I was off yesterday for Good Friday so today you get a special followup to this mess:
Here’s a close up. I wonder if the outfits had a sort of “Boy Named Sue” effect because these guys manage to look tough in spite of them:
What made me laugh out loud, though, was the very next photo in the file. I have no idea who this man is or what’s actually going on here but for all the world it looks like a rescue mission:
It being the ’70s, of course, the new threads aren’t much of an improvement.
I’ve considered, by the way, doing a series called “Ties of the 1970s” but I guess I’ll keep it in reserve for a while, along with “Rice Buffet Tables Through the Ages.”
That’s Ed Nierkin, who owned a men’s clothing store in the Village.
Kirwin Sent from my iPad
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Ed Nierkin’s University Men’s & Boys’ Shop in the village was a prominent advertiser in the football programs back in the day.
Next time I’m in Houston I need to drive through the Village. I bet it’s completely changed from when I was at Rice ’65-’70. Probably all upscale now. I remember buying some clothes from the University Men & Boys Shop and renting a typewrite from Dromgoole’s to type some term papers. There was a Jack in the Box off Kirby at Rice(??) that had cheap hamburgers. My wife and I lived at 2410 Bartlett, a few blocks north of Bissonnet, and did most of our shopping in the Village. The memories are dim now and I can recall only a few places. What was that grocery store?
Not completely, but you’d be hard-pressed to find familiar things.
On Rice Boulevard, Dromgoole’s is still there, as the Village Shoe Shop.
That half of the block is still mostly the original buildings.
Across the street was the Rice Food Market.
The bones of those buildings are still the same, but the shops and the facades have all changed.
G&G Models is still on Times Boulevard, behind Dromgoole’s, and it still has the facade that it started with.
The block where Weingarten’s was, as well as the block closer to campus, along University Boulevard (Village Theater, Village Toy Shoppe) , has been completely rebuilt.
The bones of many of the buildings on the south side of University are much the same, but many of the facades have changed and most of the old places are gone.
El Meson (sub-atomic food) is still on the east end.
The old Dairy Queen was transformed into the rather up-scale Hungry’s (and that’s about to expand to a new building, next-door, where the Maryknoll Sisters used to be).
The block where the post office was, and it’s neighbor to the north, were both razed and a five story mixed-used complex was put up. Shops on the ground, and housing up.
Weingarten’s was the grocery store. It also had a plant nursery between Amherst and Times a block off of Kirby. When it closed, Rice bought those properties and started acquiring the north side of University which it subsequently redeveloped as shopping mall, in conjunction with Weingarten Realty.
The Jack at Kirby and Rice spent the last few years as a high-end flower shop.
Very few, if any, of the businesses of 1970 remain. I think even the 5&10 store on Rice has finally closed up shop.
Almost forgot, There was a Rice Food Market on Rice Blvd. about halfway between Kirby and Morningside too.
The last time I was in the Village, the storefront of the fabric store was still there, and I think the store may still have been open. I bought a lot of the materials for my wedding dress in there. I made it myself, pulling an all-nighter the night before to finish. And I got married in the Chapel.
There was a great Jewish deli in the Village, as well as as Kay’s for after-study beer I bought a sports coat at the University Men’s Store….circa 1964….
Ed Nierkin was a great supporter of Rice athletics. He helped out many athletes who came from poor backgrounds and who basically showed up at Rice with not much more than the clothes on their backs. Never really knew his connection to Rice…until now. See he is wearing a Rice ring.
There is no one by the name of Nierkin listed in the alumni directory.
Check for Nirkin in ’37. See page five of this Thresher from ’51: https://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/65983/thr19510316.pdf?sequence=1
Also mentioned in this article about the opening of the store in 1950: http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth576623/m1/1/
In spite of those coaches’ outfits, the team uniforms from ’71-’75 were the best ever. Reminiscent of the Cowboys, a lot of gray was incorporated – alas, something we have been strangely loathe to do for decades.
The deli was Alfred’s. It was great. Also Rodney’s clothing store. The 3rd guy on the left in the group pic is Ray Alborn, later Rice coach and Mayor of Ruidoso.
Right ! Alfred’s! Best corned beef and liver pate sandwiches ever ( new to this then 18 year old West Texas farm boy). And I shopped at Rodney’s !
Alfred’s also had a location on Stella Link. I live behind it. That one closed in the 1980s I think. One of Alfred Kahn’s relatives ran Kahn’s Deli in the Village which closed last year.