During the 20k+ walk on Sunday, the Texas Trail Roundup takes you by Alamo Stadium at 110 Tuleta, across the street from Trinity University. If you have a spare moment, check out the murals at the west entrance.
The federal Work Progress Administration (WPA) constructed Alamo Stadium in 1939-1940 along the contours of a former limestone quarry. It is Texas’ largest high school football stadium, seating 23,000. Over the stadium’s west entrance is 100 Years of Sports in San Antonio, Texas, 1840-1940, a series of four original tile murals produced under the WPA’s arts and crafts program, using traditional Mexican techniques. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. This is what they said about the murals in the application:
“These colorful glazed tile murals depict a century of local sports activities, ranging from rooster races to the district’s football teams of 1940. These murals were designed by artist Henry Wedemeyer with assistance from Leonora Feiler under the direction of Ethel Wilson Harris, supervisor of the local WPA Arts and Crafts Division. Each mural measures five feet high by thirteen feet wide and contains 192 tiles. Each tile measures six inch square, and is three-quarters of an inch thick. The tiles were glazed fired by sixty WPA workers in kilns at Ethel Harris’ Mexican Arts and Crafts studio in south San Antonio.”
The image above depicts a 1900 rodeo. The other murals are 1840 – La Corrida de Gallos (The Rooster Race) & Indian Archery Contest; 1860 La Pelea del Gallo (The Cock Fight) & El Jarabe Tapatio (Hat Dance Contest) and 1940 – Alamo Stadium High School Sports.
