The Pecan Park Eagle

The Rice Owls of 1949 were a True Bird of Prey!

The 1949 Rice Owls were a great football team, the kind of national quality team that this fine Houston university both deserves and, hopefully, will have again. Look. – If Stanford can do it, and they do, year in and year out, then so should the Owls be able to put themselves in the driver’s seat of a college club that again combines brains and athleticism for the sake of elevating Rice to that highest plane of achievement in college football.

The 1949 Owls went 10 and 1 on the year, coming within 8 points in one game against the always tough LSU Tigers of going undefeated on the season. That 14-7 loss to the Tigers came on the heels of a season-opening pasting that Rice put on Clemson, 34-7, and it was followed by a 65-o slaughter by the Owls of New Mexico State before going into a perfect romp of all their seven Southwest Conference rivals to finish their championship season at 9-1 as the reining SWC king and the designated league host of the once fabled Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Beginning with their iconic coach, Jess Neely, the 1949 Owls were names I only heard over the radio or read in the Houston Post, but they were still heroes to me as an 11-year old Houston kid. I still get chills from reading or hearing any of those familiar Owl names today.

Jess Neely. – Tobin Rote. – Billy Burkhalter. – Froggy Williams. – All American center Joe Watson. – These names lit the house for both the university then known as Rice Institute and the City of Houston back in 1949.

And here’s how Dan Shults of the Baytown Sun covered the Rice Owls’ final triumph of the 1949 season in a 27-13 victory over Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice and the North Carolina Tarheels in the Cotton Bowl on Monday, January 2, 1950:

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RICE POWER, PASSES TROUNCE TARHEELS, 27-13

North Carolina Team Outclassed by Owls

by Dan Shults

Coach Jess Neely’s machine-like Owls put on a bruising exhibition of power and arterial artistry in Dallas’ mammoth Cotton Bowl yesterday to stun the North Carolina Tarheels, 27-13, before a sellout crowd.

Rice’s blocking was superb, and by far the outstanding feature of the game. The Owls waited until mid-way to score their first touchdown, but they clearly demonstrated their superiority early in the first period, taking the opening kickoff and driving the length of the field before bogging down on the Tarheel 13.

Rice’s first touchdown was a thing of beauty, and demonstrated perfection in football. Quarterback Tobin Rote flipped a short flat pass to the hard-running Billy Burkhalter, who already had two men running interference for him, while more was forming quickly on down the field. Burkhalter took the aerial on the Tarheel 40, and the North Carolina boys began to fall like dominoes lined up in a row. There were at least five perfect downfield blocks that paved the way for Burkhalter. Joe Watson, Rice’s All America center, turned one Tarheel defender a complete flip with a vicious block. Froggy Williams kicked the extra point and the Owls led, 7-0.

Rice’s second touchdown was set up on a twisting, turning 16 yard run by Burkhalter that put the ball on the Tarheel seven. With time running out, Gordon Wyatt thundered over center for the touchdown and Williams converted to put the Owls ahead, 14-0.

The Owls scored again in the third period and early in the fourth period to lead, 27-0.

North Carolina made its two touchdowns late in the final quarter, the last coming with only 47 seconds to go. Charley Justice showed of the stuff that made him an All America, but his play was overshadowed  by the hard running of teammate Billy Hayes.

The Tarheels drove 65 yards for their first TD. Only seven yards from paydirt, Justice hit Paul Rizzo on the two and he stepped over the goal.

It was Rizzo who made North Carolina’s final TD. Justice started out around his own left end, found himself trapped, and lateraled to Rizzo who went over. The play covered eight yards.

Rice’s Williams came through like a true All American, ending his brilliant career in a starring role. It was he who scored the third Rice TD on a great catch and run down the sideline.The Owls had the pigskin on the Tarheel 17 when Rote hist Williams on the 12. The fine-running end wheeled and cut for the sideline, where he tight-roped it to the goal line, shaking off one North Carolina tackler on the way.

Williams was in North Carolina’s hair during the entire game. With Rote flipping ’em, Williams caught aerials all over the field, and in addition kicked three out of four extra points.

~ Excerpt from a game coverage article by Dan Shults that appeared in the Baytown (TX) Sun on Tuesday, January 3, 1950, Page 6.

The 1950 Cotton Bowl, Dallas Texas, January 2, 1950

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“Save the Astrodome. ~ Give new life to the Eighth Wonder of the World. ~ Vote Yes on Harris County Proposition 2.”

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