With Saturday’s rivalry matchup against Rice, The Daily Cougar compiled a list of five reasons why UH athletics reigns supreme over the Owls.
No. 1 — Mascots
The whole point of being a mascot is to stir up pride while having fun. A mascot should never go out of character while masquerading around a stadium or at another event. Shasta, the UH mascot, is as good as it gets when it comes to creating excitement.
When the men’s basketball team played at Rice on Jan. 26, the lack of enthusiasm shown by Sammy the Owl was visible. The person under the costume looked apathetic toward the game. They behaved as if they would have rather been at a night class or a library — anywhere but a sporting event. The Rice fans were riled up, but the same cannot be said for Sammy. His demeanor was that of a bored, uninterested mascot.
Shasta, on the other hand, is quite the entertainer. When he is not amusing fans, he is watching the game attentively, preparing for an animated outburst of any sort.
Outside of being a mascot, the person under Shasta’s mask has athletic prowess. He is a pole vaulter for the track and field team. If there were ever an athletic competition for mascots, Shasta would run circles around Sammy and any others.
No. 2 — Football
Admittedly, last season’s Bayou Bucket was a bust for UH, but Rice had circumstance on its side.
Rice survived a UH rally to win 34-31, but something was obviously missing.
Had Case Keenum not been sidelined with a season-ending knee injury, it is doubtful the game would have been a close contest. His play and leadership would have averted the crisis, and Rice fans would have endured another losing performance on the gridiron.
In 2009, the Cougars ran the Owls out of Robertson Stadium with a dominating 73-14 win.
With Keenum being granted a sixth year, expect him to pulverize the Owls’ secondary on Oct. 29 when Rice returns to Robertson.
UH has an all-time 25-10 advantage over the Owls in the Bayou Bucket. That means the Owls need to go on an unprecedented 15-season winning streak — then maybe UH will recognize Rice as a threat in the football world.
No. 3 — Fan participation
Attendance for UH athletics is shaky, but at Rice it’s laughable.
It is common for the fanbase of visiting teams like Baylor or Memphis to greatly outnumber the Owls for football or basketball games. There is no doubt that the Rice athletics department greatly benefits from visitors from other schools.
When the Owls topped UH at Rice Stadium in October, a sea of red overwhelmed the sporadic splotches of navy blue. The moment that the Owls sealed their victory, the 100 or so Rice fans celebrated, while all the disappointed UH fans made their way to the exit.
At the basketball game in January Cougar fans started multiple “Whose House?” chants. When a UH fan noticed she was on the jumbotron, she flashed a Cougar paw on the screen.
If Cougar Nation is categorized as fair-weather fans, that would mean Rice loyalists only come out for the one or two weeks of the year that Houston conditions are bearable.
No. 4 — Student newspaper
The Daily Cougar would consider the Rice Thresher its competition, but we’re not sure if it actually exists.
In my time at The Daily Cougar, communication with the Thresher has been nonexistent, despite making at least one attempt to collaborate together.
We have worked with student publications from UTEP and UCLA — to name a few — but have not once interacted with the Thresher.
In the past year Rice has one-upped UH in football and men’s basketball.
At the Bayou Bucket, there were no reporters from the Thresher in the press box at Rice Stadium, and there were none when the Owls beat UH at Tudor Fieldhouse.
Rice’s women’s basketball team is solid, and nearly put an end to the Cougars’ historic winning streak Sunday. We sent a reporter there; where was the Thresher?
The Cougar considered all three of these instances big stories, and it is surprising to see the Thresher deem Rice victories as non-newsworthy.
We’ve read copies of it and visited the website and Twitter account; now we’re just wondering how the Thresher can report on events without attending them.
No. 5 — Athletic history
Rice can pat itself on the back for its braininess and constant success in baseball (who doesn’t love Lance Berkman?) But UH takes the cake when it comes to producing legends in a wide selection of professional sports.
Inside Tudor Fieldhouse are the names of Rice Rhode’s Scholars on banners. Kind of like how in Hofheinz Pavilion is draped with retired jerseys of Clyde Drexler, Elvin Hayes and Hakeem Olajuwon, among others.
This is a perfect illustration that Rice is behind UH when it comes to success in athletics.
With the help of legendary head coach Guy V. Lewis, the Cougars made five Final Fours, tying UH for the fifth-most in NCAA history.
Our outdoor track and soccer facility is named for Carl Lewis, a nine-time Olympic gold medalist, considered arguably the greatest Olympian ever.
The feeling among the administration and the UH Athletics Department is that the University is poised for greater things. This comes as no surprise, with plans for a new state-of-the-art football stadium and an upgrade to Hofheinz.
When rumors circulate about the topic of conference re-alignment, it is UH that is mentioned for a promotion. Even if UH stays in Conference USA, the ambition displayed by the powers that be at show that UH means business Watch out, Rice.
Why does UH athletic department incorporate the color "Blue" in it's color scheme? Today, UH athletic department's school colors are Red, White, and "Blue". I am as patriotic as the next Coog, but this color scheme goes contrary to the university's school colors of Scalett Red and Albino White. I say get rid of the "Blue".
Eradicate the color "Blue" for UH athletic departments school colors
If you want "Blue" in your school colors, visit Rice
If you want Red and Blue in your school colors, visit SMU
I like how the tweet on the top of the page talks about Rice beating UH. Way to support your argument
1. http://www.faniq.com/blog/Video-Rice-Mascot-Sammy…
Sammy was also asleep and apathetic during this game too.
2. Congrats on your recent seasons, you'll be sure to be in the Big 12 (10) in no time!
3. No contest there, I would hope a school of 31,000 undergrads could outdraw a school with 3,700. In fact, did you know that every other of the 120 Division I-A football schools, save for the University of Tulsa, is bigger than Rice? And that Rice has less than 70,000 alumni in the world, living and dead. Probably not.
4. Did you ever think that the writers for the Thresher might actually be in the stands cheering on their team, as every good journalist knows that cheering in the press box is strictly taboo? Also, retweeting the tweets by UH beat writer for the Chronicle, Sam Khan, doesn't count as tweeting, Daily Cougar.
5. So having banners of former basketball greats is your "Exhibit A" criteria for UH being better than Rice in athletics? Really, banners is your prime example? Every school in the country has banners for their athletes, no matter if they were actually great in the grand scheme of things. Because it's not like Rice has banners or names of its great athletes on the walls of stadiums either. Not necessarily arguing with you here, but you could at least pull out Andre Ware, both track teams dominance, the fact that your basketball team played in the Game of the Century.
It's really not difficult to see how childish and poorly planned your argument is.
P.S. Scoreboard.
First: SCOREBOARD
second: That's all right, that's okay, you'll all work for us someday.
You mean how my parents are UH grads and a handful of the people who work for them graduated from Rice yet the best workers they have are from UH?
rice blows.