Monthly Archives: February 2013

“Swinging Their Fists Manfully”: The Rice Band Saves the Day, 1935

I found this article about the Rice band getting into a fistfight in a scrapbook from the late 1930s. It looks like 1935, a good season under Coach Jimmy Kitts even though we lost this particular game. I love it … Continue reading

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Two Undated Pictures of Baseball Players

The first one is nice. If you forced me to guess I’d insist on some wiggle room and call it circa 1950. I love the uniforms. This next one I’m not so crazy about, however. The mustaches are unsettling. 1980s? … Continue reading

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Gil Hermance in the Gym (I think)

I’ve mentioned Gilbert Hermance before, in connection with the epic cracks in the old fieldhouse. Here’s a really nice photo of him taken somewhat later, after the construction of the new gym in 1950. Hermance, who retired in 1972, had … Continue reading

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Friday Afternoon Follies: Beefcake Edition, PLUS Lots of Other Good Stuff

Sorry, I seem to have lost my train of thought. Bonus: Given my well known appreciation of aerial shots of campus, I’m dumbfounded that nobody told me about this. (Yes, Brandon Martin, I’m looking at you.) I need to talk … Continue reading

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First Draft: Proposed Library Building, 1927

I got distracted (not exactly the upset of the year, I know) as I was leaving the Woodson this afternoon and I left behind the flash drive that holds what I was going to write about tonight. So instead of … Continue reading

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“T.W. Bonner Nuclear Research Laboratory”

In the same file folder where I found the pictures of Dr. Baker teaching I also found, logically enough, some wonderful images of the Bonner Lab. These are a great find, the kind of images that I love the most. … Continue reading

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Mixed Nuts: A Dr. Baker Update, a Link to Wiess Memorabilia and a Bobby Soxer on the Phone

An especially well-informed reader (Dr. Baker himself) sends in some clarifications of yesterday’s post: I know those pictures were not taken before 1987 because I didn’t have that book bag before the summer of 1986 and the topic of the … Continue reading

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“Dr. Baker rocks!”

So claims the anonymous graffiti artist who left this on a wall in the basement of the old Physics Building: Stephen Baker came to Rice in 1963, fresh out of Yale if I recall correctly. He worked in the Bonner … Continue reading

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Friday Afternoon Follies: The Rally Club

Ah, the Rally Club. Rice Manhood in all its glory. We have the minute books for this organization going all the way back to its founding. (The contents are truly fascinating.) In essence, nothing changed from start to finish except … Continue reading

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How About A Little Romance?

It’s Valentine’s Day, so what the heck. Here we have the Rice Engineers Ball, featuring (I’m not even kidding) Miss Slipstick of 1948, Tempe Howze. They just don’t do it like this anymore. I don’t know who’s kissing her.

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