UTRGV football debut energizes Valley, fuels estimated $14.5M economic boost

EDINBURG — A cheer went up at a packed University Draft House when the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s first football team scored its first-ever touchdown in its first-ever home game last month.

The cheers kept coming through the first half, growing louder and louder as the crowd at the bar watched the UTRGV Vaqueros play their way towards a resounding victory.

A band started playing at the Draft House, and sometime after halftime, bar patrons started to lose interest in the rout on TV. With UTRGV ahead by about 50 points, someone quietly clicked off the game. 

“Well, I didn’t think they would turn it off,” one customer muttered disappointedly.