I am the world's first domed sports superstadium, officially known as the Harris County Domed Stadium. Of course I'm better known by my nickname, the Astrodome. I ushered in the modern era of the multipurpose stadium, now everybody's gone retro on me, as we are in the midst of the single-purpose stadium era once again. I was conceived in the early 1960's by the late Roy Hofheinz, a former Harris County Judge and Mayor of Houston. I cover a 150,000 square foot playing field capped by my signature 642 foot diameter domed roof. The Judge was inspired by the velarium unfurled by Roman slaves during bad weather to shield wealthy visitors to the Colosseum, saying "if those Romans can put a lid on their stadium, so can we", and by the multipurpose domed arena Palazzeto dello Sporto, also in Rome. At the time my playing field was natural grass, but soon it became apparent the glare from the translucent panels in my roof would have to be shaded. As a result my field started to die, and this spurred another innovation, AstroTurf, which was installed for the 1966 baseball season. Other innovations of mine included air conditioning, cushioned seats and luxury suites, soon dubbed "sky boxes". My price tag in 1965 dollars was $18.7 million, and it's been reported that my current annual upkeep costs about $2 million.
The Presidential Suite
In 1986 Oilers owner Bud Adams ripped out my legendary scoreboard and replaced it with 15,000 additional seats in order to be awarded a Super Bowl for Houston, and, using a threatened move to Jacksonville for leverage, ostensibly remain competitive in the NFL. It didn't work. To this day I still experience phantom home run and touchdown explosions. Now this monstrosity next door gets my Super Bowl (not the first time I lost this game to another Houston venue). My God, what a ghastly place. Let's see, notable milestones in Reliant Stadium history?: "Wardrobe Malfunction", thank you. You've got a long way to go, punk.
The Judge's space-age bachelor pad
Music
WARNING:
The Dome is an arrogant music snob who is likely to think that your favorite band sucks. Don't even get me started on those whiney emo guys. And these days the hacks coming out of Nash Vegas wouldn't know a country song if it bit 'em in the ass. So if a record company is more interested in your MySpace friends total than in your music, read this before signing on the dotted line, The Problem With Music.
Now here's a lyric for you, from "Pocahontas" by Neil Young, from the album Rust Never Sleeps:
And maybe Marlon Brando
Will be there by the fire
We'll sit and talk about Hollywood
And the good things there for hire
Like the Astrodome
and the first teepee
Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me
02.27-03.01.1970:
Elvis Presley draws over 200,000 to 6 shows in 3 days at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Set list from the February 27th performance -
All Shook Up, I Got A Woman, Blue Suede Shoes, Don't Cry Daddy, Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, Kentucky Rain, Please Release Me, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, In The Ghetto, I Can't Stop Loving You, Polk Salad Annie, Suspicious Minds, Can't Help Falling In Love.
Jumpsuits/Attendances -
2.27/matinee/White Pearl/16,708; evening/Thin Green Leaf/36,299
2.28/matinee/Blue Tapestry/37,733; evening/White Sleek/43,616 (a national rodeo record)
3.1/matinee/White Pearl/40,858; evening/Thin Green Leaf/27,777
12.03.1982:
A bunch of punks hopped up on mushrooms packed the joint for this show. Some actually believed they were inside a giant mushroom.
06.08.1984:
Rush headlines the Texxas Jam, along with .38 Special, Ozzy Osbourne, Bryan Adams and Gary Moore. The previous year featured Styx, Sammy Hagar, Ted Nugent, Triumph and Uriah Heep. As a music snob, I must say, all of these bands suck. Ozzy shoulda brought Black Sabbath along.
11.18.1987:
Pink Floyd plays the Dome. Initially I was disappointed Roger Waters was no longer with them, but there was so much reefer in the air I didn't know if I was in Houston or on the dark side of the moon.
02.26.1995:
Selena graced my presence with her sexy self, then was tragically murdered a month later.
02.21.2002:
ZZ Top plays the their "greatest hits" set at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the last one I hosted before it was moved to that monstrosity next door. Apparently newer material, such as their great 1999 record "XXX", is a little too challenging for the rodeo crowd.
Movies
I've starred in several films, but what I really wanna do is direct.
