UTEP Miners

UTEP Miners is the name given to the sports teams of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Informally, the UTEP Miners have also been referred to as the Miners, UTEP, or Texas-El Paso. UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1967 to 2005, when they joined Rice, Tulsa, and SMU in leaving the WAC for Conference USA. The UTEP Miners are best known as the only team in Texas to win a NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. UTEP's colors are orange and blue and the mascot is a miner named Paydirt Pete. The athletic director for the Miners is Bob Stull.

Athletics
The University of Texas at El Paso has varsity teams in the following sports:

Men's sports:
 * Football
 * Basketball
 * Golf
 * Cross-Country
 * Track & Field

Women's sports:
 * Basketball
 * Cross-Country
 * Golf
 * Rifle
 * Soccer
 * Softball
 * Tennis
 * Track & Field
 * Volleyball

Football


Playing their first game in 1914, the UTEP Miners football team currently compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The team plays its games in the Sun Bowl Stadium, and head coach Mike Price recently retired from his 9th and final season at UTEP in 2012.

UTEP was a member of the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, from 1941-1961. The football team won a conference championship in 1956.

NCAA Division I National Championships
UTEP's sports programs have won a total of 21 NCAA Division I national championships. UTEP is currently tied for 10th overall among schools in Men's Sports Division I championships.
 * Men's Basketball: 1
 * Men's Cross country: 7
 * Men's Indoor Track & Field: 7
 * Men's Outdoor Track & Field: 6

1966 Texas Western basketball team
As Texas Western, the Miners won the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. The 72-65 victory over Kentucky in College Park, Maryland is considered one of the most important in the history of college basketball, as it marked the first time that a team with five African-American starters won a title game. It came against a Kentucky team that had no African-American players, during the period of the Civil Rights Movement.

The title team has been chronicled throughout the American media, including the books Basketball's Biggest Upset by Ray Sanchez and When the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Frank Fitzpatrick and the 2006 Disney movie Glory Road.

The team was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame

2008 Olympics
UTEP students and alumni participated in track and field events.

Traveling trophies
The winner of the UTEP vs New Mexico State University football game receives a pair of traveling trophies; The Silver Spade and The Brass Spittoon. The first spade used for this purpose was an old prospector's shovel dug up from an abandoned mine in the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1947. This was the symbol of victory, and the spade was given to the winner of the football game between the Miners and Aggies each year.

The idea of the present Silver Spade was from UTEP student Don Henderson, the student association president and now a very successful El Paso businessman and former mayor of the city. In 1955 Henderson secured the present spade and each year the score of the game is engraved on the blade.

Perhaps the idea behind the spade is the fact that at the time the prospector's spade was uncovered, both schools' major field of study had use for the tool, mining and metallurgy for the College of Mines and agriculture at then New Mexico A&M. The Brass Spittoon, officially known as the Mayor's Cup, came into existence in 1982 when the mayors of the two cities; Jonathan Rogers of El Paso, and David Steinberg of Las Cruces decided to present another traveling trophy to the winner of the UTEP vs New Mexico State University game. This game is more commonly known as "The Battle of I-10.

Sports venues
UTEP owns the two largest stadiums in El Paso:
 * Sun Bowl Stadium, seating capacity 52,000, opened its doors in 1963 and is currently the home to the UTEP football team and to the annual Hyundai Sun Bowl game. Sun Bowl Stadium is also now home to the Texas vs. The Nation Game, a college football all-star game.
 * Don Haskins Center, seating capacity 12,222, was built in 1976 and is primarily used by the men's and women's basketball teams.
 * University Field (UTEP), seating capacity 500, was built in 1991 and hosts the women's soccer team.