40 Fun Facts About Arlington, Texas

Which child-abduction warning system is named for a nine-year-old girl taken while riding her bike in Arlington in 1996?

The Amber Alert honours Amber Hagerman, who was found dead four days later. Officially the letters stand for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

Which snack became a ballpark staple after Frank Liberto began selling it at Texas Rangers games in Arlington Stadium?

Nachos reached the stands in a modified form, with cheese sauce and prepared tortilla chips, and the style became known as ballpark nachos. Liberto owned Ricos Products.

Which team name did UT Arlington students choose in 1971 to replace a Rebel theme that used Confederate symbols?

Mavericks won the student vote nine years before Dallas's NBA franchise picked the same name in 1980. The Rebel theme had run since 1951.

For many years, Arlington was the largest city in the United States without which everyday service?

Public transit lost at the ballot box three times between 1980 and 2013. Arlington's answer was Via, an on-demand shared van service launched in 2017.

Which European country is one of the six nations whose flags give Arlington's Six Flags Over Texas its name?

France sits beside Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States and the Confederacy. The park opened in 1961 with a themed section for each of the six.

Arlington, Texas takes its name from the Virginia home of which Confederate general?

Robert E. Lee's Arlington House stands in Arlington County, Virginia. The Texas town was founded in 1876 along the Texas and Pacific Railway and incorporated eight years later.

Which sport set its all-time attendance record, 108,713 fans, at a 2010 All-Star Game in Arlington's Cowboys Stadium?

Basketball's previous verified record was 78,129, set at a 2003 college game in Detroit's Ford Field. Dwyane Wade was the All-Star MVP.

Which heavy metal band was formed in Arlington in 1981 by brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott?

Pantera first went by Gemini and then Eternity before settling on the name a high-school friend recommended. Singer Phil Anselmo joined in 1986.

Which eight-time Mr. Olympia bodybuilding champion served as an Arlington police officer from 1989 to 2000?

Ronnie Coleman was still on the force when he won his first Mr. Olympia titles, and stayed on as a reserve officer until 2003. He went on to take the title eight years running.

Top O' Hill Terrace, a secret Arlington casino repeatedly raided by Texas Rangers, later became the home of what?

A Baptist university has used the grounds since a seminary bought the property in 1956. The underground tunnels built to dodge police raids are still standing.

Arlington's AT&T Stadium carries a popular nickname honouring which Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager?

Jerry Jones inspired the Jerry World nickname before any naming deal existed. The venue was officially Cowboys Stadium until AT&T bought the rights in 2013.

Which NFL team beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31–25 in Super Bowl XLV, played in Arlington in February 2011?

The Green Bay Packers took their fourth Super Bowl behind MVP Aaron Rodgers, who threw three touchdown passes. It was the first Super Bowl played in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

Which team won the 2020 World Series, the first ever played entirely at a neutral site, Arlington's Globe Life Field?

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat Tampa Bay in six games for their first title since 1988. Pandemic rules capped the crowd at 11,500, a quarter of the ballpark's seats.

Which sport's international museum and hall of fame moved from St. Louis to Arlington, opening there in 2010?

Bowling's museum sits inside the International Bowling Campus and has its own miniature alley. Its exhibits include vintage footage of greats such as Don Carter.

Which automaker opened an Arlington plant in 1954 that was designed to assemble both automobiles and aircraft?

General Motors soon settled on cars, starting with Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs. The 250-acre plant later switched to full-size SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade.

Which a cappella group that won NBC's The Sing-Off began with three schoolmates at Arlington's Martin High School?

Pentatonix grew from the trio of Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado and Mitch Grassi. The full group met only the day before the auditions, then won $200,000 and a record deal.

Which Texas Rangers pitcher threw his record seventh no-hitter at Arlington Stadium in 1991, at the age of 44?

Nolan Ryan also reached his 5,000th strikeout at the same ballpark. For nearly all of its existence it was the hottest stadium in the majors.

The 300-foot observation tower at Arlington's Six Flags Over Texas theme park is built in the shape of what?

An oil derrick it is, though it has never pumped a drop. Six Flags bills it as the world's tallest land-based one, and it opened with a twelve-lane burlap-bag slide.

Arlington was chosen in 2019 as home of a national museum honouring recipients of which American military decoration?

The Medal of Honor museum opened in March 2025 in the entertainment district, close to the city's two big-league stadiums. An earlier plan had placed it in South Carolina.

Which country star drew 104,793 fans to Arlington's AT&T Stadium in 2014 for the final concert of his farewell tour?

George Strait pulled what was then the largest crowd for an indoor concert in the United States. The show also set a gross record for a single country concert, at more than $18 million.

A visit to which California theme park inspired developer Angus Wynne to build Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington?

