When discussing the hottest ballparks in baseball history, former Colt .45s star Rusty Staub summed up Colt Stadium perfectly: “I don’t care what ballpark they ever talk about as being the hottest place on the face of the Earth, Colt Stadium was it.” For three sweltering seasons, players and fans endured Houston’s relentless heat, humidity, and mosquitoes before finally moving into the air-conditioned comfort of the Astrodome in 1965. When Major League Baseball awarded Houston a National League expansion franchise in 1960, city leaders were already planning a domed stadium. However, construction would take several years, so the new franchise needed a temporary home. Colt Stadium, a 33,000-seat ballpark built adjacent to the future site of the dome.
Named after the Houston Colt .45s, the stadium opened on April 10, 1962, when the expansion club hosted its first Major League game. The ballpark featured a single level of multicolored seats stretching from the right-field foul pole around home plate to the left-field foul pole, with additional seating in both outfield corners. A large scoreboard formed part of the center-field wall. Although the stadium was functional, it quickly earned a reputation as one of the most uncomfortable venues in professional sports. Houston’s oppressive summer heat made even evening games miserable, while clouds of mosquitoes added to the discomfort. During one Sunday doubleheader, more than 100 spectators were treated in the stadium’s first-aid station for heat-related illnesses.
As the Colt .45s battled the elements on the field, construction crews worked just beyond the first-base grandstand on what would become one of the most revolutionary stadiums in sports history, the Astrodome. By the end of the 1964 season, the futuristic domed stadium was nearing completion. The Colt .45s played their final game at Colt Stadium on September 27, 1964 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The following season, the franchise adopted a new identity as the Houston Astros and moved just across the parking lot into the Astrodome, the world’s first domed stadium. Colt Stadium, meanwhile, remained standing for several more years, serving primarily as a storage facility. To keep it from distracting visitors arriving by air, team owner Roy Hofheinz even had the entire structure painted gray so it would blend into the surrounding landscape and not detract from aerial views of the Astrodome.
In the late 1960s, Colt Stadium found a second life when it was sold to a Mexican minor league team for approximately $100,000. The stadium was dismantled, shipped to Torreón, Mexico, and reassembled for continued use. Years later, it was relocated once again, this time to Tampico, Mexico. Although no longer used for professional baseball, portions of the former Major League ballpark still exist today as part of a public park and playground, serving as a unique reminder of one of baseball’s most memorable temporary homes.
Colt Stadium Pictures
