Jump to content
A Merry Christmas from Surly Horns to You. ×

Tell Me About Rice

Vic Mackey

By Vic Mackey
in Football

 Share

Recommended Posts

closetojumping

closetojumping 65533

Posted
Posted

My dad played football at Rice in the late 60’s. He took us through the campus growing up a few times. He said the female dorms were known as “The Zoo” and “The Cow Palace”, and I am not making that up. 

My view is that if you are looking for a new place to troll for your ilk, you are surveying the right kind of landscape. Good luck snorting for truffles, sir. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8350

Posted
Posted

They have a grad student pub called Valhalla and it is one of the best places in Texas. I think draft is still a dollar and I know that Friday is still family day, where you can bring your toddlers and let them run all over campus while you get your Pearl on. Or whatever. It was Pearl dark when I was taking my son there in the late '90s, early 2000s, and back then it was about 50 cents a cup and less at happy hour. We lived right by campus and at the age of 3, one time, I told my son to lead me home, and he knew the way back, all the way through campus and then through a few blocks of actual Houston. That's some proper parenting, y'all.

My stepmother (my second one) is a grad and she's pretty fucking cool and way hotter than you'd think for a Rice girl from 1972. And she parties like you wouldn't believe even though she's about 75 now. 

I have a soft spot for Rice. I partially grew up about two blocks from the campus (on a street called Institute Lane, named after Rice, when it was still and Institute). It's home to me, in a way, and they are mostly harmless as rivals to us on the field. Except when they are not.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Parliament

Parliament 14619

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

They have a grad student pub called Valhalla and it is one of the best places in Texas. I think draft is still a dollar and I know that Friday is still family day, where you can bring your toddlers and let them run all over campus while you get your Pearl on. Or whatever. It was Pearl dark when I was taking my son there in the late '90s, early 2000s, and back then it was about 50 cents a cup and less at happy hour. We lived right by campus and at the age of 3, one time, I told my son to lead me home, and he knew the way back, all the way through campus and then through a few blocks of actual Houston. That's some proper parenting, y'all.

My stepmother (my second one) is a grad and she's pretty fucking cool and way hotter than you'd think for a Rice girl from 1972. And she parties like you wouldn't believe even though she's about 75 now. 

I have a soft spot for Rice. I partially grew up about two blocks from the campus (on a street called Institute Lane, named after Rice, when it was still and Institute). It's home to me, in a way, and they are mostly harmless as rivals to us on the field. Except when they are not.

 

Pics not loading.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 32106

Posted
Posted (edited)

The WIll Rice Institute is a very rigorous and demanding school with pretty high academic standards. It is also tiny.  SMU has almost half-again as many students, Baylor more than twice as many.  It also has "residential colleges:" you are a member of such a college by virtue of your freshman dorm and remain a member of that college.  They have odd parties and traditions not unilke weird frats.

As a result of those things, Rice and its students tend to be pretty eccentric.  The MOB mentality extends to the whole place.  A Rice graduate is going to be uniformly a) smart as shit b) a bit weird on some level (may not be obvious at first, just wait).

I believe they do relax their academic standards a bit for sports, but not like we do or the rest of D1.

Tl;dr it's a smaller, weirder Stanford.

Edited by TwiceHorn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Born Burnt

Born Burnt 6276

Posted
Posted

I grew up in Houston. Two immediately family members attended. All of the above is true. Valhalla is still great and cheap; went there a couple of months ago. Residential Colleges are everything to students (think Harry Potter). Their parties are insane. And one college streaks through campus twice a month. It's like a university's version of Surly, except that the people are smart.

Unlike other institutions, the school doesn't punish students for expressing themselves in offensive ways. They treat them like adults, which is good because the students are usually smarter than the faculty. This is typical of Rice:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/15/hey-there-white-people-rice-students-martin-luther-king-day-satire-draws-outrage.html

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dbecks

dbecks 442

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

They have a grad student pub called Valhalla and it is one of the best places in Texas. I think draft is still a dollar and I know that Friday is still family day, where you can bring your toddlers and let them run all over campus while you get your Pearl on. Or whatever. It was Pearl dark when I was taking my son there in the late '90s, early 2000s, and back then it was about 50 cents a cup and less at happy hour. We lived right by campus and at the age of 3, one time, I told my son to lead me home, and he knew the way back, all the way through campus and then through a few blocks of actual Houston. That's some proper parenting, y'all.

