In Texas Stadium demolition, Bears find opportunities for unique studies

Whereas Dallas Cowboys fans saw the end of an era Sunday when Texas Stadium, the team’s home for 38 seasons, was demolished, a team of seismologists led by Baylor professor Dr. Jay Pulliam instead saw an opportunity.

Pulliam and others, including Baylor graduate and undergraduate students, used seismometers around the stadium to study the seismic waves created by the stadium’s implosion, hoping to get a better image of the Earth’s crust in North Texas. Such information could help identify whether natural gas drilling in the area is to blame for a series of small earthquakes the region suffered in 2008-09. (See video of the demolition below.)

That’s not the only Baylor connection to the weekend’s events, either. A plan developed by a team of MBA students from the Hankamer School of Business for redeveloping the land Texas Stadium has sat on for four decades placed second in the fifth annual Texas Shoot-Out Real Estate Challenge, earning a prize of $7,500 from the North Texas Chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

Sic ’em, Bears!