I just had an astoundingly busy day. (How can it be, you might wonder, that I’m so swamped during a shut down. The answer in three words: increased domestic obligations. For which I have no talent, leaving me with nothing but determination.) So I am doubly grateful to Annette Bruer Tarver ’86 for today’s pictures. She’s a long time campus walker and has sent me images of strange goings-on before. This time it’s the odd sight of the front gates completely closed. Note we get the view from both sides:
This is a new one for sure. In the past the gates were shut for only two things–the annual one-day closure to make sure our private streets stay private and the unauthorized student-enforced closures following some especially exciting athletic victory. I’ve written about the annual closing before here–be sure to check out the comments to get the real story. And just the other day I was looking through the David Davidson ’57 ’58 slide collection and noticed some pictures of the lockout after we beat Texas 18-13 on October 24, 1953. That was quite a season–the Owls went 9 and 2 and finished ranked 6th in the nation. The Rice undergrads did a beautifully thorough job of closing the entire campus, not just he front gates. I’d be comfortable putting them in charge of the corona virus shut down:
I was a student at the time of the shut-down. Some of the faculty, or at least the younger ones, took the challenge and tried to make it to their classrooms. If they succeeded they wrote a pop quiz on the blackboard. It was a high-risk holiday for students.
There was also a lockout on Monday, November 18, 1957. after the Owls had beaten the No. 1 Texas Aggies on Saturday, 7-6. I was there, and I’m sure Jim Walzel was too. Rice was ranked Mo. 20 in the nation before the game and jumped to no. 13 the next week.