Valhalla is legit.  Pretty sure they've moved on from Pearl, but it's still damn cheap.  Like $1.20 for a beer last I recall.  Especially great when the weather is nice and you can hang out on the patio tables (since it still smells pretty rank downstairs).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Born Burnt

Born Burnt 6276

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, dbecks said:

Valhalla is legit.  Pretty sure they've moved on from Pearl, but it's still damn cheap.  Like $1.20 for a beer last I recall.  Especially great when the weather is nice and you can hang out on the patio tables (since it still smells pretty rank downstairs).

Yeah, they've moved on from Pearl. Valhalla is pretty much a grad student and faculty bar. The undergrads go to Willy's Pub.

Damn, this talk is making me miss the Union's Texas Tavern. Sucks that UT closed it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randolph Duke

Randolph Duke 4034

Posted
Posted (edited)

Rice Institute almost never happened. To understand Rice, you need to read the story of the murder and the forged will. It was James Baker's grandfather who represented the estate and uncovered the plot. The relationship between the Baker family and Rice University was forged through that incident, which is why the Baker Institute is today on the Rice campus.

The Rice endowment owns massive amounts of land north of Houston along 1-45 and 1-59. They sell the lumber harvest rights to generate the 5% annual income off the land assets, thus giving them the income they need. Because Houston is growing north at a strong clip, the value of the land will increase above the rate of most other asset classes (the Rice endowment is about to grow a whole bunch more in the very near future).

Also, when LBJ pushed for the NASA facility in Texas, it ended up in Houston in large part because Rice University donated the land necessary for the Johnson Space Center. That cemented the relationship between the JSC and Rice.

If you want to read something interesting, read Smalley's Nobel acceptance speech. He was a great guy. Very approachable. Addressing a Nobel Prize laureate by his first name for the first time was an interesting experience.

Oh, and last I knew, diplomas from Rice were still printed on actual sheepskin (at least by request).

The Rice murder story:

http://www.historicalcrimedetective.com/ccca/the-murder-of-millionaire-william-rice-by-albert-patrick-1900/

 

 

Edited by Randolph Duke
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Murfdogg21

Murfdogg21 4575

Posted
Posted (edited)

I got my PhD at Rice and bartended at Valhalla (all their employees are volunteers, mostly grad students, post docs, and alumni) for nearly 8 years. It is a beautiful campus and world class academics. 

The girls all have high SATs, so of course it’s not Texas State or even UT level of trim. But there are many cute girls (especially as you approach 30, your scale recalibrates from college and a lot more 19-22 yo’s start looking cuter). As was mentioned, undergrads are randomly assigned to one of 11 “residential colleges”, or basically coed dorms with a little bit of fraternity feel tied in. They stay in the same college all four years. Every month a different college is responsible for a campus wide mega party unless they have a beef with a particular other residential college and blacklist them. The best party is every October or November called “Night of Decadence” or NOD, where it’s a clothing optional block party with a theme. My first year was “Noddy or Nice” and there were many costumes like a fuzzy thong and Santa hat but no top/bra, dudes wearing nothing but a candy cane striped sock on their junk, etc. “Baker 13” is the ritual on the 13th and 31st (for applicable months) where Baker college kids (95-100% dudes unfortunately) run naked but covered in shaving cream (at least when they start out) around campus, splatting their ass up against library windows, etc. and usually end up at Valhalla. 

Valhalla is the grad student owned and operated pub at the end of Keck Hall, the old chemistry and then Biomedical engineering building. They sell beer as close as they can to cost so poor grad students can get drunk for cheap. When I started in 2003 Lone Star and Shiner were 75¢ and St. Arnold beers were 90¢. They have tried hard to keep at least one option on tap for $1 a pint, even if they lose a little money. It is open to the public every day from 5pm to 2am except closed on Saturdays for private parties. Willy’s Pub is the undergrad bar and pub food joint in the basement of the student union. Also has decent prices but it is only open based on the academic calendar and I heard they may have jeopardized their alcohol license recently. 

