For many years much of what the alumni association did was help manage the activities of a fairly large number of local Rice Clubs. This commonly took the form of bringing speakers from campus out to other cities or helping organize local events. This idea of sending films of Rice football games around to the chapters, by bus no less, is something different. I admit it’s clever and you can see how there would be demand for it but boy, it sure seems unwieldy:
I don’t know whether it ever got off the ground but I’m entertained by the notion of a reel of Rice game film circling Texas on a Trailways bus.
Bonus: Amanda says “Relax” and I think we should.
Wow. I bet Clark Gable’s film contract was less complicated. Rice must have engaged a young associate from Baker & Botts to draft the contract.
Using the bus was a very common means of transferring packages quickly from point a to point b. Post Office was a bit slow and neither UPS or FEDEX existed. For packages to get to smaller towns the bus was cost effective. (My dad would often use the bus to send drawings in the early sixties between OKC and Tulsa and other locations in Oklahoma
This whole concept is unbelievably charming. It seems likely that only the largest cities would have 200+ alumni in 1952, though, and then probably only in Texas. I remember watching old college football highlight films (UT in the Darrell Royal years, for example) in junior high PE class when the weather was like today’s.