Texas, Rice and JFK's Space Race

ByLARRY CARLSON Sep 12, 2019

It was this week in September 1962 when President John F. Kennedy addressed a large crowd at Rice Stadium in Houston. The Space Race was on, and America was not about to lose to Russia.

"We choose to go to the moon," Kennedy boomed, chips all in.

Just before his bold declaration, JFK had likely silenced many doubters with well-prepared reasoning about big challenges.

"Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain. Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?" the president continued with the rhetorical questions, referencing the annual David vs. Goliath duel between the Southwest Conference's largest school and the tiny brainiac institute on South Main.

As Kennedy explained in the statement that immediately followed his ambitious lunar goal, "We choose to go to the moon this decade and do the other things not because they are easy...but because they are hard...."

Six weeks later, with the '62 football campaign in midseason, Texas and Rice — both coming off bowl seasons, faced off before a capacity crowd of 73,000 where Kennedy had made his historic speech. Texas was 5-0, but Rice had been the SWC's surprise disappointment thus far, off to an 0-3-1 start.

No matter. The Owls rose up and tied the Horns, 14-14, in what would be the lone scar on the Burnt Orange's first undefeated regular season.

Prior to JFK's epic speech, Texas led a competitive series with Rice by a 29-19 margin. Since the tie, UT has won 43 of the last 45 meetings.

Few were even close.

Times had changed.

Texas was in a different orbit and the Rice football program had stalled at the launch. It took the Owls 45 more years to return to a bowl. And after beating Texas in Austin in '65, the low-flying Owls were whipped 28 straight times by the Longhorns.

President John F. Kennedy gives his famous 'Race for Space' speech at Rice Stadium on Sept. 12, 1962.

Now, it’s already been a quarter-century since Rice was at last able to bust the drought.

It was a long college football weekend for my buddy and me. We’d watched LSU beat Kentucky in an SEC game in Baton Rouge on Saturday night and knew we would be getting back to San Antonio extra late from the Horns’ game on a Sunday.

They weren’t even kicking off until 8 p.m. It was all just a little weird from the get-go.

The football gods weren’t smiling on Texas that night. Mostly, they really hadn’t since 1983. Only the breakout season of ’90, with Peter Gardere leading the way, had been bountiful. Now, the very starchy, stuffy John Mackovic was in his third year as UT’s boss and still in search of his first good season.

But one thing Longhorn fans had been able to count on through the hungry years had been a nutritious serving of an automatic win against Rice, even if it had once taken a Gardere dash to the pylon in the waning moments of the ’89 scuffle to provide a 31-30 victory.

But a dark, drippy, gloomy setting in 1994 seemed to portend doom all night. Fewer than half of the seats were occupied, and a UT-Rice game in Houston had always been a de facto home game for the Longhorns and meant a full stadium packed with area Texas-exes.

I remember well that the rain consistently would intensify when Texas – featuring quarterback Shea Morenz and running back Anthony (Priest) Holmes — had the ball on this night.

And it always disappeared when the Owls were playing offense.

In the end, Rice got a 19-17 victory and the molecular biology-type students tore down the goalposts. So many Rice fans said they had thought they would never again see their team beat Texas.

Now they had. It was the Twilight Zone.

The whole season turned into a Rod Serling science fiction fest. Rice had a losing record but shared the SWC title with TCU, Baylor and Tech.

And Texas.

That’s right, five teams split the moldy “championship” pie with 4-3 conference records. Texas A&M had an unbeaten season but was being penalized by the NCAA for violations that kept them from a bowl and any TV appearances, along with no claim to first place in the SWC. The only conference team to go winless in round-robin play was SMU, but the Ponies did tie the Ags in a neutral site game (San Antonio’s Alamodome), spoiling an otherwise perfect season.

Note to Chris Del Conte: Texas should take down the ’94 “championship” sign at DKR. Del Conte didn’t put it up, but he’s the right guy to have it taken down. A five-way title with an asterisk is something only the Aggies would normally consider marking and celebrating.

So the Steers and Owls have played thirteen times since the ’94 game. Texas has won them all, including a few ugly ones.

And now the old “rivalry” will be resumed again Saturday night.

Why, indeed, does Rice play Texas?

Not because it’s easy. It never was.

But because it’s profitable. And, because, with nothing to lose if you’re Rice, you might as well shoot for the moon.

Write to Larry Carlson at lc13@txstate.edu