Rice fielded its first football team in 1912, not long after opening its doors. Three years later, it joined the Southwest Conference as a charter member.
For the better part of half a century, Rice was a regional and national powerhouse. However, by the early 1960s, Rice found it increasingly difficult to field competitive teams. For most of its tenure in the SWC, it was one of only four private schools in the conference, and by far the smallest in terms of undergraduate enrollment. However, by the latter part of longtime coach Jess Neely's tenure, Rice found itself competing against schools ten times or more its size, and often had more freshmen than Rice had total undergraduates. From 1964 to 1991, Rice had only one overall winning season, and only finished as high as third in SWC play once.
Fred Goldsmith took over as head coach in 1989, and led the Owls to a 6-5 overall record and a tie for second place in 1992, their best finish in 28 years. However, a 61–34 loss to in-city rival Houston kept them out of their first bowl game in 31 years. Goldsmith left for Duke in 1993 and was succeeded by former Clemson coach Ken Hatfield, who tallied only three winning seasons in 12 years. While the Owls were bowl-eligible in those three years, they didn't receive bowl bids due to their small alumni and fan base.
Todd Graham became head coach in 2006, and led the Owls to their first bowl game in 35 years, the 2006 New Orleans Bowl. He left after only one year and was succeeded by David Bailiff, who took the Owls to three bowl games in 11 years, including their first 10-win seasons in half a century.
1954 Cotton Bowl Classic
The Owls played in the 1954 Cotton Bowl Classic against the Crimson Tide of Alabama. The game featured one of the most famous plays in college football history[2] when Rice's Dickey Moegle (later Maegle) burst free on a sweep play, and on his way down the sideline, was tackled by Tommy Lewis, who had come off the Alabama sideline without his helmet to tackle Moegle. Referee Cliff Shaw saw Lewis come off the bench and gave the Owls the 95-yard touchdown. Rice would win the game 28–6, with the only Crimson Tide score coming from Lewis. The yardage added to Moegle's 265 yards rushing, a Cotton Bowl Classic record that would stand until Tony Temple's effort in 2008. This would be the Owls' last bowl win until the 2008 Texas Bowl, a win which also secured the Owls their first 10-win season since 1949.[3]
Kennedy Speech
President Kennedy speaks at Rice Stadium on the American space program, 12 September 1962
Rice Stadium also hosted a "We choose to go to the Moon" speech by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962. In it, he used the Rice football team to challenge America to send a man to the Moon before 1970.
"But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."[4]
Rice Stadium was built in 1950, and has been the home of Owls football ever since. It hosted the NFLSuper Bowl in January 1974. It replaced the old Rice Field (now Rice Track/Soccer Stadium) to increase seating. Total seating capacity in the current stadium was reduced from 70,000 to 47,000 before the 2006 season. The endzone seating benches were removed and covered with tarps, and all of the wooden bleachers were replaced with new, metal seating benches in 2006, as well. The stadium is also undergoing further renovations.
The schools both reside 183 miles from each other within the U.S. state of Texas.[6] From 1915 to 1995, the teams were members of the Southwest Conference (SWC) and met on an annual basis from 1924 to 1995 with the exception of 1943 and 1944 due to World War II.[7][8][9] From 1924 to 1975, the game was played exclusively on either the fourth weekend in November or the first weekend in December as the regular season finale for both teams, except for 1963 when Baylor's scheduled game against SMU and Rice's scheduled game against TCU were moved back two weeks from November 23 due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22.[9] After the Southwest Conference added Houston as a full-time member in 1976,[10][11] the annual game between the Bears and Owls was moved to the middle of November where it was played through 1995, with the exception of 1991 when the game was played in mid-October.[12]
After the breakup of the SWC following the 1995 season,[13] Baylor was among the four SWC schools invited to join the new Big 12 Conference while Rice was left out.[14][15] This brought an end to the annual rivalry between the Bears and Owls, but the teams have faced off intermittently since that time, most recently in 2019.[16] The 2016 meeting between the schools was notable for a controversial halftime performance of the Marching Owl Band, who formed a Roman numeral IX in a mocking reference to Title IX and the Baylor University sexual assault scandal.[17][18] The Rice University administration apologized the next day for the gesture.[19][20] However, as of May 2025, there are no plans for the teams to meet again on the football field.[citation needed]
Rice participates in a crosstown rivalry with Houston. UH and Rice play annually for the Bayou Bucket, a weathered bucket found by former Rice guard Fred Curry at an antique shop. Curry had it designed into a trophy for $310. The two universities are separated by five miles in Houston. Despite being in separate conferences, the two teams still play as non-conference foes as future schedules allow.
Rice and SMU were members of the same conference from 1918 through 2012, and have played each other 90 times as of 2012 with SMU leading the series 48–41–1. The rivalry is because Rice and SMU were two of four private schools in the Southwest Conference (Baylor and TCU were the others). Rice and SMU were also the two smallest schools in the conference, were located in the two largest cities of any teams in the conference (Houston and Dallas, respectively), and have historically been considered the two best private universities in Texas.
Rice and Texas have maintained a largely one-sided rivalry beginning in the early days of the Southwest Conference. Texas' 28 consecutive victories from 1966 to 1993 represents the sixth longest single-opponent winning streak in college football history. In 1994, in a nationally televised ESPN game, Rice scored a major upset win over Texas, but since then Texas has resumed series dominance. Despite the dissolution of the Southwest Conference, Texas and Rice still play on a "near annual" basis, allowing the Longhorns to keep a high profile in the state's largest city and the fourth largest city in the United States.
Texas leads the series 72–21–1 as of the conclusion of the 2017 season.[23]
He was a consensus All- America choice. Like most athletes of his time, Weldon was required to suspend his career for military service during World War II.
Taylor McHargue, QB (2010–2013), led Rice to back-to-back bowl appearances and its first outright conference title since 1953; currently a college football analyst for CBS Sports[27]
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