Before You Go. Most Americans hear "bayou" and think "Louisiana." But Houston is known as, among other things, the Bayou City. It can get hot, it can get humid, and it gets a lot of rain, even in late November. Why do you think the world's 1st indoor stadium designed for baseball and football was built there? So while the Rockets play indoors, the weather could still be a factor.
For next Wednesday, the Houston Chronicle is predicting temperatures in the 60s throughout the day, much warmer than we're used to this time of year. No rain is predicted. You won't be indoors for the entire visit, so dress accordingly, with lighter clothes than you would wear in New York at this time of year.
Houston is in the Central Time Zone, so you'll be an hour behind New York time. Although Texas is a former Confederate State, you will not need your passport, and you won't need to change your money.
Tickets. The Rockets are averaging 18,055 fans per game this season, a sellout. They are, historically speaking, Houston's most successful sports team, and are very good at the moment, making them the hardest local team for which to get tickets.
Seats in the lower level are $265 behind the baskets and $80 behind them. Seats in the upper level are $59 between the baskets and $27 behind them.
Getting There. It's 1,629 miles from Times Square in New York to downtown Houston. You’re probably thinking that you should be flying.
Flying to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (named for the father, not the son) can be done for just under $1,100. That is not cheap. Bus 102 will get you from the airport to downtown in an hour and 20 minutes.
There are 2 ways to get there by train. One is to change trains in Chicago, and then change to a bus in Longview, Texas. The other is to take the Amtrak Crescent out of Penn Station at 2:15 PM on Monday (Thanksgiving Day), arrive in New Orleans at 7:32 PM on Tuesday, stay overnight in New Orleans, leave on the Sunset Limited at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, and arrive in Houston at 6:18 PM, less than an hour before tipoff. And you'd have to reverse this on the way back. So that's Tuesday and Thursday nights in New Orleans, and Wednesday night in Houston.
And, for Monday, the Crescent has been canceled. So, to get there by Amtrak, this time, it would have to be the Lake Shore Limited out of Penn Station at 3:40 PM on Monday, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:50 AM on Tuesday, transfer to the Texas Eagle at 1:45 PM, arrive at Longview at 8:28 AM, switch to the Amtrak Thruway Bus at 8:40 AM on Wednesday, and finally arrive in Houston at 1:15 PM.
And don't be fooled by the fact that Houston's Union Station and the Rockets' arena are only 7 blocks apart, because Amtrak uses a different station, a mile and a half away, at 902 Washington Avenue. Round-trip fare is $710. Right, that's out: Might as well spend the extra $400 and fly.
Greyhound has 8 runs a day from Port Authority Bus Terminal to Houston, averaging 42 hours (meaning you'd have to leave on Monday), and requiring you to change buses in Atlanta and New Orleans. It's $506 round-trip, but it can drop to $381 with advanced purchase. The Houston Greyhound station is at 2121 Main Street, a mile from the arena.
If you actually think it's worth it to drive, get someone to go with you so you’ll have someone to talk to and one of you can drive while the other sleeps. You'll be taking Interstate 78 across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania to Harrisburg, where you'll pick up Interstate 81.
Take that through the narrow panhandles of Maryland and West Virginia, down the Appalachian spine of Virginia and into Tennessee, where you'll pick up Interstate 40, stay on that briefly until you reach Interstate 75, and take that until you reach Interstate 59, which will take you into Georgia briefly and then across Alabama and Mississippi, and into Louisiana, where you take Interstate 12 west outside New Orleans. Take that until you reach Interstate 10. Once in Texas, Exit 770 will get you to downtown Houston.
If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 3 hours in Pennsylvania, 15 minutes in Maryland, half an hour in West Virginia, 5 and a half hours in Virginia, 3 hours and 45 minutes in Tennessee, half an hour in Georgia, 4 hours in Alabama, 2 hours and 45 minutes in Mississippi, 4 hours and 30 minutes in Louisiana and 2 hours in Texas. Including rest stops, and accounting for traffic, we’re talking about a 40-hour trip.
