When Rice beat Texas: October 16, 1994
It has been two decades since Rice beat Texas in football, and the Owls get another chance Saturday when they travel to Austin. The tables have turned a bit — the Owls are 1-0 and feeling good after consecutive bowl wins, while the Longhorns are 0-1 and showing few signs of improving from last year’s 6-7 mark. With that in mind, a look back at Oct. 16, 1994, when Rice beat Texas.
The world kept spinning. Cats still hated dogs. The rain continued to travel the direction it always has.
But Sunday night, Rice beat Texas.
Tomorrow, the scholars on the other end of campus take on the common cold. World peace is scheduled for Wednesday.
Now, anything is possible on South Main. Rice beat Texas. After 28 consecutive losses to the Longhorns, and with their long rivalry taking its final steps toward extinction, the Owls pushed the Longhorns around for all the world -- or at least all of it wired into ESPN -- to see. And when they finally danced about the artificial surface of Rice Stadium, the Owls had ended their long, frustrating streak with a 19-17 win before 34,700 who sat through the rain for the right to be able truthfully to say someday they were there the night Rice beat Texas, something that had not happened since 1965.
“We made history, “Rice junior defensive tackle Brynton Goynes shouted as he fought through mobs of Rice students toward the Rice locker room. “This is the biggest win in the history of Rice football. But because of everything, because of the streak, because they had no respect for us, a win never felt so good. I don’t know if another ever will.”
After waiting so long, and braving what must have seemed to be storms of biblical proportions, the Owls said they won because they believed with religious fervor and conviction that this was their destiny.
“We left church services this morning and looked in each other’s eyes, “Rice offensive lineman Chris Cooley said. “We had faith in God, faith in each other, faith in our ability, faith in coach (Ken) Hatfield and faith in our game plan. We just went out and did it.”
Decades had come and gone. Rice players were born, matured, exhausted their athletic eligibility and graduated from students to alumni. Hatfield went from Arkansas star with a new national championship ring to the coach of four different universities.
And all the while, Texas beat Rice. From Darrell Royal to Fred Akers, David McWilliams and John Mackovic, Texas beat Rice.
From the Southwest Conference’s seemingly permanent hold on college football in Texas to its now imminent demise, Texas beat Rice.
The streak, the second longest continued run of one team beating another in college football before the day began, spanned generations and once unthinkable change in college football.
Now, with only one more chance scheduled before the SWC -- whose own life once seemed as solid as Texas’ streak over Rice -dissolves after next season, the Owls saw their best chance to end the streak that had haunted them and controlled the game from kickoff to celebration.
“We just had to get them before they got out of the conference, “Rice receiver Ed Howard shouted, still holding the onside kick he recovered to clinch the Owls’ victory and standing under the last shred of goal post still left standing as he bounced from the field. “There was no way they were leaving the conference without us beating them. Hell, no.”
The celebration, however, did not begin after Howard had grabbed Texas’ last chance and fell on it. With 1:40 left to play and Rice needing only to fall on the ball to win, Howard said he “knew it was over, the game and the streak. I wanted to lay on the ball right there all night.”
But for several minutes, the crowd, even the Rice players and coaches seemed to hold back their joy as if calculating if there were anything that could rob it from them again. But when quarterback Josh LaRocca knelt one more time to end the game, Rice students streamed on to the field, dancing around the giddy Rice players. Linebacker Emmett Waldron and tight end Clemente Torres dumped a water bucket over Hatfield, who turned to hug them. The the goal posts fell quickly.
“Not only did we beat Texas, we beat them in front of everybody, “LaRocca said. “We ran it down their throats with our style of offense. We shut them down with our defense. It was awesome. If feels even better than I always thought it would.” Hatfield, in his first year at Rice after four painful seasons at Clemson, considered all the Rice players that had come close but didn’t quite do what his players had. He spoke of his friend, former Rice coach Fred Goldsmith. And he gave thanks.
“The Lord, “he said, “worked it all out.”