Over the years, many people have come to know the Sun Bowl as the annual site of the Sun Bowl Game, taking the same name as the facility, the Sun Bowl. However, the Sun Bowl is also the home of the Texas El Paso Miners. In 1935, the first Sun Bowl game was played at Kidd Field, as a fundraising effort that led to the annual Sun Bowl game each year.

The Sun Bowl Association was founded in order to construct a stadium for this annual game and other football games. It took several decades for the actual Sun Bowl Stadium to be built. By the early 1960s support grew and the Sun Bowl was finally constructed near Kidd Field. The 30,000 seat stadium opened on September 21, 1963 when UTEP beat North Texas State. The first Sun Bowl Game was played at the stadium on December 31, 1963 between Oregon and SMU. Over the past five decades the Sun Bowl has been expanded once, before the 1982 season. It was expanded to seat nearly 51,000, as seats were added on the east side of the stadium. In 2001, the seating capacity was reduced slightly as some seats were removed for soccer. In April 2018 the university announced plans for a $15 million renovation of the stadium. Completed by the 2020 season, this project includes a new press facility, luxury boxes, updated concourses and the addition of premium seating on the west side of the Sun Bowl. Although it continues to be home of the annual Sun Bowl game, the facility is the home of the Texas El Paso Miners football team each Fall.