Once In the City. Houston was founded in 1836 as Allen's Landing, and was renamed for Sam Houston, "the Father of Texas." There are 2.2 million people in the city proper, making it the 4th-largest in America, and 6.3 million in the metropolitan area, making it 5th. But with multiple teams, it's only the 10th-largest market in the NBA, and the 7th-largest in MLB and the NFL.
The weather in Houston is so bad! (How bad is it?) A "bayou" (BYE-yoo) is a body of water, typically found in a flat, low-lying area, and can be either an extremely slow-moving stream or river, often with a poorly-defined shoreline, or a marshy lake or wetland. And Houston is known as the Bayou City.
When people talk about "the bayou," they usually mean Louisiana. But Southeast Texas is also bayou country, and it frequently leaves Houston hot, humid and muggy. It's a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The Astrodome had to be built not just to promote Houston, or to protect people from the heat, but to protect them from the bugs. Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers said, "Some of those mosquitoes are twin-engine jobs."
Fortunately, just as there's an overhead walkway system in Minneapolis, and an "Underground City" in Montreal, in their cases to protect pedestrians from their cities' notoriously cold Winter, there is a "Houston Tunnel System," begun in the 1930s, and inspired by New York itself, by the system under Rockefeller Center. Regardless of how much this may help, remember to stay hydrated.
Houston has not 1, not 2, but 3 beltways: Interstate 610, a.k.a. the Inner Loop; Beltway 8, a.k.a. the Sam Houston Tollway; and State Highway 99, a.k.a. the Grand Parkway.
Like most Texas cities now, Houston has a Hispanic plurality, if not yet a majority: 44 percent. It's about 26 percent white, 24 percent black, and 6 percent Asian. It's mostly white on the west side; mostly black on the south, northwest and northeast sides; and mostly Hispanic on the north, east and southeast sides.
Like most Texas cities now, Houston has a Hispanic plurality, if not yet a majority: 44 percent. It's about 26 percent white, 24 percent black, and 6 percent Asian. It's mostly white on the west side; mostly black on the south, northwest and northeast sides; and mostly Hispanic on the north, east and southeast sides.
Houston, and South Texas, have had some racial disturbances. On August 13, 1906, in Brownsville on the Rio Grande (the border between Texas and Mexico), a white bartender was killed and a Hispanic policeman was wounded by gunshots. The blame fell on a segregated unit of black soldiers at nearby Fort Brown.
Following a U.S. Army Inspector General's report, President Theodore Roosevelt, in his role as Commander-in-Chief, ordered dishonorable discharges for 167 of those soldiers, costing them pensions and the right to serve in federal service jobs. This is a blot on TR's record, and in 1972, President Richard Nixon pardoned them and rewrote their discharges as honorable.
There were 21 deaths in a riot in Houston on August 23, 1917, when members of the all-black 24th United States Infantry Regiment at Camp Logan fought back against the all-white Houston Police Department. After a series of courts-martial that could only have been a kangaroo court, there were 19 executions, and 41 soldiers were sentenced to life imprisonment.
There was a race riot in Beaumont, about 85 miles east of Houston, on June 15, 1943, with 3 deaths. On May 17, 1967, there was a riot on the campus of the historically-black Texas Southern University, leading to the death of a police officer and the arrests of 500 students. But once it was found that the officer had died from "friendly fire," the ricochet of a fellow officer's bullet, all charges against the students were dropped. And there was a race riot in the Moody Park neighborhood of north Houston on May 7, 1978, with no deaths.
It's hosted the Rockets ever since, the WNBA's Houston Comets from 2003 until they folded after the 2007 season, and the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League (not the old WHA team of the same name) from 2003 until 2013, when their parent club, the Minnesota Wild, moved them to Des Moines, where they became the Iowa Wild. It's also hosted wrestling, Ultimate Fighting, concerts (including by Houston native Beyoncé, both with and without the rest of Destiny's Child) and the Latin Grammys.
