I’ve been working quite a bit in the 1930s recently and I’m learning a lot. In some respects these weren’t good times at the Institute. We had some pretty serious financial issues and began to lose good faculty, most notably the great mathematician Griffith Evans, who left for Berkeley. (There’s a building named after him there.) In the time honored tradition of universities everywhere, however, the students had little idea that anything was amiss and were just having a ball. It makes for some interesting contrasts.
I ran across these things in a scrapbook that was kept by a young woman student during the mid-30s and I was simply enchanted. The mere existence of the “midget auto” was enough to make me smile all by itself. The idea of a “mess hall battle” to celebrate a football victory over Arkansas (Rice won 7-6) is just the cherry on top. Here’s her ticket to the game:
And finally, just as a reminder, it’s not “Rice Fight. Never Die.”
