More People of Old Sugar Land

Thank you, Kristin Lytle, for posting this photo on Facebook and alerting me that today is Frankie McFadden's 86th birthday.  Congratulations, Mr. McFadden (SLHS '48).

Way back in 1947.

 Today.

 
Some of you may know I'm a graduate of Rice University. I enjoy reading a Rice history blog that comes out daily. I was surprised recently to see a Sugar Land Gator turn up in the blog. The person in question is fellow Rice alum, George Salmon (SLHS '52), who had a remarkable career on Rice's track teams of the mid 1950s. If you'll click on the image below, you'll view the article. Scroll down to the third photo, and you'll see George, other members of a relay team with Emmett Brunson, Rice's famed track coach. They are standing on the track at old Rice stadium.
 

I've found the following images Facebook and took the liberty of reposting them here.  Thanks to everyone who contributed them.

The first shows Pam Schmidt Moore (DHS '64) on the right with sister Sabrina Schmidt Rust (DHS '72) at the '64 Texas Prison Rodeo in Huntsville.

  
The following photos shows the wedding party at Janice Jenkins (DHS '68) and Dexter Girard's nuptials. I don't know the date,  location, or all the people in the photo, but I do recognize Janice's two daughters on the far left, I don't know who the young girl is, but that's Janice, Dexter, Robert Allen (DHS '68), then a man I don't recognize, and Gary Horstmann (Janice's brother-in-law) on the far right.

 

 
The next photos shows members of Dulles High's Class of '65 enjoying themselves recently. From left to right that's Sherry Howard Davis, Diane Broughton Lundell, Joan Davis Kendrick, and Pat Schiller Bono.
  

The final image shows members of Dulles High's Class of '66 at the 2008 Mega Reunion.  I'll let you guess who is who.

 

Notable Persons in Texas History

The Fort Bend County Historical Commission received an inquiry from Humanities Texas recently, so I reviewed their Web site.  I had never seen it before.  Here's the link.  

The archives page had some interesting (to me) short intros to a variety of notable people in Texas history.  Here is a quick selection in case you want to investigate further.

Link to Etta Moten Barnett (African-American actress and singer from Weimer).

Link to Nettie Lee Benson, state librarian and archivist.

Link to Gail Borden, one of the Old 300 and renaissance man. 

Link to Chief Bowl, tribal leader of the Cherokee tribe in Texas.

Link to Lorenzo de Zavala, a key figure in the Texas Revolution.

Finally, I want to throw in the story of Claude Bracey, Rice University's (then Institute's) first Olympian.  He was a sprinter with a unique story as this newspaper article explains: click here to view the article.

This short article from a Rice newsletter includes a good photo of him running at Soldier Field in Chicago: click here to view the article.

Photos of Rice Institute (University) in 1931 & 1950

I saw the following aerial photos on Melissa Kean's blog about the history of Rice University.  (Melissa is Rice's resident historian.)  The first was taken in 1931 and shows West University before it was developed.  I've added annotations to help with orientation.

This next photo was taken 19-years later (winter of 1950), when Brown & Root built today's Rice Stadium in 9 months.  It opened in time for Rice's first home game of the season against Santa Clara in late September.

The area around the campus has started to look more like it does today, although the block along Greenbriar is fairly empty.  Christ The King Lutheran Church is now in that spot.

Rice whips Santa Clara 27 - 7 in New Rice Stadium on Sept 30, 1950

Nearly 64 years ago to the day Rice University (then Institute) played its first game in Rice Stadium.  The Owls defeated Santa Clara 27 - 7.  Click this link to read a brief account of the game.

It was Rice's homecoming game, and since it was a special occasion they had a celebratory parade down Main St.  Click this link to view a few photos.  Click this link to read a special edition of The Thresher, Rice's student newspaper, which gives more details on the big event.  Notice page 4 has a short article about A&M's new Memorial Student Center, which had opened, but was not quite finished.  Also notice the abundance of cigarette ads.

