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THERE WAS A TIME... Recollections and reminiscences by one of Rice's all-time greatest players By Froggy Williams '50

WHAT A DIFFERENCE 61 YEARS MAKE
Offensive show now what captivates fans

HOUSTON (Jan. 21) -- I must say first that the rise of Rice football fortunes in the last three years one has to consider an up and down event.  In fact, it has been a great and tumultuous ride.

Let's start with 2006. After something of a rebellion by Rice partisans, we got ourselves a new football coach, a fellow by the name of Todd Graham. Todd has sort of gotten a bad rap at Rice because of the circumstances by which he left the University.

But Todd now is in a place much better for him, both figuratively and literally. He is the center of the athletic universe in Tulsa. It is impossible that he could ever have been the center of the athletic universe in Houston, comparatively speaking. Too bad he missed those years when it might have been  possible. Tulsa University IS virtually the only game in Tulsa town.

Enough said about Todd, he did his job here. There were a great many of  those who knew Rice could attract quality athletes. As it turned out, we already had some quality athletes, we just needed someone to get them motivated.

Anyway, we got Dave Bailiff in 2007 and promptly went 3-9-0. But all that is just water under the bridge, nothing to worry about, now that we have 2008, with our 9-3-0 regular season and a winning Texas Bowl. This gave the 2008 team a 10-victory season which, as we’ve all been constantly reminded,  had not occurred at Rice since 1949.

Your scribe was a member of that 1949 team. The season record including the Cotton Bowl win was 10-1-0.

Now that we have set the stage, I gotta tell you all something. I was thinking about January 1, 1947. About now you are saying, "For heavens sake, why are you thinking about 1947?" Well, sit tight and let me tell you.

I was a freshman on the 1946 Rice Owl championship football team that year. Our regular season record was 8-2-0. We were tied for the Southwest Conference title. We were invited to the Orange Bowl to play the University of Tennessee.

Now Tennessee was one of the few southern teams to be recognized as having a superior football program, starting in the 1920's and going forward to 1946. The coach, Bob Neyland, was already a legend, having won several Southeast Conference championships. Tennessee and Alabama and Georgia were well known nationally. As many of you might remember, Jess Neely was from Tennessee, and be had been a great football player at Vanderbilt.

Consequently, he really wanted to win that Orange Bowl game. Rice had a great defensive team and wound up holding Tennessee to 5 first downs and 127 yards. Rice made 9 first downs and 217 yards. Rice won the game, rather easily, 8-0.

Flash forward.  A lot of you must have gone to see Rice play Western Michigan  in the Texas Bowl. Let's review those yardstick statistics in the game of December 30, 2008.

The final score was Rice 38, Western Michigan 14. Rice made 28 first downs, and 455 total yards on offense. Western Michigan made 15 first downs and 278 total yards on offense.

I would like to suggest that 61 years has made a huge difference in the way football is played today. I always refer to such scores, Rice 38, Western Michigan 14, as basketball scores. (Now Rice 56, UH 42 – that really WAS a basketball score!)

All good coaches knew that good offensive teams are notorious and get big headlines and bring football fans in to the stadium. Remember now, the operative word is "good", not “great”. All great coaches realize that great defensive players win championships.

Jess Neely was a great coach in that sense; in fact, he had a touch of genius in that he could coach and inspire young men to excel at the defensive game. That reminds me of a story about an all-conference tackle who was a senior in 1949.

His name was Ralph Murphy. We were not playing well against TCU late in the season of 1949. TCU did score two touchdowns by passing, but could never run the ball on us.  Ralph's post game comment was about a crucial time in the game.  He said,  "I knew we had 'em when we got 'em on our five yard line." Nobody, but nobody, ran the ball across our goal line the last five games of the regular season.

Wow! What a difference 61 years does make!

--Froggy Williams

James A. "Froggy" Williams has settled into the role of unofficial Historian of Rice Football in recent years, having undertaken a well-received series of articles and memoirs for the Rice Historical Society. Mr. Williams has agreed to regale our readers, from time to time, with reminiscences of Rice's gridiron glory days, and can he ever tell the tale. This, folks, comes directly from the horse's mouth. After all, he was there for the peak of it, having been a consensus All-American end on the greatest Owl team ever, its 1950 Cotton Bowl champion,  earning membership in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965.  Naturally he was there at the Texas Bowl, and here he mulls over a few recollections. --PTH

PREVIOUS STORIES BY FROGGY WILLIAMS:

Owls get reminder of Cadets' no-
quit demeanor every 50 years or so, whether they need it or not

Pete Dawkins was an All-American running back for the '58 Army team; the "Lonesome End"?  A fellow named Bill Carpenter

HOUSTON  -- Did I ever tell you about the time the Lonesome End came to town? I am sure I have not done so, but after last Saturday’s Rice-Army game, I really feel like I should tell you this story.

Obviously, the Owls’ win over the West Point Cadets served as a reminder of that day, exactly 50 years ago. Since this story is unique, I am ashamed to say I have missed telling this after making maybe three or four presentations on an era that should have included it. The date of this occurrence happened to be November 8, 1958. The date, though obviously coincidental, is entirely without any merit. But now let me set the stage for you. You may want to relate this story to your grandchildren.

Earl "Red" Blaik was the coach of the West Point Cadets. He had been there a long time and had great success. Incidentally, no other coach has approached Blaik's long record at West Point. Anyway, these Army boys were ranked number three in the nation going into that ’58 game with Rice.

Now I've gotta tell you something. There was almost nothing that could cause Jess Neely to prepare for a game more, than when he had a chance to knock off a high flying group from a prominent school. About the only thing approaching this situation was when Rice played Tennessee in the Orange Bowl January 1, 1947, after a winning season and a 1946 Southwest Conference Title. But I digress, as that is another whole story.

