The Rice football program will wear space-themed uniforms during Saturday’s game against McNeese State (7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN3) in remembrance of former president John F. Kennedy’s “moon shot” speech.
Saturday marks nearly 60 years to the day since Kennedy historically laid out his goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by the end of the 1960s in front of more than 40,000 people at Rice Stadium.
Kennedy notably referenced the Owls’ scheduled matchup with top-ranked Texas – which they played to a 14-14 tie on Oct. 27, 1962 – when speaking about various challenges mankind has faced in its history.
“But why, some say, the moon?” Kennedy said. “Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
Excerpts from that speech can be seen on the sleeves of Rice’s alternate uniforms, which are named after Artemis 1, an unmanned moon-orbiting mission that will serve as a test for future human exploration of the moon and Mars.
The gray helmet features “Rice” on the right side, the player’s number on the left side, Houston’s area code (713) on the front bumper and “Owls” on the back bumper in the Artemis typeface, which is crafted to reference the angle of the Earth’s axis.
The predominantly blue stripe down the middle represents the flight path from Earth to the moon, and eventually Mars, while gold circles representing each celestial body. The solid gold line indicates the successful Apollo missions, while the dotted line signifies future exploration.
The Artemis font is then carried over to the jersey, including the Rice wordmark on the front, the “HOU. TX” nameplate and numbers. There’s also a custom Rice space logo above the nameplate, which includes six stars in honor of the six successful Apollo missions, as well as a seventh star for future missions.
The Owls’ use of gold accents throughout the uniform was inspired by the reflective gold foil used on the Lunar Module, while the American flag patch on the right shoulder is supposed to mimic an astronaut’s spacesuit. The uniform is complete with white pants that feature solid blue stripes down the side and Rice’s Texas state logo on the right hip.
The Owls now join several other college programs that have worn (or will soon wear) space-themed uniforms in recent seasons, including Air Force (2022), Purdue (2019) and UCF (2017-21).
All four obviously have their own ties to the space program, as Rice started collaborating with NASA in 1959 and its campus is a short drive from Johnson Space Center.
Photos courtesy of @RiceFootball on Twitter.
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