Rice Stadium (Rice University)

Rice Stadiumis anAmerican footballstadiumlocated on theRice Universitycampus inHouston,Texas. It has been the home of theRice Owls football teamsince its completion in1950,and hostedJohn F. Kennedy's "We choose to go to the Moon" speech in 1962 andSuper Bowl VIIIin early 1974.
Architecturally, Rice Stadium is an example ofmodern architecture, with simple lines and an unadorned, functional design. The lower seating bowl is located below the surrounding ground level. Built solely for football, the stadium has excellent sightlines from almost every seat. To achieve this, the running track was eliminated so that spectators were closer to the action and each side of the upper decks was brought in at a concave angle to provide better sightlines. It is still recognized in many circles as the best stadium in Texas for watching a football game. Entrances and aisles were strategically placed so that the entire stadium could be emptied of spectators in nine minutes.
In 2006, Rice University upgraded the facility by switching fromAstroTurftoFieldTurfand adding a modern scoreboard above the north concourse.Seating in the upper deck is in poor condition, which led the university to move home games for which large crowds were expected to nearbyNRG Stadium.
High school football games, especially neutral-site playoff games, are frequently played at Rice Stadium. It can also be used as a concert venue.
Rice Stadium replacedRice Field(nowWendel D. Ley Track and Holloway Field), which had a total capacity of less than 37,000, in 1950.The new stadium was subsidized by the City of Houston, and it was designed by Hermon Lloyd & W. B. Morgan and Milton McGinty and built byBrown and Root.
In addition to Rice, theUniversity of HoustonCougarsplayed at Rice Stadium from1951through1964, and the formerBluebonnet Bowlwas played there from1959to1967, and in1985and1986. TheHouston Oilersof theAmerican Football League(AFL)  played in the stadium for three seasons (1965–1967), then moved to theAstrodomein1968.
In January1974, the venue hostedSuper Bowl VIII, the first played in Texas, in which the defending championMiami Dolphinsdefeated theMinnesota Vikings24–7 with 68,142 in attendance.The game returned to Houston thirty years later in February2004, forSuper Bowl XXXVIIIatReliant Stadium.
On September 12, 1962, Rice Stadium hosted the speech in whichPresidentJohn F. Kennedychallenged Americans to meet his goal, set the previous year, to send a man to the Moon by the end of the decade.In the Wednesday afternoon speech, he used a reference to Rice University football to help frame his rhetoric:
Kennedy's comments implied Rice had a history of losing toTexas; however, the two football teams had split 5–5 in their previous ten meetings and tied thefollowing month. On the other hand, Kennedy's comments about Rice-Texas might have been as forward-looking as his statements about going to the Moon (which did occur in1969): Since1963, Rice has gone just 2–43 (.044) against Texas, including 28 straight losses between1966and1993and twenty straight from1995to the present.
On July 2, 1988, Rice Stadium hosted a stop on the Monsters of Rock tour. The tour was headlined byVan Halenand also featuredMetallica,Scorpions,Dokken, andKingdom Come. This was also the Texas World Music Festival.
As originally built, Rice Stadium seated 70,000, the second-largest stadium in theSouthwest Conference(behind theCotton Bowl). Rice Stadium was built before professional football came to Houston and while Rice was still competitive in the Southwest Conference. It was reasonable to expect 70,000 fans to attend a college football game there. However, as Rice declined on the field from the 1960s onward, the Owls found it increasingly difficult to fill the stadium. Even crowds of 30,000 were swallowed up in the environment.
In 2006, the end zone seats were covered with tarps, reducing the regularseating capacityto 47,000. The northern end zone was later demolished. As of 2023, school continues exploring options for a modern seating arrangement with a reduced capacity.
Around July 2015, construction began on the Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center. This building makes up the north end of the stadium, and contain a weight room, a home team locker room, coaching and staff offices. This replaced the north end seating that consisted of crude concrete steps and was unused. The building was named for donor and former Rice University football player and alumnus Brian Patterson.
On May 9, 2019, the Rice University Board of Trustees approved a proposal for an air-supported multipurpose facility on the west side of Rice Stadium that will offer climate-protected space for varsity athletics training, campus recreation and Rice student events, activities and community partner events. The 80,000 square foot inflatable structure rose up from the infield area of the bike track west of Rice Stadium for the first time in late July 2020, creating a facility to house practices, intramurals and other events when weather put those events in peril.