One of the most noticeable things out by the track stadium is a double line of trees that extends from the end of the stands all the way to Main Street. I started trying to figure out when they were planted but quickly got distracted by something else in the same vicinity.
If you look at photos of track meets from back in the day it looks like the track itself also extended all the way the Main Street. For example, the billboards behind these 1929 hurdlers are on the other side of the street:
It’s even clearer here, where you can see the brick entrance columns at left, which were just off the street:
So I went and had a peek at the scrapbook of Emmet Brunson, who was a Rice track star in the late ’20s and then served as head track coach for many years. There I found a map of the Rice track and field facilities inside a program for the 1927 Rice Relays: sure enough, they started nearly in the road.
Not any more though:
So my question is, why not?
Bonus: From my buddy Brandon Martin, Rice’s video guy, a fantastic image. You need to click on it a couple of times to get the full effect. It’s amazing.