A&M Beats Rice 13-6 in 1963 Game, But Fight To A Draw At Half-Time

As I went through the Dallas Morning News archive recently, I ran across the attached file.   I attended this game and remember it well.  (I've attached an aerial of Rice Stadium to help set the scene of the crime.)

  

(Dallas Morning News article)

(Photo from Houston Area Digital Archives at the Houston Public Library)

   

Bruce and I went with our parents who met a salesman and his wife and sat with them in the upper deck of the east stands.  Bruce and I bought end zone tickets.  Probably a $1 a piece.  We sat in the south end zone a few rows down from the top.  It was a muggy day, not particularly cold for November, but not particularly warm either.  I always liked going to the Rice-A&M game because they always played in mid-November when the sun's vertical angle in the sky gave daylight a definite autumnal glow.

A&M was pretty dismal during the early 1960s, so Rice was the favorite.   The article says 48,000 attended, and the score was 6 - 3 at the half with Rice leading, but note the paragraphs I've highlighted in red.  I remember the incident well although a little differently than how the article recounts it.

After the bands had performed at half time, Rice students (all male) poured out of the stands to make a path from the tunnel to the benches on the sideline.  I went to a lot of Rice games in those days, but I don't remember that the Rice student body did this as a rule.  As Rice students were forming parallel lines, the Corps poured out onto the field from their seats in the northeast corner of the stadium and ran down the field toward the tunnel.  They began forming a path to the Aggie benches on the east side of the stadium.

The newspaper account says the melee started when an Aggie began tearing the 'B' off a sign saying 'Beat A&M.'  That's probably true, but I didn't see it. As I casually scanned the field, I happened to see a Rice student start running from somewhere near the mouth of the tunnel and race behind the Cadets as they began forming a line.  Without breaking stride, the weanie grabbed an Aggie's cap and continued running back toward the Rice students lined up around mid field.

Of course, a mob of Aggies tore out after him and fisticuffs began. They spread all across the field.  I was 13-years old and thought it was the most amazing sports spectacle I'd ever seen.  The whole south half of the field was one big fist fight, and more students from both sides began pouring out of the stands to join in.

I vaguely recall some fat old Houston cops trying to stop it as the article says, but I definitely recall the A&M band playing the Star Spangled Banner to bring the mayhem to a grinding halt.

After the game, Bruce and I walked the concourse to meet our parents in the east stands, so we had to pass the Rice student section as it emptied.  I saw lots of broken glasses, split lips, black eyes, etc.  The weanies were pretty impressive, however.  They held their own even if the Owl football team lost the game. 

  

Rice Beats Baylor 20-0 To Claim The '57 SWC Crown

I've posted a few items in the past about Rice's 1957 SWC Championship football team.  My football coach at Dulles High School, Bobby Williams (Missouri City High '53),  played on that team, so there's a local connection.  

I got these items from the Rice History Corner, a blog about Rice University.  The University's historical collection includes a scrapbook kept by a cheerleader during the '57 season.  A couple of these images obviously come from that scrapbook.

I haven't researched the Houston papers for additional articles, but you'll see one from The Thresher, Rice's student newspaper.  You'll notice that Bobby Williams returned a punt for an 80-yard touchdown.  I may be mistaken, but I think he lead the SWC in punt return yardage that year.

I have a personal memory about this game.  My father got 4 tickets, so our family could see the big game.  I was 7-years old and relished every chance to attend a game.

Well, Saturday morning I woke up with an upset stomach and threw up big time.  My parents said, "There's no way we're taking you," so I stayed with my grandparents while everyone else went.  I was very unhappy. 

Old Rice Stadium

For many years Rice Institute football (along with the Houston Buffs) was the big sports entertainment in Houston.  Many Sugar Land football fans drove into Houston on Saturdays to watch Rice play all the old SWC schools plus non-conference rivals like LSU.  Anyone of my generation or younger knows the current stadium which was completed just before the 1950 season.  

