 11 years and Urban Meyer is already 22-1.
And it was actually Spurrier who gave Florida Field its nickname, The Swamp. Following the 1991 season, Spurrier was quoted as saying “The swamp is where Gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous.” And so the name stuck.
An interesting fact: In EA Sports’ college football video game franchise, NCAA Football, The Swamp has been ranked as the #1 toughest place to play in every version in which home field advantage has been included.
Check back soon for our #1 favorite college football stadium.
College football’s best stadiums
3. Tiger Stadium
Death Valley on a Saturday night has probably the best gameday atmosphere of any college venue in the country. The fans are widely considered the loudest and most passionate, probably due to the fact that they have been drinking and partying all day. And if you ask most college football coaches, this is one of the last places that they would ever want to play a road game.
Built in 1924, the stadium has expanded to an impressive 92,400 seating capacity. In terms of population, that makes Tiger Stadium the sixth largest city in Louisiana on gamedays.
An interesting fact: In a game against Auburn in 1988, when quarterback Tommy Hodson completed a game winning touchdown pass, the subsequent crowd roar registered as an actual earth quake on the LSU seismographs.
Check back soon for our #2 favorite college football stadium.
College football’s best stadiums
4. Darrell K Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium
DKR - Texas Memorial Stadium has been going through major renovations since 2005, adding additional seating capacity and some new high-tech features. The north end-zone expansion is basically complete and will now push attendance to around 98,000, the 5th largest in college football. There are also plans to expand the south end-zone, pushing attendance to around 115,000.
If you haven’t seen the new scoreboard in the south end-zone, nicknamed Godzillatron, it’s something you just have to see to believe. Like its nickname suggests, Godzillatron is massive, coming in at 7,370 sq ft and is the largest high definition screen in the Western hemisphere.
DKR - Texas Memorial has some serious tradition (built in 1924), great atmosphere (sea of burnt orange), and state of the art technology. It’s something every college football fan should experience.
Check back soon for our #3 favorite college football stadium.
College football’s best stadiums
5. Michigan Stadium
With seating capacity just north of 107,000, Michigan Stadium, nicknamed The Big House, is one of the top 5 largest stadiums in the world. Built in 1927, the House that Yost Built has some serious history and tradition.
This is probably one of the most classic (maybe boring) and widely recognizable stadiums in college sports. It’s amazing to think with all of that tradition and fans screaming, you could lose to Div I-AA Appalachian State on your home turf. Still, one game I have always wanted to go attend is Michigan/Ohio State in Ann Arbor (who they haven’t beat since 2003 at home).
A couple of interesting facts about this stadium. It hasn’t had an attendance lower than 100,000 since 1975. And most of the stadium is actually built below grade (into the ground), leaving only about 20 upper rows visible from the outside.
Check back Monday for our number 4 favorite college football stadium.
College football’s best stadiums
Thanks to the poster djbfootball over on the Inside Texas message boards we have new photos of the construction at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
It looks like things are almost completed. From the inside it appears all seating is ready (the gap in the northwest corner is intentional) and that they’re working hard to get the exterior finished by the first game at the end of August. It really looks impressive and I’m excited that the Horns could have an improved home field advantage this season. I can’t wait to go to my first home game this year to see it for myself.
Posted June 11th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
DKR North end zone update: June 11. Updated photos of the north end zone stadium renovation.
Posted May 15th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Baseball, Football, Quick Hits
Wednesday’s storms hit UT athletic facilities. The softball field, Disch-Falk, and Moncrief-Neuhaus sustained minor damages.
Posted March 27th, 2008 by Brian
Filed under: Basketball, NCAA Tourney
The NCAA is trying a new set up for tournament games in football arenas and the games in Houston and Detroit this weekend will be fans’ first look at it. In order to get more fans in the stadiums, the courts will be set up at the fifty-yard line instead of tucked away to one side like the normal football stadium set up. When the Longhorns face off against the Stanford Cardinal Friday evening at Reliant Stadium they’ll also do it from 27 inches off the ground.
The set up will allow them to sell more tickets and will look good on TV, but seems far from optimal for the players and coaches in the games. Both the location and elevation could actually affect the outcomes of these very important games. It could change things for shooters and on loose balls near the sideline.
The big drop just a few feet out of bounds is incredibly dangerous. Players are definitely worried about hustling after the basketball and falling off the edge, as evidenced by quotes like this one from Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds: “What if we go for the loose ball and dive off the court? I mean, that’s the thing I was scared about.” It seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The large empty space behind each basket also may cause depth perception issues for shooters, something that would be a very bad for the guard-oriented Longhorns. There will be very few fans behind each basket, and each will be backdropped by large black curtains. On how the shooters would cope, our own AJ Abrams said, “There’s going to be an obvious depth perception [problem] just from the goals, but nothing you can’t handle. Just go out and get a couple shots up and get the feel of it and that’s what it’s all about.”
