The 1937 Campus Map and the “New” Rice Stadium

If you go back and look at the 1937 Owl map, up at the top an arrow points to the “new Rice Stadium.”  I don’t pretend to understand whatever joke is being made here, but I’m interested by the reference to the new stadium, which wasn’t built until 1938. The most likely explanation, I suppose, is that it had already been announced since the money for the renovations had to be raised from the fans.

In any event, it was a pretty significant renovation. Here’s the Thresher article that ran at the beginning of the 1938 football season, which explains what was done and how it was paid for. Just click to zoom in. I kind of got a kick from the fact that construction finished two entire weeks before the first game–pretty luxurious compared to the 1950 stadium:

Note also the reference to the new “towering entrance arches on the south side.” They weren’t kidding. Here they are:

I found this in William Ward Watkin's papers.

And here’s an aerial shot:

 Tomorrow I’ll show you some pictures taken inside the stadium on game day.

Bonus: The Glasscock School of Continuing Studies is having a Rice Centennial Photography Contest. If you have any interest in photography  at all, here’s a link to the information. This could be fun.