Farrimond ends up with rags, riches by sticking out career with Owls
The blue shirt looks like a tattered rag. There are rips and holes along with knots along the side designed to keep the material in some semblance of the article of clothing it once was. The navy color faded through washes and wear to more of a bluish gray. The only part that seems untouched are the two words on the chest: Unfinished Business.
Rice senior punter James Farrimond is determined to hold it all together for one final season. He wears the beat-up shirt, which each player received in 2012 before the Owls’ game against UCLA, every day at practice.
The shirt is part of Farrimond’s routine and his superstitions.
To him, it represents more than a cliché about what the Owls want to accomplish. It represents his struggles and his triumphs with the Rice football team.
As the Owls prepare to face Texas on Saturday night in Austin, where Rice hasn’t won in 50 years, Farrimond is still sporting the shirt he has been wearing the last few years.
Hooked on the Horns
Farrimond was born into a burnt orange family. His parents, Scott and Ann Farrimond, met at UT. They took James and his three sisters to Longhorns game each fall. Farrimond believed he was born to be a Longhorn.
His room was decorated with Texas football paraphernalia, top to bottom. Posters of Vince Young and newspaper pages commemorating the 2005 national championship covered the walls. Farrimond dreamed of attending the McCombs School of Business and joining a fraternity. He played safety at Churchill High School in San Antonio. It wasn’t until his senior year that he started to punt and kick. He was accepted at UT, and football became an afterthought.
In December of his senior year, Farrimond received a call from Rice offering him a walk-on spot for kicking.
“I was like, ‘Oh, man. Do I really want to do that?’ ” Farrimond said. “Literally, my whole life I’ve been like, ‘I’m going to UT.’ ”
Farrimond received offers from FCS, Division II and Division III programs. None offered the academics he was wanted. He decided to go to Rice.
“I thought a lot of kids would kill to have this opportunity,” he said. “So I wanted to take it. Man, it’s been a journey ever since.”
Farrimond went through “dark days” his first year. He realized he had to improve to play at the FBS level.
James’ decision to not attend Texas made him wonder if he should leave Rice and try to fulfill his childhood dream in Austin.
His father told him to give Rice a chance. Farrimond, who was named the team’s top scholar-athlete last spring, attended kicking camps and hired a kicking coach. Then came the fall of 2012, when he played in his first two games in his now infamous shirt.
Farrimond has now punted in 28 games for the Owls. Last year, he averaged 42.0 yards. In Rice’s 56-16 win over Wagner on Saturday, he punted four times, averaging 35.8 yards. He shared the placekicking job in 2014, hitting eight of 11 field goals and all 25 of his extra points, but Jack Fox handled those duties against Wagner.
Around the locker room, Farrimond’s shirt is well known. Players and coaches ask about its well-being. After each practice, Farrimond places the shirt on his loop, which identifies the apparel for the equipment team to wash.
Even more ragged
A couple of weeks ago, the shirt became entangled with another player’s loop, tearing the shirt more and forming new holes. But Farrimond didn’t give up on it.
“I’ll duct-tape it if I have to,” he said.
Farrimond is prone to wearing things down. When he was born into his UT-loving family, a blanket was placed in his crib. He carried it around and wore it down for nine years until one corner remained. Then he stuffed it in the corner of his bed, where his mom recently found it.
“He really does bleed Rice’s navy and gray,” she said Tuesday.
The blanket is blue.