The court is laid out north-to-south -- or, given the actual directions of Houston's street grid, northeast-to-southwest. It is 32 feet below street level, because Alexander didn't want fans, having already gotten through Houston's weather, to have to walk upstairs to their seats. (But they'll have to walk upstairs to get out.)
Food. Being a "Wild West" city, you might expect Houston to have Western-themed stands with "real American food" at its ballpark. Being a Southern State, you might also expect to have barbecue. And you would be right on both counts.
Baskets Grill, featuring burgers, chicken and corn dogs, can be found at Sections 113, 125, 403, 408 and 427. H.O.U. B.B.Q. is at 125 and 403. Space City Dogs, featuring customized hot dogs, is at 102 and 114. Bell Street Grill, featuring the Double Dribble Burger, is at 102 and 433. Taqueria Roja, featuring Mexican food, is at is at 125 and 433. TC Wings is at 102 and 433. Copper Canyon Carvery, featuring barbecue, is at 115. And Courtside Creamery, featuring ice cream, is at 124 and 432.
Clutch City Pizza is at 102, 113, 125, 403, 408, 427 and 433, but don't go there: The pizza in question is Papa John's. Not only is it not very good, but the owner is a bigot who won't pay living wages or for his employees' health insurance, and doesn't deserve your money.
Team History Displays. The Rockets have been around since 1971, and have the best history of any of Houston's sports teams, especially now that the 4-time WNBA Champion Comets have folded. At one end, next to the U.S. and Canadian flags, they have banners for each of their back-to-back NBA Championships, 1994 and 1995, plus a banner listing all of their Conference titles (1981, 1986, 1994 and 1995), and another for all of their Division titles (1977, 1986, 1993, 1994, 2015 and 2018).
* From their 1981 Conference Champions: 45, forward Rudy Tomjanovich; 23, guard Calvin Murphy; and 24, center Moses Malone.
* From their 1986 Conference Champions: 34, center Hakeem Olajuwon. Forward Ralph Sampson, Number 50, is in the Hall of Fame, but the Rockets have not retired his number. But neither is it currently being worn.
* From their 1994 NBA Champions: Tomjanovich, by this point the head coach, and Olajuwon.
* From their 1995 NBA Champions: Tomjanovich, Olajuwon, and 22, guard Clyde Drexler. Hakeem the Dream and Clyde the Glide had been teammates on the University of Houston team that made 3 straight NCAA Final Four appearances, 1982 to 1984, but didn't win the title.
* Since 1995: 11, center Yao Ming.
Guard Tracy McGrady (who wore 1 and then 3), forward Elvin Hayes (who wore 11 and then 44, and was another University of Houston star), forward Charles Barkley (who wore 4, as Hakeem was wearing Charles' usual 34), and center Dikembe Mutombo (55) have also played at least 4 seasons for the Rockets and been elected to the Hall, but have not had their numbers retired.
The Rockets do not have a team Hall of Fame. Hayes, Malone, Olajuwon and Barkley were named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players in 1996.
The Comets retired the Number 10 of Kim Perrot, who died in 1999 of a brain tumor while still an active player. They also retired the 14 of Cynthia Cooper, but not the 22 of Sheryl Swoopes or the 7 of Tina Thompson. Coop, Swoopes and Tina were named to the WNBA's 15th Anniversary 15 Greatest Players in 2012, and also to the WNBA Top 20 at 20 in 2016 -- in the 20th Season, rather than at the 20th Anniversary.
The Rockets have rivalries with the other 2 Texas-based teams in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks were founded in 1980, bringing the Houston-Dallas rivalry to the hardwood in a way that college basketball never really has. (Intra-area rivalries are much bigger, such as between the University of Houston and crosstown Rice University, and between Dallas' Southern Methodist, SMU, and Fort Worth's Texas Christian, TCU.)
The Rockets have won 102 games in the rivalry, the Mavs 90. They have played each other in the Playoffs 3 times, all in the 1st Round, with the Mavs winning in 1988 and 2005, and the Rockets winning in 2015.