 

Every March there is an event called BEER BIKE, which is a campus wide participation, relay race in thr parking lot of Rice Stadium where teams are divided by their residential colleges, like they do for intramural sports, and the grad students have a team as well. There are alumni, women’s, and men’s races. You have ten chuggers and ten bikers. Someone chugs, when they finish the next biker can start. They ride three laps around the parking lot and when they cross the finish line the next chugger starts, and so on. 

I have nothing but good things to say about it. The aggies hate them, they mock UH’s “academics”, and they don’t condone rape culture like Baylor. I wish they would be invited to the Big12 to improve their status but also to poke the eye of a lot of snooty faculty that are actively trying to get D1 sports disbanded from the university. 

Edited by Murfdogg21
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Born Burnt

Born Burnt 6276

Posted
Posted (edited)
20 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

Can you elaborate? 

In 1973 the Texas A&M Aggies took exception to a MOB performance which featured such typical MOB irreverence as Nazi-style goosestepping, turning the Aggie War Hymn into "Little Wooden Soldier March", and forming a fire hydrant while playing "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" in reference to the Aggie mascot Reveille. After the game, the Aggies formed an angry moboutside Rice's own stadium, trapping the Owl band inside for hours until police dispersed some of the crowd and allowed the band to exit, transported by food service trucks. In the years after this now-infamous show, attention has been focused on the shot at Reveille, and that this was an attempt to mock the mascot shortly after her death; in fact it was no more than "poorly-aimed scatological humor," the mascot in question having been alive and present at the game.

 

Edited by Born Burnt
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Username

Username 0

Posted
Posted

Got in for grad school, but it was going to cost $100K+, even with a huge scholarship. Went elsewhere. Still a part of me wishes that I had the chance to go to Rice. Everything about it seemed great, except that it would mean uprooting entirely from Austin and take up a huge chunk of money. 

I believe I made the better decision considering the field I wanted to go into, but damn if a part of me doesn't still think about it. Seems like it would have been a real feather in my cap given the status of Rice. But just couldn't pass up a (nearly) free ride elsewhere. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
UTCzech III

UTCzech III 2963

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

The MOB always has an entertaining halftime show. This one made me laugh.

 

That's my daughter at the bottom of the $.  So go ahead, enhance, enhance!

Every time we went to visit we had a great time, plenty of room for tailgating, loved the stadium, old school, you could drink a beer in there long before UT finally came around.  Campus was nice and small, Rice Village was cool, lots of good pubs down there.  That's all I got.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randolph Duke

Randolph Duke 4034

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Born Burnt said:

In 1973 the Texas A&M Aggies took exception to a MOB performance which featured such typical MOB irreverence as Nazi-style goosestepping, turning the Aggie War Hymn into "Little Wooden Soldier March", and forming a fire hydrant while playing "Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?" in reference to the Aggie mascot Reveille. After the game, the Aggies formed an angry moboutside Rice's own stadium, trapping the Owl band inside for hours until police dispersed some of the crowd and allowed the band to exit, transported by food service trucks. In the years after this now-infamous show, attention has been focused on the shot at Reveille, and that this was an attempt to mock the mascot shortly after her death; in fact it was no more than "poorly-aimed scatological humor," the mascot in question having been alive and present at the game.

Rev III died in 1975

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reveille_(dog)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Born Burnt

Born Burnt 6276

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, TexasMan said:

ND Kalu - former Rice and NFL 12 year defensive end - always brings up on his radio show in Houston how he helped Rice beat Texas in 1994. It's all in good fun though. 

Rice is a good barometer for showing the difference between UT fans and aggys. When the band made fun of our recently arrested players, we laughed our asses off and thought was all in good fun. When they poke fun at aggy, they get threatened and attacked.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Longboard Horn

Longboard Horn 41395

Posted
Posted
53 minutes ago, Randolph Duke said:

I wish it was financially possible to get a Rice, Tulane, Vandy, SMU, Ga Tech, and a few others to form a Southern Ivy League. 

The name might be an issue, though. 

