Rice and Houston started playing college football in 1946. Or was it 1971? It all depends on what you mean by “playing.”
Have you ever heard of the Bayou Bucket Classic? It’s a college football game between the Houston Cougars and the Rice Owls. The Classic’s name is in reference to a popular Houston nickname, “The Bayou City.”
The Bayou Bucket actually exists. Former Rice guard Fred Curry bought it at an antique shop for $310 and had it redesigned as a trophy.
Johnny Goyan (photo, Guidry News)
How did this crosstown rivalry start?
Let’s go back to 1941 and efforts spearheaded by Johnny Goyen who, at the time, was sports editor of The Cougar, the campus newspaper at the University of Houston. Goyen teamed up with Jack Valenti, sophomore class president, to circulate a petition to start an intercollegiate football team.
The petition drive was a success.
The student body was at it again not long after, circulating another petition. This one was about challenging Rice Institute (now Rice University) to a football game. It was a bold move, too. The Rice Owls had a long-established and storied football program, dating back to 1912.
Again, the petition drive was a success, but things didn’t turn out quite as planned for Houston. In fact, things got a bit crazy during that 1946 inaugural game between the two teams.
It wasn’t a ‘real’ game. Or was it?
Houston’s Jewell Wallace (photo, Wikipedia Commons)
Houston head coach, Jewell Wallace, organized a practice game with Rice to be played at Rice’s home field. But when the Cougars showed up decked out in practice jerseys, they found 11,000 fans in the stands.
The Owls wanted to play for real–even though the game wasn’t included formally on Rice’s schedule that year. The Owls ended up winning easily … and that was the last time the teams would play for decades.
The first ‘official’ game happened in 1971. Houston won, 23-21. And, in 1974, the rivalry game was given its nickname–The Bayou Bucket Classic.
Today the teams play in different conferences (Houston, American Athletic; and Rice, Conference USA), but years ago they both played in the now-disbanded Southwest Conference. 1995 was the last time they played as Southwest Conference rivals with Houston winning by a point, 18-17.
The teams hadn’t played for a few years until this past season. The Cougars won, 38-3, in the 41st meeting of the rivalry (Houston leads, 30-11).
Here’s some of the action from that contest.
