The Rice Fight Song, 1944

I’ve recently begun digging around in materials about the history of various Rice songs. I don’t know whether this is surprising or not but that history is quite tangled. Songs–fight songs, alma maters, hymns– kind of came and went, some disappearing altogether, others changing tunes or lyrics at various points. I was especially delighted with this one, a very popular fight song from the 1940s that I wasn’t familiar with. Charmingly, it was written by Louis Girard ’40, last seen in the pages engaged in a quixotic battle to make hockey popular in Houston.

It was reprinted in an insert in The Owl, a student humor publication that was a thorn in the side of the Rice administration in the ’30s and ’40s:

When I turned it over for a look at the back I  was rewarded with this rare and spectacular shot of the old stadium taken at ground level from the middle of University Boulevard:

Wow!

But . . . but . . . the lamp post!

It’s got one of those ugly globe tops and this was taken at least six years before this one was installed in front of the gym, blowing my theory about their origins straight to hell.

Bonus: I can’t remember where this is.