HOUSTON (Sept. 13) – There was once another Rice Owl team, in another day, another time, that met the Texas Longhorns in Houston, this time the season before the Longhorns won a national championship. It was in the 1962 season, one in which the Owls were destined to win only two games, despite playing team after team right down to the wire.

Flashback

This game came at the waning moments of a time in which the Institute Boys gave the University fits, year after year – especially on those occasions when the Longhorns came to play in Rice Stadium.

The Longhorns had last eked out a win at Rice in 1952. Thereafter, every other year for 10 years, when the Horns came a’calling, they got their seats handed to them by the upstart Owls.

In 1954, behind the running prowess of Dickie Moegle, the Owls whipped Texas, 13-7 (yes, a score that low nevertheless could be considered a whipping in those days).

In 1956, a 4-6 Owl team defeated Texas, 28-7 before a packed crowd in Rice Stadium. In truth, that ‘56 UT likely constituted the nadir of UT football, as it was that Ed Price - coached team that went 1-9 and suffered the ignominy of being the first Longhorn team to lose to the Texas Aggies in Memorial Stadium.

Then in 1958, the Owls, led by all-American end Buddy Dial, won 34-7 over a Texas team that was being coached by a new, young, redheaded fellow by the name of Darrell Royal.

In 1960, Rufus King, Johnny Burrell and Bobby Lively led the Owls to a 7-0 victory over the Longhorns – a win that put the Flock over the top for an invitation to the Sugar Bowl.

Then in 1962, a strong Texas team, ranked number one in the nation going into the game, appeared on Saturday night, October 27, before a Rice Stadium sellout crowd of 73,000. (Believe it or not, they had to install temporary bleachers along the end zone walkways in order to accommodate the extra demand for tickets.)

Rice had tied a highly-ranked and favored LSU team the first game of the ‘62 campaign, and they’d battled Penn State to within 11, losing 18-7 in Happy Valley. But they were winless, nonetheless, going into this game with Texas.

The game was one of the social events of the season for Houston citizens, many of whom thronged to Rice Stadium that evening despite affiliations with other SWC schools. No room for kids at this game, though. (The writer, as a 12-year-old, begged to be taken to the game to no avail.)

The game was a typical see-saw battle that saw both teams play for field position. But down 14-7 with the clock ticking down, and mired at midfield, the Owls gave the ball to running back Paul Piper, who outran UT All-American Duke Carlisle to the goal line, and so the game ended a 14-14 tie.

That run was often referred to as "the run that cost Texas a national championship."

Perhaps the admonition of then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy had still been ringing in the ears of the Owl players, for only a couple of weeks earlier he had delivered his speech announcing the U.S. program to reach the moon by the end of the decade before a large crowd in that self-same Rice Stadium. Rice alums, however, tend to remember that address as President Kennedy’s "Why does Rice play Texas?" speech.

That 1962 Rice team had some familiar faces on it, including a number that are still closely associated with Rice football. One of the quarterbacks was a guy named "Walt" McReynolds, who became Walter along with his medical agree and is now a major supporter and team physician. (The other two Owl Qbs were Randy Kerbow and Billy Cox.)

A guard on that team was local banker Alvin Early. Billy Hale played halfback. Check out the three-deep roster posted elsewhere and see how many of those Owl players you know.

The Owls have managed to defeat Texas only twice in the intervening years – 1965, in Austin, and of course the time we pretty much all remember, 1994 in Rice Stadium, when the Owls prevailed 19-17.

But probably there never was a Rice team as downtrodden, and a Texas team so exalted, as there was in 1962, when the two-win Owls managed a tie with Texas which likely kept them from winning the national championship, which, of course, they managed to pull out the following year, in 1963.

--P.T.H.