The Sun Bowl addition of 1982 brought the seating capacity to 52,000. The origi路 nal stadium, seating 30, 000, was built in 1963 because the bowl game had outgrown the 12,OOO-seatKidd Field. The first game played there was on September 21,1963, when Texas Western defeated North Texas State, 34-7. The first Sun Bowlgame was December 31 the same year, when Southern
204
Methodist met Oregon. When Bob Stull became coach, the first WAC game of the season (a loss to Air Force) on September 6, 1986, drew a record attendance of 42,385. As the team's record improved through 1987, crowds continued to show enthusiastic support for the Miners in their home games.