Happy State Bank Stadium, formerly known as Kimbrough Memorial Stadium, is a

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Canyon, Texas Canyon is a city in, and the county seat of, Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,836 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Amarillo, Texas, metropolitan statistical area. Canyon is the home of West Texas A&M University and ...

. It is owned by

Canyon Independent School District Canyon Independent School District is a school district that serves the Canyon and Amarillo area in Randall County of the Texas Panhandle. The district covers a large area, which encompasses 732 square miles. The north end of the district has ...

and is primarily used for

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

. It is the home stadium for Canyon High School and Randall High School of Canyon Independent School District, and is the former home of

West Texas A&M University West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It was established on Se ...

. The stadium holds 20,000 people and was built in 1959. It was originally called Buffalo Bowl on Canyon Hill but was renamed Kimbrough Memorial Stadium in 1971 in honor of the late West Texas State University football coach and athletic director

Frank Kimbrough Frank Kimbrough (November 2, 1956 – December 30, 2020) was an American post-bop jazz pianist. He was born and raised in Roxboro, North Carolina. He did some work at Chapel Hill before moving to Washington, D. C. in 1980 and then New York City i ...

. Starting in the 2020 season, the stadium is going to be renamed Happy State Bank Stadium, but Frank Kimbrough will still have a place at the old West Texas A&M home stadium: "Canyon ISD plans to honor the late former West Texas A&M athletic director and head football coach Frank Kimbrough, whose name stood on the stadium since 1971 with a memorial grove area at the front entrance of the new facility on the south end of the stadium." In the first football game played at the stadium in 1959, West Texas A&M, then known as West Texas State, was defeated by the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

by a score of 7–6. The most attended event in the history of the stadium was a

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

game on October 13, 2007, between West Texas A&M and

Eastern New Mexico University Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU or Eastern) is a public university with a main campus in Portales, New Mexico, and two associate degree-granting branches, one at Ruidoso and one at Roswell. ENMU is New Mexico's largest regional comprehensi ...

, with 23,276 spectators present as West Texas A&M won the game by a score of 62–31.
In September 2017, Canyon ISD purchased the stadium from West Texas A&M. The stadium had previously been leased to Canyon ISD since 1991.

References

College football venues West Texas A&M Buffaloes football American football venues in Texas Buildings and structures in Randall County, Texas {{TAMU-stub