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You never forget your first time
HOUSTON (Oct. 10) – It seems scarcely possible to have been so long ago, to those Feathered Flock members of a certain age who can recall when the University of Houston was just a glorified community college on the wrong side of South Main Street, instead of the sprawling urban megaversity it’s become. In 1971, when Rice actually sponsored the U of H’s membership in the Southwest Conference, some old grads tossed and turned in bed -- or in their graves, as the case may have been. The deal was that UH would not begin round-robin league play until 1976. But six months later, the Owls and the Coogs nevertheless were lining it up on the turf of Rice Stadium for their first football meeting ever. The date was September 11, 1971, and the Institute Boys, led by first (and only) year coach Bill Peterson, the master of malaprop, fell 23-21 to a highly favored UH eleven before a Rice Stadium crowd of 62,000. Most U of H supporters, and the bulk of the sportswriter community, were surprised that the Owls could hang that tough against a Bill Yeoman-coached team that had just recently perfected an offense they called the Veer. They'd never come that close again, some red-clad boosters inveighed. But a year later, the two squads were lining it up again on the floor of Rice Stadium, once again as the first game of the season. Few gave the Owls a chance, in this, the coaching debut of Rice head coach and occasional Crazy Man, Al Conover, who’d taken over at the spur of the moment from Bill Peterson after only a single season at Rice when Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams hired Coach Pete away from the college ranks. This game also marked the coming-out party for the new R-Room situated on the south end of Rice Stadium. Owls weren't big, but had some capable performers
In the R-Room, the booze flowed thick, but on the field, the Owls were thin, mighty thin. At the quarterback spot was senior Bruce Gadd, who’d had the distinction of throwing 18 interceptions the year before in an understudy role to Phillip Wood. And it was all up to Bruce -- he had no experienced backups. The running back cupboard was even more bare, as hopes were pinned largely on a true freshman named John Coleman. Receiver was a spot where the Owls were relatively deep, featuring proven performers such as Edwin Collins, Ron Arceneaux, Bubba Berg (sorry, George, that’s what they called you in those days), and Carl Swierc, who was destined to occupy yet another footnote in Rice football history. At tight end were Joe Buck and Gary Butler, who later went on to all-conference status and earned some All-America mentions. Gary was the real deal. So was Mark Williams, the Owls’ all-league place-kicker. The Rice OL was expected to hold its own, with such proven performers as Ron Waedemon, Sammy Johnson and Bart Goforth. In the defensive line, Larry Walling, Cornelius Walker and the Medford brothers, Jody and Larry, held forth. Behind the DL, the Owls had Rodrigo Barnes (who later played for the Cowboys), LaRay Breshers and Richard Hollas at linebacker, and Bruce Henley, Donnie Bernshausen, and Bill Chilivetis at defensive back. Almost all of those guys were undersized though. Sound familiar? The Cougars countered with quarterback D. C. Nobles, running backs Puddin’ Jones and Leonard Parker, and receivers Robert Ford, Del Willingham and Robert Stanley. New head coach Al Conover had been a surprise from the beginning of two-a-days. "Work their asses off, but make the players feel like you’re one of the guys" was his motto. Big Al's strategy: keep it simple, stupid But his strategic philosophy for Game 1 against the Coogs was right out of taskmaster Bear Bryant’s play book. Observers said he really only used five different offensive plays, the whole game. The Owls played conservatively, trying to keep the ball away from the high-powered Cougar attack, which only a few years earlier had humbled Tulsa, 100-6. Yes, that Tulsa. Frosh running back John Coleman turned out to be a diamond in the rough who was good for three or four yards each time his number was called. He finished the day with 24 rushes for 84 net yards. Owing to the just-instituted rule change allowing freshmen to play varsity ball, Coleman was the first frosh to play for the Owls since 1946. But when the Owls needed to cross the pay station, they did it through the air. Capping drives of 58 and 77 yards, Bruce Gadd threw for two touchdown passes that almost, but not quite, proved the measure of the Rice victory. For when Bruce connected on a scoring strike to Edwin Collins with 4 seconds left in the game, the score still stood 13-12, Houston. There wasn’t any such thing as overtime in those days. It was either go for the win, or kiss your sister. Big Owl Conover didn’t even hesitate over going for the tie. Instead, he called a basic trap handoff, with the ball being given to a converted defensive back, a theretofore unknown named Preston Anderson. Backup Rice offensive linemen John Paul Hershey teamed with stalwart Bart Goforth for the blocks of their lives, and Preston Anderson vaulted over the goal line to give the Owls a last-second, sweet-as-wine 14-13 win. In the dressing room afterwards, Big Al was beside himself. "I told you we were going to win," he said to nobody in particular. "Some of you didn’t believe me, but I told you we were going to win." "We own this town! Cougar High is through!" Big Al bellowed. This Rice contingent went on to finish the season 5-5-1, with wins over Clemson, A&M and Arkansas – a high water mark which stood until Fred Goldsmith bettered the effort with a 6-5 record in 1992. The Owls won over Houston only two times in the next 13 years, but that hardly took away from the ecstasy of that sweet, sweet, first victory. "We own this town! Cougar High is through!" A bit crude, perhaps. But it does have a nice ring to it. --P.T.H. (Republished from Aug. 30, 2006, edition) Errors or omissions? Please email us.... Some of those who played in Rice's first win over the University of Houston:
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