In the slides I was looking at yesterday, I came across this one. It stopped me in my tracks, because it includes Rice trustee Harry Hanszen. Surprisingly, we have very few photos of some of the most important people in our history, including many of the most influential members of our board. (Let me take this opportunity to say that if you have any pictures of previous board members or know someone who does, you really should get in touch with me! I can scan them and give them back.)
Something about this picture doesn't look right to me. I might have scanned it backwards. Anybody have any thoughts?
I knew right away that that’s Hanszen on the right and Houston on the left. The only person identified on the slide, though, is the fellow in the middle, Joe Watson. I’m less confident about this, but I do remember that we had a big football star here with that name at about this time, maybe a bit earlier. I assume that’s him–it’s clearly someone important enough to command the attention of Hanszen and Houston–but I’m working at home today and don’t have all my normal resources at my disposal. I do have, though, a picture of the great 1949 football team in my laptop. It’s a really high quality image too, so if you click on it you can get a good look at these guys.
Holy smokes, look at how thick that hedge behind them is!
I believe that’s our man third from the left in the second row from the bottom. He was quite a fine player.
Update: One of my more alert readers points me to this nice article about the 1949 Owls. Thanks, Bob!