I was snubbed by the Oscars for all of these. I was also snubbed by the Emmys for Murder at the World Series.
Television
Heroes
50,000 Luv Ya Blue fanatics greeted the Oilers at the Dome after they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1978 AFC Championship... When they lost the 1979 AFC Championship to the Steelers, 70,000 fans greeted them...
Houston Astros; Houston Oilers; Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo; Houston Gamblers; Monster Truck Racing Association; Motocross Racing Association Houston, Texas US
ASTRODOME is second only to the Alamo as the most sacred structure in Texas history... view more
DISCLAIMER:
This page is a MASSMURDERMEDIA presentation and is not affiliated with Reliant Astrodome, as if anyone calls me that anyway.
04.09.1965:
I officially open and, with LBJ in attendance, the Houston Astros defeat the New York Yankees 2-1 in 12 innings.
Mickey Mantle is credited with hitting the first indoor home run in Major League Baseball, but Joe Morgan says he did it first.
From 1966-2002 the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was stinking up the joint every February.
01.20.1968:
In the first nationally televised college basketball game, Elvin Hayes scores 39 points, leading No. 2 Houston to a 71-69 win over Lew Alcindor and No. 1 UCLA. A then record crowd of 52,693 watched the Cougars end the Bruins' 47-game winning streak.
This game put college hoops on the map thanks to Houston Cougars Head Coach Guy V. Lewis. His absence in the Basketball Hall of Fame, not only for this landmark game, but also for his Phi Slamma Jamma teams, is a shameful injustice.
12.31.1968:
The SMU Mustangs defeat the Oklahoma Sooners in the inaugural Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, the tenth game formerly known as the Bluebonnet Bowl.
01.07 and 08.1971:
Evel Knievel sold over 100,000 tickets for back-to-back shows and set an indoor motorcycle record by jumping over 13 cars. Elvis wasn't yet big enough to jump over.
07.26.1971:
What did not happen on this date should have. In spring of that year, Muhammad Ali and Wilt Chamberlain actually met here in my offices to negotiate terms to face each other on this date in a 15-round boxing match. What a payday that would have been for me! Wilt had even secured Cus D'Amato as his trainer, but eventually bowed out of the match. Some say because his purse wouldn't have been that lucrative, some say Laker's owner Jack Kent Cooke objected to it, or that Wilt's dad told him he should practice his free throws instead. I think it was Ali's greeting to Wilt, "Timber!", as he entered my offices that made him reconsider.
Ali wound up fighting Jimmy Ellis here on that date and won by TKO. He returned later that year and won a unanimous decision over Buster Mathis.
Ali fought in the Dome twice previously, beating Ernie Terrell in 1967 and Cleveland Williams in 1966 (pictured below, Ali is the one still standing).
In the late 1970's Ali remained undefeated in the Dome after he totally pummelled Randall "Tex" Cobb, which so horrified Howard Cosell he never called another boxing match.
01.08.1973:
In the "Battle of the Sexes", Billie Jean King beats 1939 Wimbledon Champion Bobby Riggs in 3 straight sets before a then record tennis crowd of 30,472, taking home a $100,000.00 winner-take-all purse. John Newcombe woulda aced her ass in straight sets.
11.08-10.1973:
Over 3 days 15 year old Guru Maharaj Ji and the Divine Light Mission drew 20,000 to something called "Millennium '73". Also in attendance were evangelist Marjoe Gortner, covering the event for Oui magazine; Realist editor Paul Krassner, anchoring listener-sponsored radio station KPFT's "bliss-to-bliss" live coverage; former celebrated pot prisoner and White Panther leader John Sinclair; Texas' gift to the Yippies Jeff Nightbyrd; and Chicago Eight co-defendant Jerry Rubin. This event was supposed to usher in 1000 years of peace. It didn't work. PBS later broadcast a satirical documentary about it called "Lord of the Universe". While this was easily the weirdest event I ever hosted, at least these freaks didn't creep me out the way those Promise Keeper dudes did back in '98.
01.13.1974:
Miami Dolphins should have beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl 8 in my luxurious confines instead of Rice Stadium. I guess it's a butts in seats thing.
