First Night Football Game at Rice!

Ethel was not a big sports fan as far as I can recall, but my sons will be pleased to discover that she did know a bit about college football. She may have never set foot at the newly remodeled football stadium, on campus, but here is an article she wrote about Rice's promising 1939 team and their upcoming schedule.

Eyes of Nation Football Fans Will Turn to RiceSept. 30 for First Night Game

September 12th, 1939

The eyes of football fans all over the nation will turn toward Houston on September 30, where one of the major early season games will be played between Rice Institute and Vanderbilt University.
The game will also initiate night football at Rice Stadium. Lights have been installed at the new stadium, which has been put in readiness for the 1939 schedule. The Owls opened training last week.

Outstanding Team.

Owls have been touted by sports writers throughout the Southwest inference as one of outstanding teams s of the conference. Besides a wealth of material held over from last year's squad, including Ernie Lain and Olie Cordell, the varsity is enlarged by a great freshman squad of last year.

1938 returning Rice Football stars
Ernie Lain and Olie Cordill
Source:U.S.School Yearbooks>Texas>Houston>Rice>1938>p.216.
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
Operations, Inc., 2010.p.216 

The four games of the season three of them at Rice Stadium will be played at night. After Vanderbilt, the Owls on October 7 played Centenary at Houston then on October 14 play Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and return home to meet Sam Houston State Teachers College on October 21. All night games start at 8 o'clock.

Conference  Action.

The Owls will then go to Austin to swing into action action in conference competition, meeting the University of Texas on October 28. This, and the remainder of  games on the schedule, will be afternoon game, starting at 2:30 p.m.

On November 4 the Owls will travel to New York to meet Fordham University Rams in the last intersectional game on the schedule. They then resume Southwest Conference play, meeting the University of Arkansas Razorbacks here on November 11 and then Teas Aggies here on November 18. 

Rice will play Texas Christian University Horned Frogs in Fort Worth on November 25, will return home to meet Baylor University’’s Bears on December 2 and will close the season in Dallas, playing Southern Methodist University on December 9. 

Rice's Winning Football Team from 1938
Campanile Yearbook 1938
Source:U.S.School Yearbooks>Texas>Houston>Rice>1938>p.210. 
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com 
Operations, Inc., 2010. 

The 1938 squad Ethel mentioned, indeed had a great year. They were the first Rice team to reach the Cotton Bowl where they defeated Colorado 28-14 (Rice Historical Society Timeline). This championship team surely benefited from a newly remodeled stadium.  On September 23rd, 1938, the Thresher reported that the construction cost of $160,000 was raised by Rice fans in exchange for ticket options. Clearly, Texas was pulling out of the Great Depression! In 1939, the lights were turned on for the returning championship team, who were to hold the first game of the season at night!

Do you venture to guess when the first ever college football game was played under the lights? I did a little research and the answer surprised me. September 28th 1892! The game was held in Mansfield, Pennsylvania between Mansfield State Normal and Wyoming Seminary. Professional football did not hold a night game until twenty years later in 1902!

I can not help but conjure the popular TV series Friday Night Lights which aired a few years ago, based on a Texas high school football team. Today, the popularity of college football, has soared to unimaginable heights, and even high school football is played under the lights, in almost American towns. As reflected in Ethel's article, the Texan football tradition is deeply rooted. I bet she would have related to this highly acclaimed football tv drama. 

If you are a football fan and want to read more about the old stadium, here are several links to great posts, photos of the stadium and it's construction from the Rice History Corner Blog by Melissa Kean:

• The Old Old Football Stadium
• The 1937 Campus Map and the “New” Rice Stadium
• The View from Inside the Old Stadium

Following the 1939 Football season promises to be an exciting! Let's hope the Owls won their first night game against Vanderbilt University! I hope the scrapbook has more articles about the game!

Back to School

The next section of the scrapbook is also packed with articles. Two more pages of the Ethel's scrapbook are pack with articles spanning only four days: September 12-15. This first article is noted as Back-to-School and had not one, but two large photos. In this article, Ethel chose to celebrate Rice's advancements into modernity by examining Rice's History!

Rice Grows From Four Buildings On Prairie to Modern Institute 

September 12, 1939 back-to-school

Photo of the Rice Institue Administration Building

"Rice Institute which begins its twenty-seventh academic session with classes Monday, started an education infant in 1912 and has grown to one of the nation’s outstanding seats of learning. 

Some 1350 students will register at Rice Institute this year, it was announced, about 400 of them freshmen.

Far Different Scene

But the students who go to Rice Institute this year to begin another year of study will meet a far different scene than did the comparative handful of students who were on deck to begin their college education when Rice first open it’s doors on September 23, 1912. 

Photo caption: Above is pictured the Cohen
House, one of the newest building at Rice
Institue.It is used as a clubhouse for
Faculty Members

Today beautiful landscaped grounds and buildings of conforming architecture greet the new students. In 1912 Rice Institute was just four buildings on plowed prairie land with no tree or shrub in sight. 

But the 59 students who registered for the first classes saw that the foundations of a great institution had been laid, and the opening exercises gave notice to the world that nothing but the best was aspired to, that the new institution proposed to take its place among the greatest in the world. 

Colorful Story

William March Rice
Source: Wikipedia

The story of Rice Institute is a colorful-one. This beginning, with high aspirations, had been made possible by a New Englander who came to Texas a youth, became rich and left $15,000,000 of his fortune for the building and maintenance of a large educational plant for Houston Texas. That New Englander was William Marsh Rice, for whom the institute is named.

Dr. Edgar Odell Lovett, who has been president of Rice since its inception, and other heads of the college have brought to Houston many distinguished individuals as lecturers and about as many able scholars are resident members of the institute itself. It has gained steadily in national recognition both for its scholastic standing and its athletic teams.

Dr. Edgar Odell Lovett
Source: Rice Campanile Yearbook 1917

On Rice’s faculty are several internationally noted scientist, among them Dr. Harry Boyer Weiser, professor of chemistry; Dr. Asa Crawford Chandler, professor of biology, and Dr. Edgar A Altenberg assistant professor of biology.

The institute offers a liberal education in arts, as well as in sciences and engineering, for which it is particularly noted."

The first publication of the student newspaper at Rice, the Threser, was published Thursday, September 14th, in anticipation of the first day of class, Monday September 18th. All of the articles we have reviewed so far, were published prior to the first day of school. She continues to review the changes at Rice in preparation for the new academic year. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the academic year of 1939-1940 to finally begin!