l
Thursday, November 15, 1951
THE BATTALION
Page 5
Head Coach Neely
Ranks High in S WC
One of the best known and most
famous football coaches in the na
tion, the head man of the Rice
Owls began his 12th year at Rice
this season.
Jess Neely is in his 21st season
as head coach in the major col
legiate ranks, and his 29th year of
a very successful coaching career.
Jess Neely earned a law degree
at Vanderbilt, Tenn. However the
lure of coaching was too great, and
he by-passed the practice of law
to make good in coaching.
That great love for football grew
during Neely’s gridiron days at
Vandy where he played offensive
Jess Neeley
Head Coach
back and defensive end under the
colorful Dan McGugin and his aide,
Wallace Wade.
After a year as coach at Mur
freesboro High in Tennessee in
1923, four years as coach at little
Southwestern U. in Memphis and
a spring as assistant baseball
coach at Princeton in 1928, Neely
went to the University of Ala
bama.
He served as end coach under
Wade, the former aid at Vandy,
from ’28 to ’30—in that era when
Wade’s famous “Red Elephants”
achieved much fame and frequent
ly played in the Rose Bowl.
Neely then got his chance as
head coach at Clemson College in
South Caxolina where he took over
in 1931. There were three sad
seasons at Clemson, where the grid
program had to be built virtually
from the ground up.
Then the Tigers of tobacco land
hit that right combination and had
six winning seasons, climaxed by
the 1939 team’s 6-3 victory over
Frank Leahy’s Boston College team
in the Dallas’ Cotton Bowl, with
All-American Banks McFadden
pacing Clemson.
Despite those sub-par building
years, Neely’s record was 43 won,
35 lost, 7 ties in nine seasons.
That earned Neely a shot at the
challenging post of athletic direc
tor and head coach at Rice Insti
tute, by far the smallest school in
the strong Southwest Conference.
Neely Magic Touch
The Neely touch has worked very
well at Rice, where the little school
toppled the giants frequently.
Despite three sub-.500 seasons
during the World War II years of
’43, ’44, and ’45 when the Owls
manpower was very low, the Neely
record at Rice to date is 69 won,
41 lost, 4 tied.
Even with his earlier building
years and three bad seasons at
Rice, Neely has one of the best rec
ords as head coach in the 20-year
college circles.
Three Neely-coached teams have
played in major bowl games, and
all won. In addition to the Clem
son victory over Boston College,
the Rice ’46 co-champs of the SWC
beat Gen. Bob Neyland’s Tennes
see Vols 8-0 in the Orange Bowl.
The Owl’s 1949 SWC champs
whipped Carl Snavely’s Charlie
Justice-led North Carolina Tar
heels 27-13 in the Cotton Bowl.
Neely is married, and he and
Mrs. Neely (Dorthy) and teen age
daughters, Joan and Mary, live
in their two-story home just off
the Rice campus.
Owl Sophs Lead W ay
For SWC Chances
Much has been said about the
youth of the Rice team playing
such an important role in many
of the key positions on the Owls
offensive and defensive first teams.
It might be noted that of the
25 players who saw the most play
ing time in the first five games
of the season, six were seniors,
nine were juniors and 10 were
sophomores. In all, there are only
ten seniors on the ’51 Rice squad.
Where the sophomores are really
prominent is the quarterback posi
tion. All four candidates battling
for the posts are second-year men.
Dan Drake, who has seen lots
of action this year, had the edge
on the other players in that he
played a lot in practice with the
Rice Owl Tri-Captains—Walls, Burkhalter, Howton
Rice Tri-Captains
Steady Young Owls
New Rice Stadium
Seats 70,000 Fans
Now one year old, Rice’s mag
nificent new stadium on the
school campus will be the site of
the Rice Owls’ battle with the
Cadets Saturday afternoon.
With this first stadium of such
size to be built in this country in
many years available, the Rice
Owls’ home attendance record was
nearly doubled as some 300,000
fans saw the six home games last
year.
The spectators at Rice’s 1950
games acclaimed the many out
standing features of the new struc
ture that was designed with the
comfort of the fans the primary
goal.
For Football Only
The stadium was designed strict
ly for football. There is no track
around the field. The sidelines are
only 35 feet from the first row of
seats.
The structure is double deck,
with the lower part a complete
bowl and upper decks on each side
extending beyond the end zone
lines.
The lower stands, or bowl, seat
40,000 fans while each upper deck
seats 15,000.
Playing Field Below Ground
The playing field is in a man
made bowl, 26 feet below actual
ground level. Fans enter the stad
ium at ground level, walk up a
very slight incline to a concourse
60 to 90 feet in width that com
pletely circles the lower stands.
Fans entering the lower stands
walk down to their seats. Spec
tators goint to the upper decks
have to walk up I'elatively few
rows, and much of their climb is
accomplished by a ramp, which
leads to a second concourse at the
level of the 15th row of the upper
deck.
The first row of six seats are
above the playing surface, and the
first seven rows of the end zone
seats have been eliminated so
that qvery fan in the stadium gets
a view of the entire playing area.
No Waiting
The entrance system is designed
to eliminate whiting at gates, or
unnecessary walking to get to a
specific entrance.
Fans may enter at any one of
the four enhances at each corner
of the stadium. Each entrance has
three gates in an area 24 feet wide.
After passing through the gate,
the fans simply walk up a ramp a
short ways to the concourse that
surrounds the lower stands and
proceed to their aisle.
