I have noticed that bloggers sometimes
take time out from their regular chores to congratulate their
favorite teams.
John Aravois is a fan of Ohio State.
Oliver Willis loves the Washington Redskins.
Regular readers know I’m an alumnus of
Rice University
and when I notice the old school at all it’s to highlight its
achievements in science and engineering, which is as it should be.
But the west side of the campus is devoted to athletic pursuits, and
the far west side features an enormous, concrete, 72,000 seat
football stadium, built by a predecessor company of Halliburton (Brown &
Root) in just 9 months back in 1950.
Nothing much happens there. Since the
Southwest Conference left Rice in the mid-1990s, few have even
noticed the place.
But something remarkable did happen at
homecoming this year. A new coach, Todd Graham, suffered through some
enormous defeats while installing a new passing offense on what had
been a wishbone program. And he stiffened the defense. Long story
short, the Owls beat East Carolina yesterday 18-17,
their third win on the last play of the game in a five-game win
streak. (This one was witnessed by about 12,000 souls.)
It was also great entertainment. Real value-for-money stuff. The other team misses a clinching pass by inches, we get the ball on our 26, and drive the field in less than a minute with our second and third string quarterbacks, before the final score is laid down by a walk-on?
Should the kids manage to top SMU next
weekend, we will finally see what one-third of the world has been
pining for – Rice in a bowl. Sure, it would be a minor bowl in Ft.
Worth, currently named the Armed Forces Bowl, but you need to
understand that no Rice team has gone to a college football bowl game
since 1961, when they got creamed by Kansas in the inaugural (and now
defunct) Bluebonnet Bowl.
So for the school, and the alumni, this
is a very big deal.
Good luck.
And if you do succeed, might I suggest you spend
the next six months planning a “freeway alumni” program? I’m
thinking special hats and pennants and maybe welcome cards that look
like degrees. Promise special lectures on game days and make them
learning festivals. Be different, be yourselves. It’s called
marketing.
UPDATE: By beating SMU 31-27 at home on Saturday, Rice did indeed clinch its first bowl bid since 1961. Which bowl it will be (and whether I might be able to attend) are still unknown at this time. If it’s Fort Worth (which was expected after the East Carolina win) then we’ll see someone there.
Final Update: Rice has agreed to play in the New Orleans Bowl, a very, very minor bowl game played two weeks before the big Sugar Bowl game, in the Superdome on September 22. The likely opponent is Troy University of Alabama, which has a remote campus here in Atlanta. We’re making plans to be there. Hope to see you. We’ll make up a cheer for the chemistry department.
