Rice Stadium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rice Stadium

Location	Stadium Rd. Houston, TX 77005
Broke ground	February, 1950
Opened	September 30, 1950
Owner	Rice University
Operator	Rice University
Surface	FieldTurf
Architect	Brown & Root Constructors
Tenants
Rice University Owls (football) Houston Oilers (NFL) (1965-1967)
Seats
70,000

Rice Stadium is a football stadium located in Houston, Texas. Completed in 1950, the stadium seats 72,000 in a lower bowl and upper decks on each sideline. The stadium is the home of the football team for Rice University and also hosted the University of Houston football team from 1951 to 1965 and the Houston Oilers from 1965 to 1967. The college football Bluebonnet Bowl was played there from 1959 to 1967 and again in 1985 and 1986.

Rice Stadium was built before professional football came to Houston, and 70,000 fans might be expected to attend a college football game there. But the Houston Oilers arrived in 1960, Rice football stopped being competitive in the Southwest Conference after 1961, and the stadium has not sold out for a college football game since the early 1960s (the average attendance for Rice football games in Rice Stadium in 2005 was 10,072). On the campus tour, guides note that Rice Stadium is large enough to seat every alumnus of the university, living and dead. Due in part to the poor condition of seating in the upper deck and NCAA attendance regulations, Rice has recently moved its triannual home game against Texas and selected other home games to Reliant Stadium, home of the Houston Texans. The 2003 game against Texas at Reliant Stadium drew 45,764 fans.

After Todd Graham was hired as Rice's new football coach in 2006, he announced intentions to upgrade the facility by switching from AstroTurf to FieldTurf and add a modern scoreboard above the north concourse. [1]

Architecturally, Rice Stadium is an excellent example of modernism, with simple lines and an unadorned, functional design. The entire lower seating bowl is located below the surrounding ground level. Built solely for football (i.e. without a running track), the stadium has excellent sightlines from virtually every seat.

In 1974, Rice Stadium hosted Super Bowl VIII, in which the Miami Dolphins beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-7. Only three other stadiums built specifically for a major-college team (Tulane Stadium at Tulane University, Stanford Stadium at Stanford University, and Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University) have hosted the Super Bowl, although the Rose Bowl, which has recently been home to the UCLA Bruins, has also hosted the Super Bowl.

Rice Stadium also could be used as a concert venue, seating 80,000 spectators.

On 12th September 1962, at Rice Stadium, President John F. Kennedy made a famous speech in which he challenged the nation to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade

Old Rice Stadium (located where the Rice Track/Soccer Stadium is today) seated less than 37,000 fans and was used prior to 1950.