The San Antonio Spurs were, along with the Nets, the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets, brought from the American Basketball Association into the NBA in 1976. The Spurs have been more successful, leading the Rockets 117-98. But the opposite has happened in the Playoffs: The Rockets won the 1st 3 meetings, in 1980, 1981, and in the 1995 Western Conference Finals, before the Spurs made it 3-1 in 2017.
Stuff. The Team Shop is on the north, Polk Street side of the arena. The usual NBA fan gear can be found there. Since this is Texas, you might find cowboy hats, boots or belt buckles with the Rockets logo on them.
In spite of the Rockets' success, there aren't many books about them. (Houston doesn't exactly scream "literary city.") Ron Berman wrote the Rockets' entry in the NBA's On the Hardwood series, and Clayton Geoffreys wrote the biography Hakeem Olajuwon: The Remarkable Story of One of 90s Basketball's Greatest Centers.
Official NBA Finals highlight films were released for their back-to-back titles in 1994 (Clutch City) and 1995 (Double Clutch).
During the Game. A November 13, 2014 article on DailyRotoHelp ranked the NBA teams' fan bases, and listed the Rockets' fans at 16th, on the bottom side of the exact middle. If you were wearing Dallas Cowboy gear to a Houston Texans game, you might be in trouble. But Rockets fans aren't especially hostile to New Yorkers, so safety won't be an issue.
The head coach of the Rockets is Mike D'Antoni, who, as you may remember, was the Knicks' head coach from 2008 to 2012. In between, he coached the Los Angeles Lakers. Before the Knicks, he coached the Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns. So far, his best head coaching performance remains reaching the Western Conference Finals with the Suns in 2005 and '06.
Neither the Nets' visit nor the Knicks' visit this season will feature a promotion. The Rockets hold auditions instead of having a regular National Anthem singer, but, during the 2015 Playoffs, 12-year-old Nicholas Connors brought the house down with his rendition. A group called Clymax produced a theme song for the Rockets, "Blasting Off." Badluck Traffic King produced another, "Red Nation."
The Rockets' mascot is Clutch the Bear. I'm not sure what a bear has to do with rockets, but he's named for the Rockets' 1994 and 1995 titles, when the former "Choke City" became known as "Clutch City." He was named NBA Mascot of the Year in 2013, and has been elected to the Mascot Hall of Fame.
Clutch and Dwight Howard
They have a female dance team called the Rockets Power Dancers, a male dance team called the Launch Crew, a drumline called Sonic Boom, a dunk team called Anti-Gravity, a coed kids' dance team called the Little Dippers, and a coed senior citizens' dance team called the Space City Seniors. No, I'm not making any of that up.
The Red Rowdies sit behind the north end basket (on the Polk Street side of the arena) in Section 114, and are a fan group in the style of European soccer "ultras." Not hooligans: They are not violent. They are, however, loud, and very well organized.
After the Game. Houston is a comparatively low-crime city, and as long as you behave yourself, the home fans will probably behave themselves, win or lose.
The Grove, at 1611 Lamar Street in park named Discovery Green, calls itself "upscale-casual," which sounds like a contradiction to me. Andalucia serves Spanish food, and Guadalajara serves Mexican; both are at the buildng at 1201 San Jacinto Street. China Garden is at 1602 Leeland Street. All of these are within 3 blocks of the Toyota Center.
Lucky's Pub appears to be the go-to bar for New Yorkers living in the Houston area. It is at 801 St. Emanuel Street at Rusk Street, a 12-minute walk from the United Center, adjacent to BBVA Compass Stadium, the new home of MLS' Houston Dynamo.
I've also heard that Twin Peaks is a Giant fans' bar, at 4527 Lomitas Avenue, about 4 miles southwest of downtown, Bus 041; and that Stadia Sports Grill is a Jet fans' bar, at 11200 Broadway Street in Pearland, 16 miles south of downtown, and unreachable by public transportation.
If your visit to Houston is during the European soccer season (which we are now in), and you want to watch your favorite club play, the best place to do so, because of its early opening, is BarMunich, 2616 Louisiana Street at Dennis Street, just south of downtown. Light Rail to McGowen.
