Rice Stadium
- David Hegler
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
It was the winter of 1949 and the Rice University Owls were on a roll. Led by Froggy Williams and Joe Watson, Rice had won the daunting Southwest Conference and capped off their best season ever with a thrilling win over North Carolina in the Cotton Bowl. As a program, they had hardly ever sniffed the national polls and were pleasantly surprised that they had finished the year ranked fifth in America. At the heels of such a memorable season came added expectations. They had the coaching staff and the talented roster, all the Owls football program needed was a stadium big enough to realize their dreams.
Rice University sent out inquiries that winter for seat commitments and were blown away by the number of confirmations that flooded their office. Led by general contractor Brown & Root, Incorporated and fueled by a $3.295 million ($43.1 million in 2024) cash infusion, Rice Stadium sprung up in a hurry. Having broken ground in February 1950, it opened to the public on September 30 of that same year. It was an incredible achievement and their old stadium was soon turned into the school's home for track and soccer.
Owls quarterback Vernon Glass gave his new stadium a good start by throwing for four touchdowns in a 27-7 demolition of the defending Orange Bowl champion Santa Clara Broncos. Having left a stadium that couldn't even accommodate 37,000 -with many of those seats being temporary for football season- Rice University officials were pleased that their new stadium was nearly filled to capacity with 68,000 attending its first event. They could only hope that the stadium could stand the test of time.
The following year, the University of Houston's football team moved from Jeppesen Stadium. They would stay in Rice Stadium through the 1964 season when they moved to the newly opened Astrodome.
In 1971, the R Room was added in the south end zone where it remains to this day, asa tribute to the greatest people, players and moments in Rice Athletics history. It remains a popular spot for hosting academic, civic and social events for both the university and greater Houston communities.
In January 1974, Rice Stadium hosted Super Bowl VIII and bore witness to the last championship moment of Don Shula's legendary career. Along with Sun Devil Stadium and Stanford Stadium, Rice Stadium is one of only three campus facilities still in operation that has hosted a Super Bowl.
From 1995 through 1997, the stadium underwent several changes, with new lights, a new scoreboard and new Astroturf being added to the aging facility. Changes such as these, helped keep the stadium modern as the business of high school and college football continued to flourish.
In addition to the gridiron, Rice Stadium has also hosted numerous concerts over the yeras with some of music's biggest names taking the stage. Names such as Pink Floyd, the Eagles, EltonJohn, Billy Joel and George Strait have rocked on before the masses at Rice Stadium.
Today, the stadium that could at one point hold 70,000 can now only fit 47,000, with many of its sections covered in tarp. Still, the university strives to keep it modern, adding new Field Turf and a new scoreboard in 2006, forever holding on to the vessel that stands out the most in the esteemed university's legacy.
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