I am fascinated by this image of a full gymnasium and leaping cheerleaders. There’s something almost otherworldly about it:
I found this write-up of the game in one of the old alumni scrapbooks:
We had a very good season that year, going 19-5 under coach Don Suman. The Owls were even ranked in the top twenty for a couple of weeks before running into the buzzsaw of the Southern Methodist University Mustangs in Southwest Conference play. Three of Rice’s five losses in the 1955-56 season came at the hands of SMU, who finished the season ranked seventh in the nation.
Bonus: The only other photos I can recall just now of the gym this full were from President Eisenhower’s visit in 1960, when it was quite full indeed–and without air conditioning on a very warm evening.
Extra Bonus: I was walking in front of Lovett Hall the other day when I was suddenly struck by something I’d never noticed before. What the heck is this??
Ten points for reserve King Hill. Back in the day when you could compete in more than one sport.
A lot more neckties for Ike.
And a lot fewer pairs of white socks.
For some other pictures of a packed gym, perhaps some Thresher coverage or athletic department records of th 1970 men’s basketball team, which won the SouthWest Conference that year. I remember the gym being pretty full for several home games that season.
The plate with the hole in it is the cover to a watchmans’s clock station. Originally there was a pivoting cover plate to keep weather out of the opening.a watchman would insert his key to turn a generator behind the plate, which was wired to a recording device that would mark a paper to record the time the watchman was at the station. There is one of these stations and associated recorder in Woodson. I know this because I delivered it. 🙂
Maybe that’s where a pay telephone was mounted?
Great memories from the basketball article. Many thanks. I played basketball in high school against King Hill and Temple Tucker but was not good enough to play with them a Rice.
Great memories of the basketball team. Thanks for the article. I played basketball against King Hill and Temple Tucker in high school but was not good enough to play with them at Rice.
Jim Walzel ’59
There were some games before capacity crowds around 30 years ago, especially against Texas and Kansas, when we opened the damn curtain and added bleacher seats in the little gym. No badminton on those nights.
In the basketball pic., I think those 2 female cheerleaders were the identical Reba twins, one of whom married Monte Robicheaux (?sp), a former basketball star guard. Also down in the far left corner, about the 4th row, I think one of another set of (fraternal) twins, who married Fred Woods (later Judge) is seated. Fred played that night, as the box score shows. The other Reba girl marred a Rice football player. And another football player married our class pinup, Marylin(?sp) Webb.
And those guys got to live in North Hall (Weiss) and eat at the training table table also.
In a double wedding ceremony held in Houston’s St. John the Divine Episcopal Church on May 12, 1956, Joan Ryba married Monte Leon Robicheaux (as Gene Pratt mentioned above) and her twin sister Jane married Robert Ralph Garbrecht.
Garbrecht lettered in football at Rice 1952-53 and was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the 28th round of the 1954 National Football League draft.
https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn2001062038/1956-05-17/ed-1/seq-6/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_49ers_draft_history
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