Sidelights. On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Houston came in 18th.
Before the Toyota Center, the Rockets played at The Summit, later known as the Compaq Center, from 1975 to 2003. Elvis Presley sang at The Summit on August 28, 1976. It's been converted into the Lakewood Church Central Campus, a megachurch presided over by Dr. Joel Osteen. He was famously shamed into opening it to refugees from Hurricane Harvey, as one would expect such a public and vocal Christian to do. 3700 Southwest Freeway at Timmons Lane. Number 53 bus.
The arena/church today
Before that, between their 1971 move from San Diego and the 1975 opening of The Summit, they played some home games at the Astrodome, some at the Astrohall, some at the Sam Houston Coliseum, and some at the Hofheinz Pavilion.
Hofheinz Pavilion
In 1965, the Astrodome opened, and was nicknamed "The Eighth Wonder of the World." It sure didn't seem like an exaggeration: The first roofed sports stadium in the world. (Supposedly, the Romans built stadia with canvas roofs, but that's hardly the same thing.) The Astros played there until 1999, and then moved into Enron Field/Minute Maid Park for the 2000 season. The AFL/NFL's Oilers played at the Astrodome from 1968 to 1996, when they moved to Tennessee to become the Titans.
In 2002, the new NFL team, the Houston Texans, began play next-door to the Astrodome, at Reliant Stadium, now named NRG Stadium, which, like Minute Maid Park, has a retractable roof. Suddenly, the mostly-vacant Astrodome seemed, as one writer put it, like a relic of a future that never came to be. (This same writer said the same thing of Shea Stadium and, across Roosevelt Avenue, the surviving structures of the 1964 World's Fair.)
Once, the Astrodome was flashy enough to be the site of movies like The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training and Murder at the World Series. (Both were released in 1977. In the latter, the Astros, who had never yet gotten close to a Pennant, played the Series against the Oakland Athletics, who had just gotten fire-sold by owner Charlie Finley.)
The Astrodome, with NRG Stadium behind it
The Astrodome also hosted the legendary 1968 college basketball game between Number 1 UCLA (with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then still Lew Alcindor) and Number 2 University of Houston (whose Elvin Hayes led them to victory, before UCLA got revenge in that year's Final Four); the 1971 NCAA Final Four, with UCLA defeating Villanova in the Final; and the cheese-tastic 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, the "Battle of the Sexes."
The place was not designed with basketball in mind.
The Astrodome hosted 3 fights for the Heavyweight Champion of the World, with the defending Champion winning all 3 by knockout: Muhammad Ali over Cleveland Williams on November 14, 1966; Ali over Ernie Terrell on February 6, 1967; and Larry Holmes over Randall "Tex" Cobb on November 26, 1982.
Elvis sang there on February 27, 28 and March 1, 1970 and on March 3, 1974. It hosted Selena's last big concert before her murder in 1995, and when Jennifer Lopez starred in the film Selena, it was used for the re-creation. In 2004, the same year NRG (then Reliant) Stadium hosted Super Bowl XXXVIII (which was won by... Janet Jackson, I think), the Astrodome was used to film a high school football playoff for the film version of Friday Night Lights; the old Astros division title banners can be clearly seen.
NRG Stadium hosted the Final Four in 2011 (Connecticut beating Butler in the Final), and earlier this year (Villanova beating North Carolina). It hosted Super Bowl LI in 2017, with (take your pick: The Atlanta Falcons choking, or the New England Patriots cheating). It hosted 4 games each in the CONCACAF Gold Cups of 2005 and 2007, and 2 games each in that tournament in 2009, 2011, 2019 and 2021.
It will host the 2023 NCAA Final Four and the 2023-24 College Football National Championship Game, and it has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.
Today, though, the Astrodome seems, like the Republican Party that held a ridiculously bigoted Convention there in 1992, stuck in the past -- and not because they renominated failed President George H.W. Bush. The former Eighth Wonder of the World is now nicknamed the Lonely Landmark, and while it served as a shelter for people displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, since 2008, when it was hit with numerous code violations, only maintenance workers and security guards have been allowed to enter. The stadium's future is not clear: Some officials are worried that demolishing it would damage the new stadium and other nearby structures.