"Lonesome End" a football sensation back in the 50s

Let's get back to this "Lonesome End". You recent fans would not think much about such a position. But in 1958, there were few teams that spread their players out over the field. The only ones I am sure of that did it in this era were TCU and SMU. But Blaik had this notion, and he sent one man, an end really, about fifteen or twenty yards from the football on every down. It was actually a football sensation. This "Lonesome End" never went to the huddle. The sports writers went crazy trying to find out how the "Lonesome End" knew what to do on each play.

Here comes Army again -- and again

This team has appeared to have jelled. They are playing very well and this small blip will be of no concern. Do you realize that two more victories against Marshall and Houston will make Rice at least a co-champion of the Western Division of the Conference-USA. You know what, it looks like we are going to a bowl game in the 2008 season!

--FROGGY WILLIAMS

Fleeting moment in UT game brought flood of memories

Ol' number 84 back in his playing days -- he still keeps to his playing weight, at 6-2, 197 pounds, soaking wet, with high-top cleats on

HOUSTON -- There really has been a rather outstanding longtime rivalry between Texas University and Rice University. Oh yes, I know that Rice has not won a game with UT in many years. It was in 1994 that this last happened, when the Owls won by 19-17.

As Rice partisans know, Texas usually scores about fifty some-odd points. Rice will vary from one to maybe three touchdowns.  In this year's game, eventually won by Texas in Austin, 52-10,  it was the first time in many years that Rice actually led Texas at any point in a game. Texas did finally score the usual 50-plus  points, but what a heady feeling to know Rice was really in the lead in the early going. It is doubtful that any Rice partisan really thought the Owls would win. There may well be some younger Owls who have never seen the Owls lead the Longhorns!

What we needed was another Kosse Johnson.

I am sure there are a few people who are saying: "Kosse who?" Well, let's stop a moment and I will tell you.

In 1953 Rice had a great football team. As usual, this team was coming along well and went to Austin and Memorial Stadium for a crucial game. There was no platoon system, so Kosse played fifty minutes. He did it all that night; gained about 100 yards running,  returned kickoffs and punts for some 100 yards,  and his line backing duties were superb. When I researched that team for an article, I was told just as the game was near the end and there was blood all over Memorial Stadium.

Kosse told his teammate, Leroy Fenstemaker, "Now, you just relax -- and throw that ball down in the endzone. We'll make eight touchdowns and win the game."  Would you believe that on the next play Dan Hart caught that monumental pass and Rice did win the game, 18-13.

Tough to rank Kosse Johnson and Dick Maegle

At that  time, I told everyone I knew that Kosse Johnson put on the greatest performance by a Rice back that I had ever seen. I still stand by that comment. However, would you believe that about two months later Dick Maegle would set records all over the Cotton Bowl gridiron! I have always refused to attempt to compare the two performances. They were both incredible on those two particular days.

I will say that in all of Rice football history, Rice had two sets of great tandem backs. In 1934 the two were Bill Wallace and John McCauley. In 1953, it was all about Kosse Johnson and Dick Maegle.

There were no other years that Rice had such a great pair of backs.

I do want all of you younger Owl zealots to know that it was not always this way. The Rice Institute quickly established an athletic program in 1912. It did field a football team in 1912. Rice played five games; two of which were against high schools.

It took Rice 22 years to win its first SWC championship

Rice played along without much success through the teens and twenties. In 1924 there was a direct attempt to improve the football team. It took a long time to get where Rice wanted to go. There was a plan in place; it was driven by the board. It took ten years and two coaches to get there -- one of them was none but John L. Heisman, of the trophy fame.  But in 1934, with an unknown and inexperienced coach -- and to the consternation of the  Texas football world -- Rice won its first Southwest Conference championship.

Now Rice had won two or three games from Texas in the twenties and early thirties, but this 1934 team was for real. Houston was overwhelmed; the Texas game was a sellout. It was also the first football game ever announced on radio in the state of Texas, and Rice won the game 20-9.

Starting with 1934, Rice would no longer be an easy game for any opponent, and that lasted throughout the thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties. In fact, Rice had finally achieved recognition regionally and nationally in this approximately forty-year span.

Rice won Southwest Conference Championships in 1934, 1937, 1946, 1949, and in 1953 and 1957. In actuality this was pretty heady stuff when you consider that the university had opened the doors only in 1912 and had no great aspirations to be an athletic gargantuan.

It is true that the hiring of Jess Neely in 1940 was a stroke of genius. Even when he was not winning championships, the Neely era was known to be a 27-year period of well coached and successful football teams.

For a fleeting moment, thoughts of glory days arose

But back to the Texas game on September 20. There was that fleeting moment when the thought of that forty years run of skilled teams might be back. However, down deep, even while holding that feeling, we knew better. Since the demise of the Southwest Conference, young men want to play in the top tier of the college football world.

Since Conference USA is not a top tier conference, Rice has to use its academic prowess to attract recruits who, though perhaps not the most sought-after in the college football world, can thrive in the kind of atmosphere, both on the field and in the classroom, that Rice is all about.

 Despite that 52-10 score, Rice has found itself very competitive among its current conference members  in Conference USA, and should continue to build on that reputation. Who knows? Someday some explosive Rice athletic event may occur and Rice will find itself once again in a top tier athletic conference. One thing for sure, we can and should compete at the best level possible in Conference USA, which means, it is time to think about a championship and bowl game. That would go a long way on the possible route back to big time college football.

Anybody ready to go again to another bowl -- as we did in 2006?

--FROGGY WILLIAMS

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