Panthers unwrap $61 million stadium
TSU to help break in new digs in season opener
PRAIRIEVIEW—Harold Bonner, who attended Prairie View A&M from 1958-62, couldn’t believe his eyes when he glanced up at the Panthers’ pristine, $61 million stadium.
“We never thought we’d see a day like today,” Bonner said of older Prairie View alumni, many of whom were in the crowd during the stadium’s grand opening Saturday. “It’s almost like an impossible dream coming true.”
It’s true all right, and Prairie View will play host to rival Texas Southern at 5 p.m. Sept. 4 in a contest televised nationally on ESPNU to usher in a new era. The Panthers have come a long way in a short time, in constructing the stateof-the-art stadium on the same site of the old football home, a bare-bones structure now only a memory.
“Where this univer- sity has come from is truly amazing,” Panthers coach Willie Simmons said. “We want to thank everyone who has blazed a trail before today — who have made it all possible.”
Palace on the prairie
The 15,000-seat stadium holds 10 skyboxes/suites and 500 premium seats, along with a field house featuring a large weight room, a dining area, locker rooms and training rooms. The long-term plan calls for an increase to 30,000 seats on down the line — and partially based on the Panthers’ on-field success.
Prairie View finished 9-2 in 2015 in Simmons’ first season, and it’s projected to compete for a Southwestern Athletic Conference title this season. From 1989-98, the Panthers lost 80 straight games, an NCAA record.
Now, fans will get to enjoy Prairie View football in a whole different light — one under a new set of lights in their palace on the prairie about an hour to the northwest of Houston, and just off Highway 290.
“This gives us the best facility of any FCS school in the country,” Simmons said, adding with a chuckle, “and it gives me the best view of any coach in the country.”
Simmons enjoys a corner office with an expansive view of the turf. The project was backed in large part by the Texas A&M System, and A&M chancellor John Sharp and system vice chancellor for business affairs Phillip Ray were part of the festive crowd Saturday that included the famed Marching Storm Band.
“What has happened here makes people look at Prairie View A&M University,” Sharp said. “And if you’re a junior in high school and you walk on this campus, and see the most beautiful campus in the state of Texas — not just in the A&M system, but in the state of Texas — you’re going to wind up coming here.”
Football won’t be the only sport to enjoy the new digs officially dubbed the Prairie View A&M University Sports Complex.
“We are going to be able to recruit to the highest level,” women’s track coach Angela Williams said.
Burying the past
And that’s exactly what Prairie View president George C. Wright hoped to hear — after hearing so much about the Panthers’ infamous 80-game losing streak over the years.
“Unfortunately, that losing streak was not just on the football field. It led many people to believe that Prairie View the university was a loser, which it never ever was,” Wright said. “This new facility puts to rest, it buries forever, any idea that Prairie View is a loser. Rising out of the ashes of all of that is this facility, right here today.”