I like to rag them as much as anyone come football time and cringe anytime I heard "Harvard of the South," but considering the state of Texas refused to give Houston a public university until the mid-40s and refused to let UH in the state system until the '60s, thank god for Rice. Houston didn't get to be the energy capital of the world without the George R. Browns and other Rice alumni building the engineering knowledge base that kept this city relevant.
