Sunday, September 09, 2007

 

I'm quite fond of the Rice Cheerleaders' Mascot, Owly!

Last night, I was able to attend Baylor's football victory over Rice University, by an amazing score of 42-17. Either Rice is very, very, very bad (a possibility), or Baylor is better than they were last week. Quarterback Blake Szymanski, who apparently has sworn off lap dogs, set a record for touchdown passes, as reported by the fine dead-itors over at Beer Mat.

One of the most interesting parts of the game for me was the surprisingly informal cheerleaders for Rice. Rather than jumping or yelling, they seemed to be talking about books and debating something. Towards the end of the game, they were calling people on cell phones. Now that's a cheerleading squad I can relate to!


Their mascot was intriguing, too. Owly the Owl is a kind of depressed-looking guy (or at least he was last night) with large yellow feet who joined the cheerleaders in moping around aimlessly, then was seen consoling some of the players as the game increasingly got out of hand for them. I was hoping that at some point Owly would actually see playing time. He's certainly not the rah-rah type of mascot, or the even more interesting fighting-style mascot, like the wonderful Vic the Demon Pimp who visited about this time last year.

Comments:
Unlike Baylor cheerleaders, those Rice cheerleaders seem to be going for the bare-midriff look. Well, at least the one on the left, a little bit.
 
Those Rice cheerleaders look very smart. You know, in your proposed new football league (Duke, Rice, Vanderbilt, etc.), all the cheerleaders would look like that.
 
He should be depressed. I went to the UT v Rice game a few years back and everyone left before the 4th quarter because steamrolling them was quite boring. When Rice made a field goal during the 4th (against our 3rd string), their band didn't even play.
 
Did the MOB (Marching Owl Band) march at halftime? That group can be pretty funny, even if they are a bit offensive.
 
Sadly, the MOB did not make the trip. Rice, as a whole, was neither offensive nor defensive.
 
As a UVA grad--home of the former Pep Band--I do like those kind of reverse-snobbery things like the Rice cheerleaders. The Pep Band was one of those scramble bands--based on one of the Ivy League ones--that don't march and DO perform off-color or downright offensive half-time skits.

Used to: they've now been replaced by a traditional marching band, apparently. I've never seen the new band.
 
Hey that is the cheerleading squad from my high school!!!!
 
I like how they are quite practical girls.... dressing in layers and all. Isnt Rice in Houston? maybe they are all tired from the humidity?
 
That one in the middle.... I'm strangely attracted to her.
 
Those aren't Rice Cheerleaders. Quite frankly, I'm disappointed that you would make us look like that. I was a Rice cheerleader at that game, and none of us dressed like that. As for the score, yes, we aren't up to par with Baylor. You're an unkind person.
 
And no, we've not replaced our oh so nerdy band.
They still don't march and they still do their off beat, offensive skits at half-time.
 
As a Rice cheerleading alumni, I am very offended that we are being represented in such a mocking way. The Rice cheerleading squad works very hard at what they do, and should be respected for such, regardless of the football team's performance. I would expect more from a supposed professor of law.
 
A follow-up note:

Those are not, in fact, the Rice University cheerleaders in that picture. To get your facts straight, please refer to the information on the actual Rice cheerleading website:

ruf.rice.edu/~cheer
 
Rice Cheerleaders--

I'm sorry I offended you. I took the picture down, which actually showed Univ. of Chicago students, I think, at a protest.

My point in the post and with the photo was to make fun of Rice by pointing out that the students there are too smart for stuff like a regular band and typical cheerleading-- which frankly is something I like about Rice. I really did spot the dejected Owl and a cheerleader making a cell phone call late in the game, and actually thought it was kind of refreshing that they didn't seem to take everything so seriously in a blowout.

Plus, it's not like Baylor is a traditional football powerhouse... usually we are the ones suffering. So I should have been more empathetic, I suppose.
 
As an upcoming freshman in college I was excited to continue cheerleading at Rice. Now, not so much.
 
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