On February 13, 2018, the Harris County Commissioners, the Dome's overseers, approved the Astrodome Revitalization Project, which will raise the stadium's floor and use the space underneath as a huge parking garage. Construction is expected to be completed sometime in 2020.
NRG Stadium was built roughly on the site of Colt Stadium, which was the baseball team's home in their first 3 seasons, 1962, '63 and '64, when they were known as the Houston Colt .45's (spelled with the apostrophe), before moving into the dome and changing the name of the team. Astrohall, built in 1971, was torn down in 2002 to make way for parking for the new stadium (which, after all, was built on Astrodome parking).
The climate-controlled Astrodome was necessary because of not just the heat and the humidity, but because of the mosquitoes. Later, seeing the artificial turf that was laid in the Astrodome for 1966 after the grass died in the first season, due to the skylights in the dome having to be painted due to the players losing the ball in the sun, Koufax, he of the mosquito quip, said, "I was one of those guys who pitched without a cup. I wouldn't do it on this stuff. And Dick Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies, looking at the first artificial field in baseball history, said, "If a horse can't eat it, I don't want to play on it."
The Astrodome hosted a 1988 match between the national soccer teams of the U.S. and Ecuador, which Ecuador won. NRG Stadium has hosted 3 such matches, a 2008 draw with Mexico, a 2011 win over Panama, and a 2016 loss to Argentina in the Copa America. The Mexico team has made it a home-away-from-home, playing several matches there.
NRG Stadium hosted the NCAA Final Four in 2011 (Connecticut beating Butler) and 2016 (Villanova winning a thriller of a Final over North Carolina). And it has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.
The NRG complex, including the Astrodome, is at 8400 Kirby Drive at NRG Parkway. Number 700 bus, or Reliant Park station on METRORail.
Minute Maid Park opened in 2000, at 501 Crawford Street, attached to Union Station. The Astros were able to play on God's own grass for the 1st time since 1965, and under God's own sky for the 1st time since 1964. They have now reached the postseason there 4 times: The 2001 National League Division Series, the 2004 NL Championship Series, the 2005 World Series, and the 2015 American League Division Series. Preston Station on METRORail.
The Houston Aeros, with Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty, won the World Hockey Association championships of 1974 and 1975, while playing at the Sam Houston Coliseum, before moving into the Summit in 1975 (where they reached the Finals again in 1976), and folding in 1978. Larry Lund, Ron Grahame, Terry Ruskowski and all 3 Howes were named to the WHA All-Time Team.
Elvis sang there on October 13, 1956, and the Beatles played there on August 19, 1965. It was built in 1937 and demolished in 1998. It replaced Sam Houston Hall, where the 1928 Democratic Convention nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York, who thus became the 1st Catholic nominated for President by a major party. The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is now on the site. 801 Bagby Street, at Rusk Street, downtown.
With even the minor-league Aeros gone, the closest NHL team to Houston is the Dallas Stars, 242 miles away, although some Houstonians would rather vote for a gay black Democrat than root for a Dallas team. Gary Bettman is still Commissioner, he still prefers the Sun Belt to Canada, the city has a relatively new arena, and Houston would rank 10th in population among NHL markets, so it is still possible that they could get a team.
The Houston Oilers played at Jeppesen Stadium from 1960 to 1964. They won the 1960 AFL Championship Game there, won the 1961 title game on the road, and lost the 1962 title game there -- and, as the Oilers and the Tennessee Titans, haven't gone as far as the rules allowed them to since 1961.
Built in 1942, it became Robertson Stadium, and was the former home of the University of Houston football team and the former home of MLS' Houston Dynamo. The new John O'Quinn Field at TDECU Stadium (named for Texas Dow Employees Credit Union) has been built at the site. 3874 Holman Street at Cullen Blvd., about 4 miles southeast of downtown. Number 52 bus.