The old stadium (1912-1949) stood at the intersection of Main and University, just across from Ye Old College Inn, Bill Williams Restaurant, and what was to become the Medical Center.  Here are a couple of photos of the old stadium from Rice University's photo collection.  I'm uncertain of the dates, but I think they were taken in the late '30s, when Rice had a formidable team.

FYI, Rice is celebrating its Centennial this week. 

(Added comment) That's South Main St. running from the top right corner to the middle left of the picture.  As you can see, there's no Medical Center, yet.  In the second photo South Main runs from the middle right to the middle top of the photo.  I believe Hermann Hospital is the large white building at the top right. (I'm wrong; I can tell that's not Hermann Hospital. It's Palmer Episcopal Church.)

Photo from Rice University collection

Photo from Rice University collection

  

Rice Football, 1957

Some of you know that Bobby Williams (Missouri City High School '53) played on Rice University's last Cotton Bowl team.  Alas, they lost to Navy 20 - 7 in 1958.

I've brought this up because I follow a blog dedicated to Rice University history, and the historian who writes it is doing a series of articles on Rice's '57 football season.  She's found a scrapbook one of the Rice cheerleaders kept as a record of the Owls' triumphal season.  Since I'm a Rice grad and interested in sports history, it's all great stuff to me.

Here's an item that may have some local interest.  Carolyn McCord Williams (SLHS '54) and Bobby were married before the '57 season started.  The Houston Press ran this undated photo of women married to players on the Rice team.  Note Carolyn in the upper left of the photo.

There are more items relating to Bobby Williams.  I'll post them during football season.
 

Muddy Roads Before 1927 When Two Lanes of Hwy-90A Were Paved

I saw a picture recently of a Model T bogged in mud on Houston's South Main St. in 1915, somewhere near what was then called Rice Institute.  It reminded me of a paragraph in Bob Armstrong's book,  "Sugar Land, Texas and The Imperial Sugar Company."  Here's the paragraph printed on page 87.

... an isolated community of 1,200 people in those days of less than reliable transportation, needed to be self-sufficient.  Until 1927 brought at least a semblance of paved roads, Sugar Land was, to a considerable extent, an isolated community.  Citizens could travel the twenty-eight miles to Houston or the seven miles to Richmond in a passenger coach often attached to a freight train; travel by buggy was slow but sure; and the automobiles of the 1920s often had difficulties with the roads available at the time.  Sugar Land was connected to Houston by a narrow, high-centered two-lane road made of crushed shell and it was generally passable if a bit rough by today's standards.  Going the other way to Richmond was seven miles of dirt road, rough but passable in dry weather.  However, during wet weather it could be slick and doubtful or muddy and more doubtful, made passable only by local entrepreneurial farmers who waited by the deep mud holes with mule teams and hand lettered signs quoting the $.25 price for being pulled through.  Many of the Model T drivers would plunge in, get bogged down and signal for help.  It could

Model T bogged down on South Main St. near Rice University in 1915

(Photo from Rice History Corner blog)

happen several times to a driver determined to complete the trip.  In Sugar Land, contemplating a trip to Richmond during the wet weather, a driver could call the telephone operator, who kept posted on such matters, to ask about the condition of the road, often to be told, "You can make it if you've got a pocket full of quarters."

I wish there were a photo of a farmer equipped with mules and hand-lettered sign.
  

Rice vs A&M, November 15, 1958

One last A&M/football item. It's a short clip of the 1958 Rice - A&M game I found in our family's home movies. I remember my father taking his camera with him. I wish he'd taken more movies of college football games, but this is it. My dad and I rode to the game with my aunt, uncle and cousin. We sat in the upper east stands at Rice Stadium just above the corps of cadets.

The first college game I can remember is the 1956 A&M - Arkansas game in College Station. I was bowled over by the whole thing: the immaculate green grass on the field, bright lights (it was a night game), vivid colors of the uniforms and the large crowd.

Link to video of Rice vs A&M, 1958