1974:
The original Houston Texans survived in the newly formed World Football League for 11 games before threatening to move to Louisiana for the rest of the season, due to financial trouble. Nobody cared. In 1975 they were rechristened the Shreveport Steamer. Nobody cared. At least they didn't rip my scoreboard out.
11.20.1978:
Houston Oilers defeat the Miami Dolphins 35-30 on Monday Night Football, in what Howard Cosell called "the greatest football game I have ever broadcast". Earl Campbell rushed for 199 yards and scored 4 touchdowns before a sellout crowd of pom-pom waving "Luv Ya Blue" fanatics...
The Tyler Rose was my favorite Oiler...
Whatever happened with those power packs, women quarterbacks and 150-yard fields?
Bum Phillips said there's two kinds of coaches: those that have been fired, and those that will be fired.
09.26.1981:
Nolan Ryan no-hits the Los Angeles Dodgers, his 5th of 7 career no-hitters. It was a great feat to witness, but I wonder if Nolan woulda traded this one for some more run support during his Astros years.
01.19.1985:
Karel Soucek, daredevil, was fatally wounded attempting to recreate his successful 1984 plunge over Niagara Falls. Soucek staged a fundraising stunt in the Houston Astrodome, the crux of which was having him, in his capsule, dropped 180 ft. into a tank of water. The falling capsule hit the rim of the tank causing the injuries from which he would die the next day.
I'm pretty sure the Houston Gamblers coulda whooped the 1985 Chicago Bears.
09.25.1986:
Astros clinch the National League West Pennant as Mike Scott no-hits the San Francisco Giants, managed by Roger Craig, who had taught Scott his menacing split-fingered fastball. However, Scott has yet to reveal who taught him how to scuff baseballs.
10.15.1986:
Astros lose a heartbreaking 16-inning epic game, the longest playoff game in major league history at the time, against the New York Mets, who went on to win the World Series.
Not only have I hosted the 1968 and 1986 Major League All-Star Games, for some reason, butts in seats perhaps, I hosted the 1989 NBA All-Star Game. The Summit, now Lakewood Church, was really pissed about that.
Andre Ware put up some sick Run 'n Shoot numbers for the Houston Cougars on his way to winning the 1989 Heisman Trophy.
Warren Moon also posted some sick numbers in the Run 'n Shoot era.
12.31.1987:
Eric Metcalf's Texas Longhorns defeat Craig "Ironhead" Heyward's Pittsburgh Panthers 32-27 in the last Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl, held previously in me from 1968-1984, before moving back to my homie Rice Stadium for 2 games.
08.17.1992:
President Ronald Reagan speaks at the Republican National Conventio. If Mr. Gorbachev hadn't torn down that wall then Bum Phillips woulda kicked the sumbitch in.
President George H. W. Bush, bored, looking at his watch.
04.01.2001:
My all-time attendance record was a crowd of 67,925 for WrestleMania X-Seven, which is 17 in wrestling years. Stone Cold Steve Austin pinned The Rock after 16 steel chair shots in a row to win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This pretty much signaled the beginning of the end of Western Civilization.
09.01.05:
Day 1 of my slumber party for Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Thank
you so much for accepting my friend request. My company website is
coming soon and your support is greatly anticipated. We are trying to
expand nationally, please forward my information to friends and
family. Have a blessed day!
Have you noticed lately how bare, naked male genitalia has become more and more prevalent in films these days? It has always been around, that’s true, but it's never been more in your face than it has been as of late. Has man-member become the new boobs in movies (god, I hope not), or is this just a shock tactic used by directors to get a cheap laugh out of all us ’seen it all’ movie goers? Rest assured the three of us are at no loss for fodder when it comes to this topic. Check out EPISODE XIX: "BAM! HERE'S A DICK!" Get it here @ www.NeverBuyAStripperADrink.com Give 'er a spin & then shuck us some jive on our forums at www.NeverBuyAStripperADrink.com/forum
hey dome, love ya hope sumthin good comes 2 u, i wanna get famous, n i will demand they let me perform in u, not that piece of shit next door! there has been alot of good history within u, like selenas last concert, n i promise i will put u back on the market. i will never go next door every time i pass by there its like uuugh then i c u n i feel all better. miss u so much!!
There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.
When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"
He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages...
02.21.2002:
Online Now!