The Dynamo and the National Women's Soccer League's Houston Dash have moved to BBVA Compass Stadium, at 2200 Texas Avenue at Dowling Street. Within walking distance of downtown. On January 29, 2013, it hosted its 1st U.S. national team match, a draw with Canada. The U.S. women's team beat Mexico 6-2 there on April 8, 2018.
UPDATE: The USMNT played there again on March 26, 2019, a 1-1 draw in a friendly with Chile. It hosted 6 games of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup. And it is now named PNC Stadium.
The Oilers played the 1965, '66 and '67 seasons at Rice Stadium, home of Rice University. Although built in 1950 and probably already obsolete, it seated a lot more people than did the Astrodome, and so Super Bowl VIII was played there in January 1974, and the Miami Dolphins won it -- and haven't won a Super Bowl since. It has been significantly renovated, and Rice still uses it. University Blvd. at Greenbriar Street, although the mailing address is 6100 S. Main Street, about 5 miles southwest of downtown. Number 700 bus.
Before there were the Astros, or even the Colt .45's, there were the Houston Buffaloes. The Buffs played at Buffalo Stadium, a.k.a. Buff Stadium, for most of their history, from 1928 to 1961, when the Colt .45's made them obsolete.
They were a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals, and as a result in its last years Buff Stadium was renamed Busch Stadium. The Cardinal teams of the 1930s that would be known as the "Gashouse Gang" came together in Houston, with Dizzy and Daffy Dean, Joe Medwick, Pepper Martin and Enos Slaughter. Later Buff stars included Cleveland Indians 3rd baseman Al Rosen, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, Negro League legend Willard Brown, Cardinal MVP Ken Boyer, and Phillies shortstop Ruben Amaro Sr.
Wanting to lure in more customers but also to beat the infamous Houston heat, lights were installed in 1930, 5 years before any major league park had them. The Buffs won 8 Texas League Pennants: 1928, 1931, 1940, 1947, 1951, 1954, 1956 and 1957. The stadium was at the southwest corner of Leeland Street & Cullen Blvd., about 2 1/2 miles southeast of downtown. A furniture store is on the site now. Number 20 bus.
There's another notable sports site in Houston: The U.S. Military Entry Processing Station, in the Customs House, where Muhammad Ali, then living and training in Houston, had to report to fulfill his draft obligation. He did report there, on April 28, 1967, and refused to be drafted. (To be fair, they did call his birth name, Cassius Clay, not his legal name, Muhammad Ali.) Ali was convicted of draft evasion and stripped of the Heavyweight Title. He stayed out of prison on appeal, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which overturned the conviction.
The Customs House is still standing, and still used in part by the U.S. Department of Defense. 701 San Jacinto Street. Central Station on METRORail.
In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang at Hofheinz Pavilion on November 12, 1971; and June 4 and 5, 1975. He also sang at the City Auditorium on October 8, 1955 and April 21, 1956. It's better known as the venue where R&B singer Johnny Ace mistakenly shot himself before a show on Christmas Day, December 25, 1955. The Jones Hall for the Performing Arts replaced it in 1966. 615 Louisiana Street at Capitol Street, downtown.
Also, early in his career, Elvis sang in Houston at the Paladium Club (8100 S. Main Street, near the Astrocomplex) on November 26, 27 and 28, 1954; Cook's Hoedown (603 Capitol Street, around the corner from Jones Hall) on November 27 and December 28, 1954, and April 24 and August 7, 1955; Magnolia Gardens (12044 Riverside Street, no public transit) on April 24, May 22, June 19 and August 7, 1955; and Eagles Hall at 2204 Louisiana Street on January 1 and March 19, 1955 (2204 Louisiana Street, downtown). All of these have since been demolished.
