DENTON, Texas -- Hours before the inaugural game at Apogee Stadium on Saturday, North Texas fans lined up at the locked front gate and waited.
"Let us in!" Let us in!" they chanted.
Mean Green fans had waited long enough, and they didn't want to wait anymore.
Since 1952, they've cheered for North Texas in a stadium that was deficient in just about every way -- Fouts Field. For years the athletics department lobbied for a new home.
Saturday was the culmination of all that time and effort. The school finally played its first game in Apogee Stadium -- a 48-23 loss to Houston in front of 28,075 fans, just shy of capacity.
"This is terrific," said Scott Flynn, a Southlake resident and 1980 alumnus of North Texas. "We've always had a track around our field but now we're right on top of the action. I hope we can perform up to our facilities."
When the gates opened, fans walked in and marveled at the size, beauty, and cleanliness of the stadium.
They perused the numerous concession stand options in the corridor that weren't available at Fouts, including ice cream vender Beth Marie's, a local staple from the square in downtown Denton.
"It's unbelievable," said Tom Klammer, a retired North Texas accounting professor. "Fouts was a dump in the 1970s. It's [Apogee] just going to do wonders for the program."
http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/colleges/post/_/id/4673633/north-texas-opens-new-stadium-with-loss-to-houston
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