This week’s later than normal kickoff time reminded me of a story that many of you may have never heard. So, gather round Aggie football history fans because I’ve got a little story for you.
The year was 1980 and the Aggies were in Houston to play the Univ of Houston (aka “Cougar High”) at their home stadium, the Houston Astrodome. UH was always our second conference game of the year so the game was played this week in October.
The dome’s primary tenant, the Houston Astros, had a pretty good team that year winning the NL West and getting into a playoff series with Philadelphia. A win earlier in the week set up a game to be played in the dome on Saturday afternoon before the A&M/UH game which was scheduled for 7pm. It took several hours to convert the dome from the baseball configuration to a football configuration, and fans were told that our game would kick 2 hours after completion of the playoff game (which went into extra innings and lasted nearly four hours).
Most of us showed up at about 8:00. The game finally kicked off at 11:33pm and was not over until 2:41am.
Final Score-
Texas A&M 13
Cougar High 17
Extra Credit:
1. The Aggies opened the 1980 season with a 23-20 win over Ole Miss. That game was played in Jackson, MS.
2. UH had some good teams in those days. They played their first SWC game in 1976 (against A&M, a 10-21 A&M loss; the game was played in front of 72,000 fans at Rice Stadium). The Coogs won or tied for the conference championships in 3 of their first 4 seasons in the league, 1976, 1978 and 1979.
3. After the game the dome was converted back to its baseball configuration for Game 5 of the NLCS played later on Sunday.
Thank you for your attention. Class dismissed.
The year was 1980 and the Aggies were in Houston to play the Univ of Houston (aka “Cougar High”) at their home stadium, the Houston Astrodome. UH was always our second conference game of the year so the game was played this week in October.
The dome’s primary tenant, the Houston Astros, had a pretty good team that year winning the NL West and getting into a playoff series with Philadelphia. A win earlier in the week set up a game to be played in the dome on Saturday afternoon before the A&M/UH game which was scheduled for 7pm. It took several hours to convert the dome from the baseball configuration to a football configuration, and fans were told that our game would kick 2 hours after completion of the playoff game (which went into extra innings and lasted nearly four hours).
Most of us showed up at about 8:00. The game finally kicked off at 11:33pm and was not over until 2:41am.
Final Score-
Texas A&M 13
Cougar High 17
Extra Credit:
1. The Aggies opened the 1980 season with a 23-20 win over Ole Miss. That game was played in Jackson, MS.
2. UH had some good teams in those days. They played their first SWC game in 1976 (against A&M, a 10-21 A&M loss; the game was played in front of 72,000 fans at Rice Stadium). The Coogs won or tied for the conference championships in 3 of their first 4 seasons in the league, 1976, 1978 and 1979.
3. After the game the dome was converted back to its baseball configuration for Game 5 of the NLCS played later on Sunday.
Thank you for your attention. Class dismissed.