Remembering the Eighth Wonder of the World A STORY WORTH TELLING
“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.”
— Albert Einstein
It’s your shining moment on the big television game show. The emcee says with fanfare, “For today’s jackpot and a chance to come back next for the grand prize … What is the Eighth Wonder of the World?”
While there appears to be no official list of “wonders of the world” internet intelligence agrees to support, several unofficial lists claim legitimacy.
Included are Natural Wonders of the World, Ancient Wonders of the World and the New Seven Wonders of the World.
The latter has created even more controversy, leaving the jury still out on the Eighth Wonder of the World.
But if you’re a born and reared Texan old enough to remember when a dollar’s worth of gas would get you to school and back all week, you have other visions when someone talks of an eighth wonder. After all, the Eighth Wonder of the World in Texas was integral to many lives, including mine. And it crossed my mind when I drove past it a few weeks ago.
“The Houston Domed Stadium,” the world’s first domed sports stadium, was dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World in 1965 when the Astros opened the arena with a 2-1 exhibition game victory against the New York Yankees. Then the name was changed to “The Astrodome.”
This coincided with the opening of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in one of the fastest-growing cities in America.
Houston businessman R.E. “Bob” Smith teamed with former Houston Mayor and Harris County Judge Roy Hofheinz to develop what would become known as the Astrodome. Following a masterful presentation by Hofheinz to major league owners, Houston was awarded a major league expansion team in the National League on Oct.
17, 1960.
“The Eighth Wonder of the World is looking a little forlorn,” I thought when I recently saw it, less glamorous than when it was a frequent destination for me in the late ‘60s for Astros baseball games, Oilers football games, motorcycle races and The Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition.
It started with baseball games, sitting high in the only domed stadium in the world and taking it all in. I enjoyed Astros’ games with Randy Brogoitti, but the aftergame concerts by country stars of the day were icing on the cake.
My relationship with the Astrodome continued into the ‘70s. By then, my focus had shifted from major league sports to championship motorcycle racing. Anticipation for the January trek from Mount Pleasant to Houston began building the day after Christmas.
The Mount Pleasant crowd making the trip differed yearly, but Oscar Elliott and I always made the journey. Somewhere in my archive of thousands of Kodachrome slides, trackside shots of ‘70s standouts like Kenny Roberts are hiding.
Those are waiting to be viewed one more time, along with press and trackside credentials to some of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco-sponsored Camel Pro Series.
Fat Stock Show and rodeo entertainment in the Dome included Alabama, Alan Jackson, Bob Dylan, Chicago, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton and more.
Concerts over the years included Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson and many others, including George Strait, who set the venue record at 80,266 as the last show in the Astrodome in 2002. Strait’s “One Last Time” performance closed the rodeo and said goodbye to the Dome.
Even Evel Knievel staged one of his motorcycle jumps there, successfully clearing 13 cars two nights in a row.
But for all its records, glory and history, time caught up with the Eighth Wonder of the World in 2008 when the Houston Fire Department declared it noncompliant with fire codes. The seating was removed, and parts of it demolished.
In 2014, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In a 2023 competition by the American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, a University of Houston architecture team spent the summer studying the building.
A plan was proposed to transform the iconic structure into an indoor public street with a botanical garden, retail space, hotel rooms and a massive museum dedicated to the Dome’s history.
The Houston-based team’s concept was awarded first place.
However, Harris County leaders haven’t responded yet, according to currently available information, but local architects are hopeful the plan will save the historic architecture.
Seeing the famous stadium recently renewed old memories. It will take lots of money, most of it at compound interest. But maybe she will see a new lease on life.
“Yes, Alex, I’ll take $1,000 for Eighth Wonder of the World in Texas.”
— Contact Aldridge at leonaldridge@gmail. com. Other columns are archived at leonaldridge. com
