Rice historian finds treasures among Autry detritus

Rice historian finds treasures among Autry detritus

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff

The renovation of Autry Court provided a pleasant surprise for Rice history buffs. As the athletic staff moved out prior to construction, decades worth of artifacts from the athletic program surfaced from dark corners, obscure filing cabinets and dusty shelves — an estimated 400 cubic feet of history. 

This wealth of material thrills University Historian Melissa Kean because it helps illustrate the history of athletics at Rice.

COURTESY PHOTO

In 1917, a band of Rice students went to Texas A&M to steal back Sammy the Owl from the hooligans who’d taken him.

“The reason I crawled around on my hands and knees — literally — in horrible places, is because there might be documents in there that shed real light on the institution,” said Kean. “It’s now possible — three months ago it wasn’t — to arrive at a coherent understanding of the role and development of athletics in the university.”

Among the more interesting finds were trophies, ribbons and game balls commemorating Rice victories, including the 1947 Orange Bowl and the 1950 and 1954 Cotton Bowls.

Another artifact was an envelope from a relative of an early Rice graduate. Inside were several elegant ribbons the alumnus won in track meets in 1919, 1920 and 1921. Such history would have been lost if someone hadn’t taken a moment to send the ribbons to a member of the athletic department in 1983.

Autry Court opened in 1950. It replaced the old field house, which was located on the south side of campus. Over the ensuing years, most of the material relating to Rice athletics came to be stored in Autry. The building’s renovation has required the athletics staff to move temporarily to the stadium, which in turn uncovered the historical items.

Recording the role of athletics

“From my perspective, the most important stuff that came out of Autry was the minute books from the Committee on Outdoor Sports,” said Kean. “When I read those minutes, I can see the process of decision making — What’s the proper role of athletics at Rice? How does it change over time?”

The Committee on Outdoor Sports was “incredibly important,” Kean explained, because it covered all athletics at the university and was responsible for distributing the money it brought in. Originally the committee answered directly to the board, bypassing even the president. President Norman Hackerman changed that reporting structure, and today the committee’s successor, the Rice University Athletic Committee, reports to the president.

“The committee’s leadership is deeply entwined with the history of Rice,” said Kean.

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This image of the Rice Owls 1913 football team was found in Autry Court.

The first chairman, William Ward Watkin, was also the architect who designed the first buildings on campus. Watkin is the subject of a current exhibit at the Woodson Research Center. His successor, Hubert Bray, was Rice’s first Ph.D. Bray’s son-in-law, Alan Chapman, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and materials science, later chaired the committee. Chapman also served as Rice’s representative to the Southwest Conference becoming president of the conference, as well as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

“All of these men were serious about the institution’s academic aspirations,” said Kean.

They were concerned from the beginning about the professionalization of amateur sports, Kean noted. One of the early football coaches, John Heisman (yes, that John Heisman), was scolded for “proselytizing” — a practice that today would be called recruiting.

Moving history

Kean added she was impressed with the cooperation she got from everybody at Autry Court who were, after all, in the middle of cleaning out their own offices for the move.

Coaches, assistant coaches, staff, accountants and people working in the ticket office all took the time to listen to her, Kean said, to determine what would be worth keeping.

“This is classic Rice today,” she said. “They wanted to save what was important for the institution.”

JEFF FITLOW

Lee Pecht, the head of special collections at Fondren Library, and University Historian Melissa Kean display a flag from the Rice football team’s win over Texas A&M in 1916.

Kean specifically cited the role of Chris del Conte, Rice’s athletics director. Presented with films of football games dating back to 1937, del Conte immediately authorized their transferal to DVD format and came up with the necessary funds so they will be preserved for future generations of historians and fans.

In addition to films, huge numbers of videotapes were among the artifacts found at Autry Court. When video became commonplace, Rice coaches used it extensively, even taping practices from three or four different angles to focus on, say, the offensive line in football or defensive matchups in basketball. The result was a room full of tapes that Kean had to quickly evaluate. She ended up keeping roughly 2,000 tapes.

The sheer volume of artifacts Kean rescued poses a problem for Lee Pecht, the head of special collections at Fondren Library.

“The enormous amount of materials accumulated from the gymnasium have somewhat overwhelmed the university archives, but we have been able to house everything in a secure and environmentally safe area,” he said. “Countless moves, plumbing and natural disasters have played havoc with Rice’s historical record, so we are relieved that the records still exist.”

Picturing the past

JEFF FITLOW

These three commemorative footballs and  trophy were discovered during the Athletics Department’s move from Autry Court prior to renovations.

Kean also unearthed a trove of old photographs.

Pecht was especially impressed with the photographs Kean discovered, many of which “are in remarkably good condition.” Pictures of the Owls football team go back to 1912 — Rice’s first year. There are also shots of baseball, track and field and other sports from the university’s earliest years, many with the players’ names written on the back. One shows a treasured bit of Rice lore: Rice students standing next to a Sammy the Owl poster after reclaiming it from larcenous A&M students in 1917.

Now that the artifacts have been transferred to the basement of Fondren Library, it is Pecht’s job to survey and appraise them for historical importance.

“Historians,” Pecht explained, “benefit from archivists’ diligent sleuthing to uncover forgotten historical documents and realia by being able to access and draw conclusions from the neatly boxed and painstakingly inventoried records.”

Already, Pecht and his staff have discarded duplicate game tickets and other items while placing a few handsome trophies in the display case in Woodson.

Kean added a plea for other people with links to Rice’s past to check their attics and closets for memorabilia that might have historical value.

“It will take a year to find out what we have,” said Kean. But once everything has been inventoried, Pecht predicts that Rice will have one of the best-documented university athletics departments in the country.