Idgaf where SMU goes as long as they're never in the same conference with us ever again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kopp0e

kopp0e 1135

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

I wish it was financially possible to get a Rice, Tulane, Vandy, SMU, Ga Tech, and a few others to form a Southern Ivy League. 

The name might be an issue, though. 

It could technically, possibly be a bit higher than not actually happening, but if it did; it might look like this:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8350

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

I wish it was financially possible to get a Rice, Tulane, Vandy, SMU, Ga Tech, and a few others to form a Southern Ivy League. 

The name might be an issue, though. 

Somebody on the really old board (Hornfans) said that every major conference had one and only one private school in their conference in order to keep the conference financials private. Big 12 has two now, but at that time it was true, as with all the other conferences back then. Vanderbilt is in the SEC for that reason; same as Stanford in the Pac 10 or whatever. Northwestern in the Yankee conference. I don't know or care enough about that kinda shit to look into it much more than that but it seems to make sense. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Randolph Duke

Randolph Duke 4034

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

Somebody on the really old board (Hornfans) said that every major conference had one and only one private school in their conference in order to keep the conference financials private. Big 12 has two now, but at that time it was true, as with all the other conferences back then. Vanderbilt is in the SEC for that reason; same as Stanford in the Pac 10 or whatever. Northwestern in the Yankee conference. I don't know or care enough about that kinda shit to look into it much more than that but it seems to make sense. 

The conference files a tax return on Form 990 every year and has to publicly disclose that filing, so the privacy argument doesn’t make sense. 

Edited by Randolph Duke
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wally Fairway

Wally Fairway 5678

Posted
Posted

We used to go to games at Rice when we lived in Houston, they would let fans down on the field before the game to form a tunnel for players to run through for introductions. But you didn't have to be part of the tunnel, you could just wander around the field for a few minutes.
I remember doing that once, and just starting to wander back to the stands when we walked past the Utah captains going out for the coin toss & they were like what the fuck is going on with all these idiots walking on the field (I took that as a compliment .... Rice then kicked the Utes asses)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sidney Sherman

Sidney Sherman 66

Posted
Posted

Rice is pretty badass. I remember going to a game at the reliant stadium when they played the Horns, many people in Burnt Orange were rooting for them to score a TD by the end of the game. Texas didn't even start Jamal Charles. 

Their band followed Texas at halftime, and it was like 15 people wearing goofy mickey mouse ears and playing fantasia or something, couldn't really hear em. Lots of enthusiasm though, best school in Houston. UH is trash, Rice is elite. I think they are the real deal in graduate level engineering too. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RiceOwl

RiceOwl 74

Posted
Posted

Hey we’re the only school to have played Alabama >2 times and still be undefeated.. 

People have covered the highlights but a few other things of note:

-Re: Beer Bike... You’re a nerd (or grad student or alum) if you make it to the bike track for the race. You gotta pass out after the water balloon fight (world’s largest annual one) since you’ve been binge drinking since 4 A.M. 

-Consistently rated as one of the most economically diverse elite private schools. Look at the difference between us and SMU, for example.

-Willy’s Pub has had a rough run of it lately. It was one of the few places on campus damaged by Harvey and then was shut down in early April for liquor license violations. The hope is it will reopen by Fall, but honestly I don’t care since I just graduated... It was really easy to drink underage there though, so here’s to hoping that continues for generations of students to come. If you’re visiting campus, definitely checkout Valhalla though. 

 

 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
pch

pch 1264

Posted
Posted

Brother in law played in the MOB in the mid 70's while 4.0 in biochemistry.  Got to see some great halftime shows and meet some of the creators of the production.  Still say that they got to ATM more than the SMU cheerleader who had the sword drawn on him. 

 

Beautiful campus, hosted a Super Bowl, still a place I enjoy visiting when in H town.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Murfdogg21

Murfdogg21 4575

Posted
Posted

 Whenever we play them again, I wish the big cigars would allow the game at Rice to actually be played it in rice stadium. Playing the game at Reliant doesn’t feel like college football at all. Doing it at Rice Stadium means more people can attend, cheaper tickets, on campus atmosphere, and some awesome tailgating either in the parking lot or at the bars in the adjacent Rice Village 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...