1995 is remembered for the MLB strike that wiped out the post-season.  A consequence of the lack of October baseball (and the NFL having not yet come up with the idea of even more Sunday football) was the decision to move the UT-Rice game to Sunday night for a national TV audience.  My wife and I made a last minute decision to attend – something possible when Rice was still playing in a 70,000 seat stadium.  There had been some fairly violent thunderstorms during the day and a lot of rain, but as the game approached the rain was holding off.  We brought some rain gear and bought a couple of cheap seats in the end zone (when you could still sit in the end zone at Rice Stadium).  UT would later complain that it was raining every time they had the ball, but that is part of the myth.  There was very little if any rain during the game.  UT had just come off of a rousing victory against OU in the Cotton Bowl where backup quarterback James Brown and pulled off an almost perfect game.  He was 17-22 passing with a passing touchdown, a rushing touchdown and one interception that wasn’t his fault.  At least 3 of the other incompletions were dropped balls that should have been caught.  For some reason, Jon Makovic – in his infinite wisdom about such matters – went back to his mediocre starting quarterback Shea Morenz who had a less than mediocre day going 18-39 for 163 yards and touchdown.   UT promptly fell behind 9-0 after the Owls kicked a field goal and recovered the ensuing kickoff and immediately scored again.  Given the lead, the Owls’ defense played an inspired game helped by having the wrong Longhorn quarterback at the helm.  The Owls’ by then old-fashioned wishbone running game was effective at taking time off the clock and held the ball for almost 40 minutes.  At one point in the second half when things were looking grim, I trained my binoculars on Brown.  He was sitting on a table on the sideline, smiling and seemingly joking with some other players.  I thought, “He knows he isn’t getting into this game.”  Which seemed incredible to me -given the possibility of UT losing to Rice for the first time in 29 years.  And I was right.  UT scored late to pull with 2 at 19-17, but the onside kick failed.  It was an amazing victory for Coach Ken Hatfield in his first season at Rice.  As the clock ticked down, my eyes were on the Owls student section.  One particularly tall and athletic looking student leaped the rail, sprinted across the field and in one jump was grabbing the crossbar of the south end zone goalpost.  Within seconds the end zone was swarmed and the goalpost fell within less than two minutes.  It was the only time I have ever actually seen the goalposts torn down – and it was at Rice Stadium!

Photo – Houston Chronicle