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Miner running back Donald Buckram seemingly in flight, pulls away from Houston defenders to cross the goal line.
Photo: Brax/VPC Matrix
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UTEP Miners 2009 Homecoming Game Upset of #12 Houston.
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Miner running back Donald Buckram evading Houston defense for big gain.
Photo: Brax/VPC
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Page 1 of 5.
Photo Gallery .
UTEP's Upset of # 12 Houston.
W
ith more sadness and joy than a Greek tragedy, the theatre known as the Sun Bowl Stadium which lies beneath the hills surrounding the University of Texas at El Paso was again full to capacity for the next great saga of football fortunes and fame. It is great venue which is well known to have brought many hoards of Miner fanatics from all over the region to witness the gladiators engage in battle leaving the crowds at times at the highest levels of elations and at others with more sorrow and tears than they could endure.
Some had suggested that the gods seated on top of these majestic hills were somehow toying with the frenzied populace below. That since becoming UTEP from the once uniquely home-town Texas Western College the Miners have had few winning seasons. But, for those with short memories as well as the loyal fans who remembered the glory days of winning seasons and playing in bowl games it was an attitude of "This year the Miners will win big" and this seemed to sustain them through their shattered hopes and dreams.
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Excited Miner fans give the Homecoming parade watchers a dose of school spirit.
Photo: Brax/VPC |
But, on October 3, 2009 with a huge harvest moon rising up upon the them, the football gods had a delicious treat in store for fan, player and coach alike. Apparently tiring of only the most gut-wrenching and devastating tragedies as UTEP was routed by Texas and Kansas or just being nipped at the wire those football gods finally granted a victory of awesome proportions.
They allowed the UTEP Homecoming crowd of Miner fans one great uplifting moment that will not soon be forgotten. For those fans who packed the stadium that full moon night the football gods showed their sense of adventure as they smiled down upon the crowd that night as UTEP Miners brought glory back to the town of El Paso and put a feather in their school’s athletic cap by upsetting the red-hot and # 12 ranked Houston Cougars 58-41.
UTEP had done the unbelievable as they upset a ranked opponent for the first time since Nov. 1, 1997 when UTEP played tough and upset a # 25 ranked BYU team before a wild home crown in the Sun Bowl.
Could it have been the element of surprise for UTEP was a big underdog or was it just the desperate need for relief from so much misery in recent performances this year and in the past that made this victory so sweet. The unlikeliest candidate for such a rupture in the space-time football continum was UTEP. The Miners were coming off of a very disappointing 5-7 2008 season sans any bowl game and this year were 1-3 coming into the fray against Houston.
But, it didn't matter that a national championship wasn't on the line; when the final gun sounded it was the sweetest of feeling much like a thunderstorm in June clears the air and one's spirits as if all past sins have been atoned.
The UTEP victory sent shock waves throughout the football universe as thousands of Miner fans rushed the field in celebration. The news struck far and wide across Texas and beyond; the comet known as Houston had crashed into the hills at the Sun Bowl.
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UTEP cheerleaders showing some of their choreography at the Homecoming pep rally.
Photo: Brax/VPC |
And as the harvest moon shone brightly upon the ashes of this once meteroric BCS challenger the Miners had on that Homecoming Saturday night tasted some of the most exhilarating football nectar ever consumed upon this or any other gridiron.
As in all great tragedies there has to be victor and a victim. For Houston their rising stock value ended up as ticker-tape confetti for the Miners victory. Houston was 3-0 and ranked # 12 in the nation for the school's first Top 25 ranking since 1991.
Houston was making news each week and giving the Conference-USA fraternity something to crow about. The Cougars from Houston were riding the wave of two Big XII Conference upsets beating a highly ranked Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma and a very talented Texas Tech squad in Houston before a sellout crowd that stormed the field after the final gun.
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UTEP's Donald Buckram jukes a Houston defender.
Photo: Brax/VPC
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UTEP was already in the hole after losing to Buffalo in their home opener even as the Miners scored late in the fourth-quarter to tie the game, but the play was called back on a called penalty. And the Miners had been blown out by their two Big XII opponents; Kansas and Texas, UTEP’s only victory so far in 2009 was a drubbing of a very young New Mexico State University team in Las Cruces two weeks earlier.
Photo Gallery .
UTEP's Upset of # 12 Houston.
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Prepared by WL staff.
Photos: Brax/Valley Publishing Company
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