Elvis sang near the University of Texas campus in Austin, 160 miles to the northwest, at Dessau Hall on March 17, 1955, the Sportscenter on August 25, 1955, the Skyline Club on January 18, 1956, and the Municipal Auditorium on March 28, 1977. And he sang near the Texas A&M campus, 100 miles to the northwest, at the Rodeo Grounds in Bryan on August 23, 1955 and the G. Rolle White Coliseum in College Station on October 3, 1955;
Elvis also sang in South Texas at the City Auditorium in Beaumont, 85 miles to the northeast, on June 20 and 21, 1955 and January 17, 1956; at the football stadium at Conroe High School, 40 miles to the north, on August 24, 1955; in Corpus Christi, 200 miles to the southwest, at the Hoedown Club on July 3, 1955 and the Memorial Coliseum on April 16, 1956; in Galveston, 50 miles to the southeast, at the City Auditorium on January 16, 1956; at the baseball field in Gonzales, 130 miles to the west, on August 26, 1955; at Woodrow Wilson High School in Port Arthur, 90 miles to the east on November 25, 1955; and at Southwest Texas State University (LBJ's alma mater, now "Texas State"), 165 miles to the west, on October 6, 1955.
There are other places that might be considered "South Texas" where he sang, but I'll include them with "West Texas" when I do this for the San Antonio Spurs.
The tallest building in Houston, and in all of Texas, is the JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly the Texas Commerce Tower. It was built in 1982 at 600 Travis Street at Texas Avenue, downtown, and stands 1,002 feet tall, rising 75 stories above the concrete over the bayou. It is the tallest 5-sided building in the world.
Houston's version of New York's American Museum of Natural History is the Houston Museum of Natural Science, in Hermann Park, at Main Street and Hermann Park Drive. The Sam Houston Monument is a few steps away. The Houston Museum of Fine Arts is at 1001 Bissonnet Street, just 5 blocks away. Both can be reached by the Number 700 bus.
Of course, the name "Houston" is most connected with two things: Its namesake, the legendary Senator, Governor and war hero Sam Houston; and the Johnson Space Center, the NASA control center named after President Lyndon B. Johnson, who, as Senate Majority Leader, wrote the bill creating NASA and the Space Center, because he thought it would bring a lot of jobs and money to Houston (and he was right).
Aside from his Monument, most historic sites relating to Sam are not in the city that bears his name. As for reaching the Johnson Space Center, it's at 1601 NASA Parkway and Saturn Lane. The Number 249 bus goes there, so if you don't have a car, Houston, you won't have a problem.
Although Houston was where George H.W. and Barbara Bush went to live after leaving the White House, the elder George Bush's Presidential Library is at Texas A&M University, 100 miles away in College Station. Both of them died in 2018, and have been buried at the Library at TAMU. As a former baseball player, Bush is the only President so far who had his Library designed by HOK, designer of several sports facilities including our own MetLife Stadium.
The Alley Theatre, downtown at 615 Texas Avenue, opened in 1968, and in 1976 hosted the Vice Presidential debate between Senators Walter Mondale and Bob Dole. This is where Dole named World War I, World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars as "all Democrat wars" -- forgetting that the Republicans wanted America to get into all but World War II, and didn't want that one because they liked the Nazis' anti-union status; and that it was actually the Republicans who got us into Vietnam.
There have been a few TV shows set in Houston, but the only one that lasted was Reba, starring country singer Reba McIntire. But it was filmed in Los Angeles, so if you're a fan, you won't find the house in Houston.
Congressman Matthew Santos, a Houston native played by Jimmy Smits, was inaugurated as President on the last episode of The West Wing. Of interest to me was Outlaws, in which a sheriff tried to capture his former gang, but all 5 of them were transported from 1899 to 1986. Realizing they needed each other, they teamed up, and, with the gold that was transported with them, they bought what they needed and formed a private detective agency. It lasted just 1 season.
Films set in Houston, in addition to the sports-themed ones, include Brewster McCloud (which also used the Astrodome), Logan's Run (which used the Houston Hyatt Regency for some scenes),
Telefon (set there but filmed in California), Terms of Endearment, Reality Bites, and, perhaps most iconically, Urban Cowboy.
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Houston can be hot, but it's a good sports town, and, best of all, it's not Dallas. So there can be a good old time in the hot town tonight.
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