TM stadium has enough conces^
sion stands, telephones, rest rooms,
etc., to provide such services and
facilities for a capacity crowd, and
they are located strategically so
that no one has to -walks very far
to reach them.
There are two electrically operat
ed scoreboards located at each
end of the stadium.
Rice’s new stadium is one of the
best lighted anywhere. It has 16
light towers, eight on each side
of the field. Lights are attached to
the upper deck therefore there are
no poles to block the spectators
vision.
The lights also have a special
control beam and do not shine di
rectly into the eyes of players or
fans.
Rice Institute’s tri-captains, Bil
ly Burkhalter, Glenn Walls, and
Bill Howton, will be playing in
their last Owl-A&M football game
Saturday afternoon in Houston.
These ..three seniors have never
played on a Rice team that has lost
to the Aggies.
Howton is a top candidate for
All-SWC and a strong contender
for All-American honors. The lean
redhead from the Texas Panhan
dle is the leading pass receiver
in the Southwest Conference, catch
ing 18 passes for 482 yards for an
average gain per pass of 26.7
yards.
5 Touchdown Passes
Five of the aerials . went for
touchdowns to place the Rice end
in a four-way tie for second place
in the SWC scoring face.
Of the five touchdown passes
caught, only two were in the end
zone. On the other three the
great Owl end used his speed to
break into the clear’, evade would-
be tacklers and outrun everyone
to the goal line.
National passing statistics are
based on the number of passes
caught which handicaps Howton,
because Rice does not pass as
much as the other SWC teams. Of
those listed in NCAB statistics, on
ly six men have more total yard
age and they have participated in
two more games than has Howton.
Only five of those listed have scor-
| ed more TD passes and they have
also played in two more games
than the Owl end.
Walls plays left tackle on the
young Rice line. He is six feet
three inches tall and weighs 210
pounds. His two years as a let-
terman has provided experience
and steadiness in the Blue and
Grey forward wall, which has a
great many sophomores.
One of the five married men
on the team, Walls is an offensive
specialist who is called by his
teammates one of the finest block
ing lineman in the SWC.
Last year Walls played in the
shadow of Rice’s All-SWC tackle
Paul Giroski and did- not receive
his just dues from the critics.
Besides being one of the Owl
tri-captains, Burkhalter is presi
dent of the senior class. He has
established himself as one of the
finest backs in the Southwest on
the basis of his two good seasons
to date. In the 1950 Cotton Bowl
game, Burkhalter then a sopho
more, was named the outstanding
back of the game over Charlie
“Choo Choo” Justice who was play
ing for North Carolina.
In last year’s tilt against the
Aggies, Burkhalter had a great
day as he flashed his ’49 form.
A contender for All-Conference
honors, Burkhalter can play equally
well at halfback or fullback. If
“Kpsse’ Johnson should become un
available, Burkhalter can also han
dle the kicking chores.
varsity last fall while laying out
a year as soph.
The Fort Worth Polly star used
that year to learn the “T” as only
previous experience was in five
fish games of ’49, playing single
wing tailback.
Fenstemaker The Biggest
Leroy Fenstemaker, the biggest
of the group, stands two inches
over the six foot mark and tips
the scales at 190 pounds. He
showed the most promise in spring
drills and has alternated with
Drake to handle the position most
of the time.
The other soph candidates are
Buddy Grantham and Bobby Leg-
get, who is the smallest of the four
man-under the, T men and possesses
the best record for fish games last
year.
Fullback Johnson
The fullback slot is another key
position that has been captured by
an eager young Owl.
David Johnson came to Rice var
sity rated one of the brightest
prospects in the SWC, He had a
fine impressive record on the team
and had a fine chance of becoming
the starting fullback, a rare thing
on Neely's teams.
He is rated a fine punter and
one of the better punters in the
Rice Sophomore Backs—Johnson, Fenstemaker
conference, so far this year he has
turned in a very creditable job. He
is also a track star - .
Nesrsta, The Smallest
In Horton Nesrsta the Rice Owls
have the smallest player in the
Southwest Conference, but one of
the ablest and most valuable.
The little sophomore from San
Antonio (Harlandale) officially is
listed at 147 pounds but after one
tough game weighed in at 139
pounds.
Despite his lack of size, Nesrsta
is the Owl’s regular safety-man,
an able defender against passes,
and ranks third in the SWC in
punt returners.
Off the gridiron he is boyish in
appearance, well-mannered and
good natured, but on the field his
coach, Jess Neely, describes him
as the “toughest little nut I’ve ever
seen in a football uniform.”
In both the SMtl and Texas
game he had to be taVen from the
field with injuries after jarring
tackles by lineman who outweighed
him nearly 100 pounds, but he re
turned to action in both games.
Those sophomores will be dan
gerous.
—Beat Rice—
Dickie Bob Haddox
Rice Back
Rice Passers
Ready for A&M
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Rice Owls, still strong con
tenders for the Southwest crown
with only one loss, reported today
that its top passing combination,
Dan Drake-to-Bill Howton, was in
good condition for the Texas A&M
tilt Saturday. Both have been both
ered with injuries.
But Teddy Riggs, the Owls’ lead
ing ground gainer, has an injured
shoulder.
A&M Coach Ray George tried
some new material at defensive
backfield positions yesterday to fill
vacancies caused by injuries.
Arkansas and SMU eased up on
contact work yesterday in prepara
tion for their week-end contest.
Both were trying, to guard against
further injuries to their squad.
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