Loyal reader John Wolda sent me this image the other day, noting that he didn’t know when it was taken. I don’t know when it was taken either. But I bet one of you does.
And speaking of John Wolda, one of my highlights of 2014 in the archives was a visit this summer from John and his wife, Harriet. They brought us some things, most notably a beautiful blanket from the 1957 Cotton Bowl:
But the best part was when he sort of casually asked if I had any idea what had become of a scrapbook about the Rice football team that he had kept as a kid. When he mentioned that he’d left in in the R Association room out in the stadium many years ago, it rang a bell. We had it off the shelf in under a minute:
I don’t care who you are, that’s just a lot of fun.
It looks like this snow owl might be the one made in 1973: http://csnbbs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=444?fid=444
An article in the Feb. 15, 1973, Thresher (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/66622/thr19730215.pdf?sequence=1) said the 7-foot-tall owl was made four weeks earlier by Susan Kessler, of Jones, and Mike Drinkard, Tim Grear, and
David Thompson, all of Will Rice. They spent three hours building it and won $100 from radio station KILT, which sponsored a snowman building contest.
Or here: https://www.google.com/search?q=Rice+University+snow+owl&biw=1280&bih=673&tbm=isch&imgil=bHocUukQ0CZIHM%253A%253BKkWw_KgySpF5GM%253Bhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Flibrary.rice.edu%25252Fcollections%25252FWRC%25252Frice_snow_lovett_owl_1973_002_sm.jpg%25252Fview&source=iu&pf=m&fir=bHocUukQ0CZIHM%253A%252CKkWw_KgySpF5GM%252C_&usg=__I622eab-yUPwER6HPlAWxn-upBA%3D&ved=0CDUQyjc&ei=UzeGVKbiGcSVNqm1gbgJ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=bHocUukQ0CZIHM%253A%3BKkWw_KgySpF5GM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Flibrary.rice.edu%252Fcollections%252FWRC%252Frice_snow_lovett_owl_1973_002_sm.jpg%252Fimage_preview%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Flibrary.rice.edu%252Fcollections%252FWRC%252Frice_snow_lovett_owl_1973_002_sm.jpg%252Fview%3B400%3B272
The January 18, 1973, Thresher (https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/66618/thr19730118.pdf?sequence=1) says the snowfall occurred on the previous Thursday (Jan. 11), and featured a front-page photo of a much-less-elegant snowman.
I remember that day well, throwing snowballs in the quad, and snowball fights in Hermann Park with the park police. One of the park police motorcycle officers came back with the trunk of his Harley three wheel filled with premade snowballs and really clobbered us!
It was actually the 1954 Cotton Bowl when we beat Alabama and Bart Starr 28-6. I was the football manager of the ’53 team.
I was there, John, and saw the Tommy Lewis tackle from the opposite side of the field. Nobody on our side had seen where Lewis came from.
One of the most interesting pictures of that tackle (to me of the Class of 1956), shows one our OUR RYBA twins (Rice 1956) cheerleaders pointing back at Lewis on the bench, to which he had retreated shamefacedly after the tackle.
Although “Dicky” Moegle/Maegle ‘s yards gained that day lasted for decades, it was only broken by a player who continued throughout his game, whereas Moegle/Maegle did NOT play for much of the later game (because Rice was so far ahead, I have always believed). Jess Nealey (?sp) would NOT have run up the score in a game like that — he was, after all “Gentleman Jess”.
Nicht Wahr?
And the snow owl made it onto one of the university Christmas cards (using a photo that I’ve always thought was fairly “famous,” with a person standing next to the owl). I am sure that you can dig it up.
Well, that was an innocent time. Snowball fights with the park police. I was going to say early-to-mid-70s because of the cars, but you all beat me to it.