I’m on the road again for a while so posting might be a little thin. For today I have only this single image to offer, but it’s a nice one:
I can’t quite make out the year on the beanies but the name tag on the guy at lower left says “Ken Hoffman” and someone with that name graduated in 1969. So I guess another question is why are they wearing ties and name tags?
Did someone have to climb a greased pole in those days?
Definitely freshmen from class of 68 per beanie detail. ties were College specific. nametags appear to have Hanzen logo on it. i was in Wiess College as a freshman the year before. We had striped black and gold ties and beanies. there were greased poles but those were outside the stadium. this shot looks like either a pep rally but more likely a football game (freshman usually were required to sit together). they were looking at either high punt or whoever was leading the pep rally.
What year was the last year that the freshmen wore beanies? I am kind of amazed that it lasted into the mid-’60s… Did it end in the same year that Rice started charging for tuition? I matriculated in fall of 1976, and there were no beanies to be seen.
I was a freshman in Hanszen College in the fall of 1970. I believe we had beanies that year. I recall going to football games as a group and “owl bowing” on the sidelines during the game. However, I don’t believe we wore ties. Shirts and pants, but no ties. Oh, and shoes, too. At least those of us who had a pair.
No Beanies in 74, Owl bowing yes, but just a small group.
The beanies look like 1969, not 1968, to me. The clearest distinction is on the beanie of the fellow halfway up the right-hand border of the photo.
Also, the nametag of fellow in the middle (with the long umbrella) looks like it has the initials “L C”. Looking through the Hanszen section of that/my era’s Campaniles turns up Louis Cardenas, who is a perfect match for the face. Louis also graduated in 1969, with a B.S in Health and Physical Education (http://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/61751/wrc01129.pdf?sequence=1)
As for the formal dress of these freshmen, I was quite surprised my freshman fall (1966) that folks dressed up so much when they went to football games, especially given the heat and humidity, compared to the relatively mild weather (and more casual gametime attire) in the Middle Atlantic states where I came from. And IIRC, Hanszen promoted as image of the dressiest of Rice’s residential colleges. (BTW, SEC games were even more formal, with mums (chrysanthemum corsages) bought for the women dates for all games, not just homecoming.)
We had beanies in 1966 (Class of 1970). It sounds like the practice must have died out when I was at Rice, but I don’t recall any details.
Class of 1973 all received beanies on arrival in August 1969. Their wear was required at various times, the frequency of which varied significantly from college to college.
My high school friends assigned to Hanszen also received a blue vest which had to be worn with the beanie and a tie at specified times. I never knew whether they were provided the ties or had to provide their own. I recall their being required to wear their beanies, vests and ties much more frequently than we were required to wear our beanies in Baker.
Beanies were not issued to me (class of 1975 so it would have been 1971 when I arrived). Hanszen still called itself the ‘Gentleman’s college’. Coats and ties were required for Sunday lunch and freshman may have had to wears ties to dinner. Many of the events tied to freshman were practiced at Hanszen only (but were ending). We still had freshman serving (and did thru the first co-ed year)
Freshman serving at Hanszen lasted at least until Fall 1980. I did it. It fell by the wayside mostly because no one wanted to bother with it anymore. It required what seemed like an unnecessary amount of organization.
What’s owl bowing?
More formal at games back then because we wore a coat and tie to the dance afterword.
Owl bowing was when a group of students were on their knees and prostrating themselves before the Mascot, chanting, “Hail Sammy” or something to that affect. It seems to me that when I was Rice it was usually a group from Lovett, but my memory is not the greatest, so I might be wrong (I was at Rice from 74-79)
In my undergraduate days (66-70), owl bowing was done by freshmen from each college, rotating in shifts.
Yes, each college bowed during a quarter of the game and then another college took over when that quarter ended.
These are definitely members of the class of 1969. We had VERY popular beanies which were often snatched by upperclassmen because of the “special” number. The front row may have been Hanszen men. but the middle of the picture includes several members of Wiess College, including Robert Flatt- third face down on the far right of the photo.
That is definitely me – as Nancy said – 3rd row from top on the far right. You can zoom on my beanie and it is DEFINITELY “69” – the last year freshmen were required to wear beanies. We were probably at a football game.
Thanks to Greg Marshall (’86, Rice Director of University Relations) for reaching out to me regarding this photo. That is indeed me in the front row, lower left corner, standing next to Louis Cardenas! It was a football game in the fall of 1965, but I am not sure of the opponent. It was probably Louisiana Tech, Duke, or SMU, because those were the first 3 home game opponents, and freshmen were required to wear beanies only for the first few weeks of school (as best I can recall). The name tags make me think it was probably the first game of the year. Those of us in white shirts, ties, and vests were from Hanszen College. I still have my beanie and my vest packed away with other memorabilia. I am sure I got rid of the tie as soon as possible!
We were sitting on the east side of the stadium near the south end zone. We might have been watching an attempted field goal or extra point kick. I would have been particularly interested in that if it was for Rice, because our placekicker that year was Richard Parker, who was also my Senior Advisor. Later that season, Richard kicked the winning field goal with 43 seconds left in the game to beat UT in Austin that year!
Ken Hoffman ‘69