‘Why does Rice play Texas?’

(Photos by Tommy LaVergne)

NASA Administrator and Rice alumnus Jim Bridenstine ’98 served as an honorary team captain during Rice’s football game against the University of Texas at Austin Sept. 14 at Houston’s NRG Stadium. Bridenstine quipped on Twitter that he was a student at Rice in 1994, the last time the Owls defeated the Longhorns in football.

Earlier in the week, Bridenstine stopped by Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy to discuss the legacy of President John F. Kennedy and his famous “moon speech,” which the president gave at Rice Stadium Sept. 12, 1962. In it, Kennedy compared NASA’s drive to reach the moon to Rice playing Texas: “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.”

The Owls, who lost to the Longhorns 48-13, will face Baylor University Sept. 21 at Rice Stadium.