Almost against my better judgement, I love college basketball. I know that most people look forward to March and the NCAA tournament but I prefer November with it’s unsullied hopefulness. Here we have the Rice Owls early in the 1929-30 season, when home games were still played in the city auditorium:
Game action:
And before the game they posed outside with apparent good humor in their startlingly short shorts:
Update: Contrary to the label on the envelope where I found these pictures, they must have been taken late in the season. If you zoom in on the action shot you can see the score, which was kept on a chalk board (!): Rice 14, Baylor 18. That game was played on March 1, 1930. I don’t know who won but if I were betting I’d put my money on Baylor.
Bonus:
Wow. City Auditorium. Yes, I already knew that, but wow. Imagine basketball games at Jones Hall. I can’t even, as the kids say.
Was basketball ever played at Sam Houston Colosseum? I seem to remember the Icecapades there.
The length (or lack thereof) of mid-20th century basketball (and soccer) shorts is truly astonishing. Guys today would be embarrassed to death to wear these.