This was in a box of stuff I found last week while cleaning out some storage space in the R Room. (More about this later.) It was, to say the least, a bit of a surprise:
There’s not much about this in the Thresher, which didn’t have much to say about freshman football in general. (They were pretty bad that year, by the way.) However, we did find this copy of Morris Frank‘s column about the event:
If you read all the way to the end you’ll see that Hope and Lewis were scheduled to play golf the next day out at Champions. Here’s the Rice tie-in–we have the records of the Champions Golf Club in the Woodson.
Bonus:
The short article in the Nov. 11 Thresher did say that Mickey Mantle was also part of the half-time show, which led me to this news item — a report on the event from a pair of Rice parents — in the November 16, 1960, Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, page 2 (http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/13358162/):
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THE THRILL OF A LIFETIME — Mary Alice and Malcolm Tigett were in Houston last Thursday to see their son, Joel, play in the Freshman Rice-A&M game on Nov. 10th. This of course thrilled them, but seeing Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope and Mickey Mantle putting on a good show at the half was also a thrill. This was a benefit game with the proceeds going to Good Samaritan Foundation for nursing scholarships. Some 300 nurses also formed six lines on the field for the half-time show. Mary Alice tells us that Bob Hope had his usual (???) of jokes and Jerry Lewis, with two good-looking girls, showed the boys how he would practice football.
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At Rice, Joel Tigett lettered in baseball 1962-64.
The Fall 2013 edition of “News from Fondren” includes this undated photo of Jimmy Demaret, Bob Hope and Jack Burke Jr. in front of a lake at Champions Golf Club:
https://library.rice.edu/about/admin_org/press-publications/news-from-fondren-html/volume-23-no.-1-fall-2013/images/Bob%20Hope%20Jimmy%20Demeret%20Jack%20Burke%20Jr%20at%20Bob%20Hope%20Lake_duo.jpg/
The Nimitz Museum in Fredricksburg has a nice exibit on Bob Hope. It showcases his USO shows and golf outings.