Notre Dame Beats Miami 33-17 In Sun Bowl

The sellout crowd that hoped to see the hottest game of 2010 in El Paso was hit by bitterly cold temperatures and a less-than-heated matchup.

“They hyped it up pretty good but it just didn’t turn out as good as everybody thought,” said fan Joe Martinez.

Oscar Leeser, president of Hyundai National Dealer Council and the man who attracted Hyundai’s national sponsorship for the bowl, liked what he saw.

“You know, it’s a tribute to el paso. The weather is a little bit cold but really, everybody’s here.”

Also enduring the temperatures that hovered just above the freezing mark was Mr. Sun Bowl, Jimmy Rogers Jr., who celebrated 50 years as a Sun Bowl volunteer.

“We’ve had so many great games through the years but I’ve never seen the excitement in this city as we’ve had this year about this game,” Rogers said.

It got even more exciting at halftime, when the record crowd of 54,021 sang along to country music star Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American.”

Fans began trickling out of the Sun Bowl by the third quarter and making their way to their vehicles. Some paid as much as $40 to park in the nearby Kern Place neighborhood.

“We don’t want to get in trouble driving in residential areas. We don’t want a (parking) ticket. We’ll pay the crazy price.”

Lucky fans like Chris Rodgers just had to resort to persistence to find free parking.

“It was really easy to find parking here,” Rodgers said. “It took us 15 or 20 minutes to find a place.”

Leo Duran, owner of el paso’s renowned L&J caf was all but disappointed by the game. The event, after all, provided plenty of economic impact.

“It was bigger than we thought,” said Duran. “Terrific, fans from both teams coming over, it’s been super great.”