Regarding the picture of the press box the other day my friend Chuck Pool, Assistant AD for Media Relations at Rice, correctly noted in the comments that it must have been taken in the ’60s as there was no R Room yet. Look out the window at left and you can see that’s right:
So I went and checked out the other images I had scanned from the same file and lo and behold found this:
Sure thing, there’s no R Room. But from this angle you can see something else that dates the pictures–the Rice Museum and Media Center, which was built in 1969 (and partially demolished in 2014). This puts these images in a window between 1969 and 1972, when the R Room and coaches offices were built.
There was, by the way, some controversy about the R Room. It was billed as costing $300,000 and (confidentially, of course) I can tell you it cost more than that. This was a lot of money at the time and not everyone thought it was a wise use of our resources. I found this argument quite interesting:
Just by happenstance I have a picture with me of the newly completed addition. I’ve parked up there many times, usually in order to load things destined for the Woodson into my car:
Bonus:
Kitchen? Circular bar?
Re 07/12 Bonus photo: Does Ms. Clio (aka Rice History Corner’s very embodiment of the Muse of History) excel more in golf than in tennis, or is it a toss-up? Inquiring water salamanders want to know!
I’m an embarrassingly bad golfer but a happy one.
Is that the Coeur d’Alene golf course?
Yes! We had a wonderful day there. First time I ever had a caddy.
I live in Boise but used to travel to north Idaho regularly. There are a lot of beautiful courses up there. Unfortunately, I played the resort course only once, because a friend worked there and I got a really good rate. Too rich for my blood otherwise. Glad you enjoyed it. We have some nice courses in Boise, too, if you make it back up this way.
I feel like Rice is currently missing a wonderful opportunity to utilize a massively dense parking lot pattern for today’s campus. Is it just the angle, or are these cars really stacked like 3-4 deep?
The press box photo looks really familiar. I don’t think it had changed much by the time I was grabbing a free lunch there as a Thresher photographer (in 1975).
They did use the R Room for football media day, because that was the only time I’ve been in there. I love the comment “overlooking Rice’s scenic plastic prairie.”