The Bayou Bucket, which is up for grabs again, has an interesting origin.
Trophy will be up for grabs for first time in 4 years when UH hosts Rice
E.J. Chromcak pulled out a paper from his office file cabinet.
Chromcak, the former treasurer of the Touchdown Club of Houston, had read the organization paid $310 for the Bayou Bucket trophy presented to the winner of the University of Houston and Rice football game.
Chromcak, who turns 91 in January, had proof — a detailed 1974 financial statement — that said otherwise.
Total cost of the Bayou Bucket: $179.20.
“I remember paying the bill,” Chromcak said Tuesday.
For the first time in four years, the old, beat-up, dented brass bucket is up for grabs when the Cougars and Owls play Saturday at TDECU Stadium. The trophy has resided on Cullen Boulevard since 2011.
Fred Curry, a former player for Rice during the Jess Neely era, became president of the Touchdown Club of Houston in 1972 and said “the blue blood in me” wanted to create something unique to drum up interest in the game between two schools separated by just seven miles.
Phil Gemmer, the organization’s late president, was on board with the idea and suggested the club look for a trophy similar to the Old Oaken Bucket presented in the Indiana-Purdue rivalry. He put Curry in charge of finding a trophy.
Both coaches at the time — UH’s Bill Yeoman and Rice’s Al Conover — gave their blessings to the idea.
Next came a meeting at Curry’s house, where the club’s board of directors had to give their approval.
Then, of course, was the matter of coming up with a catchy name.
Curry recalls the group “kicked around 60 or 70 names.”
“We were going around the room (asking for ideas), and of course everyone had a few scotches and beer,” he said.
‘Dirty old bayous’
Curry asked: “What is Houston best known for?”
Delano Womack, former running back at Texas and board member, said: “Dirty old bayous.”
Curry: “That’s it. We’ll call it the Bayou Bucket.”
Now that they had a name, next came the tough part of finding a bucket that would be the centerpiece of the trophy.
“I had been looking for something and shopping for something but I really didn’t know what,” Curry said. “It was kind of a hitand-miss sort of thing at that time.”
On vacation with his wife, Jann, in the summer of 1974, Curry walked into an antique shop in New Braunfels, about 50 miles south of Austin.
That’s where he saw a brass bucket.
“It was really pretty but had dents,” Curry said. “It had been around awhile.” Curry paid $47.50. “That’s a pretty good deal,” Curry, 87, said.
Back in Houston, Curry took the bucket to Buck Sloan, a close friend and former Rice player who owned a trophy shop on Fannin Street.
“What do you want me to do,” Sloan said.
“Hell, I don’t know. Make me a trophy,” Curry replied.
Ten days later, Curry got a phone call that the Bayou Bucket trophy was ready.
“Could you have made the thing a little gaudier than this?” Curry said upon first glance.
“I got to creating this thing,” Sloan told him, “and I didn’t know when to stop. I kept adding to it.”
The Bayou Bucket is mounted on a wooden ornate base and stands between 2½ and 3 feet tall. The scores from all 40 meetings are engraved on two sides. Four football player figures are on each corner and a kicker in the middle. The cost for mounting, engraving and fixture was $131.70.
Although the schools first played in 1971, the Bayou Bucket was not presented until 1974 — a 21-0 win by UH at Rice Stadium.
Late-night call
When Rice won the next year at the Astrodome, Curry got a call at 4 a.m. It was Conover asking about the bucket.
“I want to know where my damn bucket is,” Curry recalled the Rice coach saying. “I said, ‘Can you wait a couple more hours?’ He said, ‘No, I couldn’t.’ He wanted his bucket.”
Since its beginnings, the Bayou Bucket has been presented annually except for a three-year stretch from 1996-98 following the breakup of the Southwest Conference when the schools did not play. A casualty of conference realignment, the schools have not played since 2013. Saturday’s game is the first of a four-game, homeand-home series that runs through 2021.
Houston has maintained possession of the bucket 29 out of the 40 meetings. On Tuesday afternoon, the Bayou Bucket was displayed on a table at practice.
“The first time you see the bucket, you think it’s an unusual looking award,” said Rice coach David Bailiff, whose team won the game in 2008 and 2010. “It’s truly just an old bucket mounted on wood. But what it stands for makes you covet it. You want it in your locker room.”
While showing its age, just like the rivalry, the bucket has stood the test of time.
“It’s got a great history,” Curry said.