Feast your eyes on this, people. I found it yesterday in a very unexpected place and it’s a doozy:
It has to be 1949–that’s when they started the work on Harris Gully. The mystery, of course, is who or what is “34.”
Bonus: Someone in the comments asked for some pictures of the new Continuing Studies building (it’s called Anderson-Clarke) and I finally had a moment to go take some.
The auditorium isn’t finished yet. Where the dirt is will be a lawn.
It’s a very nice building, open and functional. The thing that jumped out at me, though, was that it is absolutely filled with classrooms.
The band did a halftime where they formed the current time and temperature, as banks started to have signs with such displays.
This is far too early for that.
My guess is they are honoring the ’34 team who were SWC champs. (Of course, it was their 15th anny.)
Hey, that sounds plausible!
There was no #34 on the roster in a 1948 program with A&M found online.
The 1934 conference championship was the first one, so celebrating its 15th anniversary in 1949 makes a lot of sense.
Unfortunately Riceowls.com doesn’t appear to have any detailed information before 1951.
It would make even more sense if this was around Homecoming, as it well could be, and there was a fifteen-year reunion for that class or team. Wow, there is a LOT to like in this picture. I notice that it was punched for a two-ring binder. Are there any more goodies in that binder?
(Wish we could see a little more of the corner of University and Main.)
It’s pretty clear why they were thinking about a bigger stadium by then…
The ’49 team was probably the best in Rice history, defeating Doak Walker and SMU in the infamous “Bounty Bowl” and defeating Texas with Froggie’s heroics. The resulting SWC championship, no. 5 national ranking and 27-13 Cotton Bowl defeat of Choo-Choo’s Tarheels essentially clinched the building of Houston Stadium, which we know as Rice Stadium. The Owl games drew huge crowds all season including 75,349 for the Cotton Bowl..
I agree that it was probably honoring the ’34 championship team. My father-in-law, Dr H O Nicholas, was the the Rice Athletic Director that year
Speaking of the Anderson-Clarke Center, I attended an open house this afternoon for the D. Kent and Linda C. Anderson and Robert L. and Jean T. Clarke Center (and new home of the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies). Took the tour and everything! Very spacious three floors (only the first two floors open to the public – the 3rd floor holds staff offices), great natural lighting, clean modern lines, neutral colors IMO very appealing, LEED certification pending – and to echo Melissa, LOTS of classrooms! However, I was told by the tour guide (Bret Newcomb) that none of those new classrooms will be scheduled by the Registrar’s Office for academic courses; they are strictly for Glasscock School course offerings. But that might free up space for evening events on my end of campus (Humanities Building), which is a good thing.
One plus: the Greater Loop shuttle stops right in front of the building entrance. Mighty handy for a rainy day like today!
Not counting the practice spaces in the Shepherd School, the new Anderson-Clarke Center may be the first Rice building in 40 years to be built with a significant number of classrooms. Crazy!
The Shepherd School has seven true classrooms, which double as rehearsal rooms for small ensembles. Like Continuing Studies, we are self-scheduling, not Registrar-scheduled. We don’t consider the practice rooms as classrooms, nor the major performance spaces. I suspect the Anderson-Clarke classrooms will significantly free up classrooms during the evenings and weekends on the rest of campus.
The Thresher editions immediately before and after the 1949 Homecoming game (Nov. 4 & Nov. 11) had no mention of any halftime show or tribute to the 1934 team.
The Sept. 29, 1950, Thresher’s “Special Stadium Issue” prior to the opening of Rice (Houston or House-ton) Stadium, did have (on page six) a lovely recollection of the 1934 win over Texas (29-9) by team captain Percy Arthur (as told to the venerable Houston sportswriter, Clark Nealon, who was then sports editor of the Houston Press.)
Thanks for mentioning us! If anyone would like to see more pictures of the new Anderson-Clarke Center, you can check out our set on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gscs/sets/72157640783988614/
Thanks for the pictures! Much appreciated from an alumnus far away from Houston.