Again from the Houston Post Photo Collection, this time two images taken during the Southwest Conference track and field championship which was held at Rice on May 13th. Both of these pictures brought a smile to my face, the first one because it was nice to see those old stands so full:
And the second one because I was so surprised by those shrubs, which seem to me in their odd little whimsy very uncharacteristic of Rice:
I’d never seen them before and I’m still not completely sure what direction we’re looking although my best guess is north, maybe a bit northwest, so it would be towards where Reckling is today. Note how much of the old wall remains intact here.
Bonus: There is no “I” in Rice.
In our neck of the woods (zip 77079), many cars sport a little B/W oval bumper sticker that says “RCE”. It stands for “Rummell Creek Elementary”. Plus, I attended that conference meet in 1961.
I’m almost 100% positive that the 2nd photo is at about 170 meters into the first turn – looking in the direction of where Reckling is today. Bobby May likely would know for sure.
Why on earth would anyone arrange for Fondren Library to be the backdrop of a “be the I in Rice” photo opp when they could flip the letters around and have the glorious west facade of Lovett Hall instead? #marketingfail
Perhaps they thought (correctly IMHO) that the splendid ornamentation of Lovett Hall would be too busy and distracting if it was meant to be a photo op for families.
If the intent was to put a building in place of the “I”, the obvious choice, IMHO, would be the Campanile. I did not realize that was the intent until I read Greg Marshall’s post.
Might the letters have been arranged this way so a person could stand where the “I” should have been … so when photographed he/she would appear to be the “I” in RICE?
Yes. That is exactly it.