So here’s the thing . . . I found this photo of the Rice athletics field from, I think, about the mid-1920s. I was pretty hopped up about it too, because if you zoom in on it you can actually read what’s on the billboards in the background just to the left of the stands. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
So one is for a tire company and the other for Sunset Coffee, right?
Now look at the actual subject of the picture and tell me what in the world is going on on the field. Are they spectators just walking to their seats, marching right across the playing field? But some of them are dressed quite oddly. I don’t really have any other theory.
And a sad note: She wouldn’t have wanted me to talk about her so I won’t, but I can’t let it pass with nothing at all. Sue Brod, RIP.
It looks like some sort of contest – maybe a women’s “three-legged” race. Part of a Spring festival like Rondelet?
Their legs ARE tied together…
Perhaps an early incarnation of the MOB?
Students behaving strangely on the football field. Some things never change at Rice…
I’m guessing a promotion of some sort too. Some sort of 1920’s “kick for your rent” deal.
Note that the stands are rather empty.
And that many obvious spectators seem to be walking toward the stands.
Perhaps this was an event that preceeded a football game.
Or perhaps it was halftime, and those spectators were returning from concession stands down that way.
There is something odd on the field in front of the stands, either a blocking sled (used by linemen for practice) or a table and chairs. Neither one would be on the field for a game.
Inasmuch as the item seems to have 7 white (perhaps padded) sections, I vote that it is a blocking sled, for the 7 offensive linemen. It might be left on the sidelines for a game in those days, as everything was “single wing” offense back then, I think, and those guys didn’t run out of bounds the way they do nowadays.
Or the game of the day may NOT have been football, so the sled had been left there after football practice.