Disneyland had only just opened when Wynne toured it and decided Texas should have a similar park. He first meant to call his own version Texas Under Six Flags.

Which Major League Baseball team moved to Arlington after the 1971 season and became the Texas Rangers?

The Washington Senators were a 1961 expansion club, created when the earlier Senators left to become the Minnesota Twins. They never reached the postseason before the move.

Which team did Arlington's Texas Rangers beat in the 2023 World Series to claim the first title in franchise history?

The Arizona Diamondbacks lost in five games, the first two of them played in Arlington. Both clubs had entered the postseason as wild cards.

Which sport was staged at Arlington Downs, where Texas issued its first legal betting permit in 1933?

Horse racing came to the Downs through W.T. Waggoner, who built the $3 million track on his Three D's Stock Farm. Texas repealed its betting law in 1937 and the track was sold.

From 1892 until 1951, what stood in the exact middle of downtown Arlington and gave travellers a reason to visit?

A mineral water well was the town's calling card for almost 60 years. It has since been paved over, and a public memorial plaza now marks the site.

Which type of water ride made its debut at Arlington's Six Flags Over Texas in 1963 under the name El Aserradero?

The log flume was Arrow Development's first, and its Spanish name means The Sawmill. Three years later the park added Arrow's first mine train roller coaster.

Which roller coaster at Arlington's Six Flags park was the world's tallest wooden coaster when it debuted in 1990?

Texas Giant later kept much of its wooden frame but swapped the track for steel, becoming the first coaster rebuilt with Rocky Mountain Construction's I-Box rails.

Arlington's Six Flags Hurricane Harbor traded under which water park brand, created by SeaWorld's founder, until 1997?

Wet 'n Wild was George Millay's chain, begun in Orlando in 1977. The Arlington park took the Hurricane Harbor name in 1997 under its new owner, Six Flags.

The WNBA's Dallas Wings moved to Arlington for the 2016 season from which city, where the team was called the Shock?

Tulsa had hosted the franchise for six seasons after it left Detroit, where it began in 1998. The Wings' first Arlington home was UT Arlington's College Park Center.

Which team won the first College Football Playoff title game, played at Arlington's AT&T Stadium in January 2015?

The Ohio State Buckeyes, seeded fourth, won 42–20 after upsetting top-ranked Alabama in their semi-final. It was the school's first national title since 2002.

Arlington, the largest Texas city that is not a county seat, lies in which county governed from Fort Worth?

Tarrant County shares its name with Texas General Edward H. Tarrant. After his 1841 campaign in the area, a trading post was set up at Marrow Bone Spring in present-day Arlington.

Interstate 30 through Arlington carries the memorial highway name of which former Dallas Cowboys head coach?

Tom Landry's highway began as the Dallas–Fort Worth Turnpike, which lent its name to Turnpike Stadium, the 1965 minor league ballpark that became Arlington Stadium.

From which Dallas suburb did the Cowboys move in 2009 when their new stadium opened in Arlington?

Irving was home to Texas Stadium, known for the hole in its roof, the result of abandoned plans for a retractable one. It was demolished by implosion in 2010.

Which country singer, born in Arlington in 1990, graduated from the city's Bowie High School before winning a Grammy?

Maren Morris won Best Country Solo Performance for My Church at the 2017 Grammy Awards. In October 2018 she came home as a special guest at Taylor Swift's stadium show in Arlington.

UT Arlington spent decades in which rival university system before joining the UT System in 1965?

Texas A&M leaders saw the fast-growing Arlington campus as a threat to College Station and blocked its growth. By 1963 Arlington already enrolled more students than the main campus.

Which Arlington-based company became the largest homebuilder by volume in the United States in 2002?

D.R. Horton was founded in 1978 by Donald R. Horton, who took it public in 1992. It kept the top spot among American homebuilders for more than two decades.

The city of Arlington surrounds two smaller communities: Dalworthington Gardens and which other small town?

Pantego and its neighbour sit entirely inside Arlington's limits. Around its outer edge the city meets Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth.

Which Arlington mayor served from 1951 to 1977 and helped bring Six Flags and Major League Baseball to town?

Tom Vandergriff was hired as a radio broadcaster at 16, before the station learned his age. Arlington grew from about 8,000 people to over 120,000 during his 26 years as mayor.

Arlington built and owned which kind of attraction beside its ballpark in 1972, only to close it after heavy losses?

A marine park called Seven Seas opened in March 1972 and closed in 1976 after losing millions. Sea-life fossils about 100 million years old had turned up during construction.

In the first football game at Arlington's Cowboys Stadium, a Tennessee Titans punt struck which part of the building?

The video board hangs above the middle of the field, and rookie A. J. Trapasso's kick hit it, so the play was blown dead. He had struck it repeatedly in pregame warmups.