Hopefully AJ can get comfortable during warm-ups and comes out firing during showtime. And maybe that homecourt advantage means we’ll have Texas fans lining the court to catch any Longhorns that go flying off the ledge. The best outcome is that nobody will get hurt and the final score of the games won’t be affected. We’ll find out Friday evening.
Related Links
After several weather-related setbacks last summer, it looks like construction on Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is now moving along nicely. Simkins over at HornFans has posted a ton of great photos that show the changes up close. The seating area in the North end zone looks almost done but the outside and innards of the stadium definitely still have a long way to go.
Posted December 8th, 2007 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
The latest DKR construction photos on HornFans. The outside is going to look a lot different when they’re done.
Posted December 2nd, 2007 by Brian
Filed under: Basketball, Quick Hits
The Frank Erwin Center celebrates 30th anniversary. Maybe to celebrate some fans will actually show up for games?
Posted November 19th, 2007 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
DKR renovations are now only two weeks behind schedule. Rain this spring and early summer slowed things down but they’re catching back up.
I guess since the Cotton Bowl game won’t actually be in the Cotton Bowl anymore they’ve got to try anything to get some extra revenue to upgrade the stadium for one game a year. The latest idea? This Sunday people will be allowed to bring their dogs down on to the field to dump on the 50 yard line.
“Petsmart presents Texas’ largest dog park. A once in a lifetime opportunity to have dog owners and their dogs run free on the Cotton Bowl field. From 1-5pm on May 6 the Cotton Bowl will be open for dogs of all sizes to stomp, scamper and swish across the most historic playing field in Dallas.”
All kidding aside, I think it’ll be pretty cool just to get to go down on the field. Maybe you and your pooch can take the frisbee and reenact Vince Young to Billy Pittman for the TD. My mutt would spend the entire time trying to Bomar dogs five times her size.
An Aggie writing in to the San Antonio Express-News‘ Richard Oliver claims that Kyle Field’s scoreboard was impotent smaller than DKR’s Godzillatron on purpose. Typical Aggie logic…
Not a question, but a fact: Texas A&M rolled out plans BEFORE the Longhorns to install the new scoreboard. It’s pretty obvious that the scoreboard at Kyle Field was well-planned, thus our avoidance of some oversized billboard like that in Austin.
– Mark Wildon, Houston
I was going to call him a moron, but he (or maybe Oliver) linked to Bevo Sports in his comment so I’ll refrain.
I distinctly remember learning about Texas’ new scoreboard before Texas A&M’s was announced. I remember Aggies on TexAgs being all excited when they heard about their MiniTron and then we linked them to details of Godzillatron to shut them up. Not sure of the exact time frame of any of this but it’s close enough and we clearly weren’t trying to copy them. We are the Joneses.
Posted August 16th, 2006 by Brian
Filed under: Football, Quick Hits
New 9-foot statue of the Texas legend will be at southwest corner of DKR.
If you are a fan of High Definition television, then you better make it to a Texas Longhorns home game this season. The Longhorns will be unveiling a new 134 ft x 55 ft (that is 7370 sq ft folks!) HD LED scoreboard, replacing the current 70 ft x 70 ft currently in place. And this is coming just a month after the Dolphins announced their new HD scoreboard, which at the was the world’s largest HD LED screen. Too bad for them they are about 400 sq ft short.
This addition is part of a large overhaul of DKR Texas Memorial Stadium, including $8 million in audio-visual improvements and $150 million to renovate the north end of the stadium to allow for 90,000+ in seating capacity.
Unfortunately the Longhorns will not be able to hold the title of having the world’s largest HD screen for very long, as a horse track in Tokyo has plans of installing a 197 ft screen sometime this year. Though I guess we can say we have the largest screen in the Western hemisphere.
Update: TexasSports now has a live webcam up of the construction of the scoreboard.
The Statesman has illustrations of the proposed changes to DKR - Texas Memorial Stadium. The $150 million in additions will include closing the North end zone with seating and a new veterans memorial plaza. It’s also going to make it really rectangular. The new end zone seats will be pretty close and should be a pretty decent view.
The changes should be completed by the 2008 season.
The game today against Kansas is the last home game of the season and on Monday the university will begin minor renovations on DKR - Texas Memorial Stadium. These are just improvements to the west side of the stadium, adding 432 club seats and improving sight lines as well. The construction should be completed by the beginning of next season.
The more interesting news is that it looks like the major upgrades to the north end zone might be approved by February. They’re planning on adding 8,000 seats by closing off that side with an upper deck and moving it closer to the field as well. Might be done by 2008 or 2009.
Once that is completed they’ll be halfway done towards increasing seating capacity to above 100,000 and closing off the entire stadium as is pictured in the stadium model that has been floating around the Internet for a long time now. Would definitely make DKR an even tougher place for opponents to play.
Loading ...
