Rice alum praises Owls' new space-themed uniforms: 'These are fire'

Fans at Rice University’s Saturday home game against McNeese State will notice new threads on the Owls.

The Owls will don uniforms that pay tribute to the upcoming Artemis-1 mission and the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s “Moon Shot” speech, which he delivered at Rice Stadium on Sept. 12, 1962, according to the team’s Twitter account. 

The Owls cited the most famous line of the speech to introduce the look: “We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!”

The website SportsLogos reported that excerpts from the speech will be on the sleeves while the rest of the jersey – provided by Adidas – will prominently feature the Artemis font on the Rice chest wordmark, the “HOU. TX” nameplate on the rear and the numbers.

As for the helmet, SportsLogos reported, it’s grey with the school’s name emblazoned on the right side and the player’s number plastered on the left.

The helmet stripe resembles the flight path from the Earth to the moon, as well as the future trip to Mars, with a solid gold line indicating the successful Apollo missions and current and future endeavors represented by a dotted gold line, the report said.

SportsLogos added that the set is rounded out by white pants with solid blue stripes on the side and the Owls’ Texas shaped logo on the right hip.

Former Rice player and Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Christian Covington, whose National Football League (NFL) career began in Houston with the Texans in 2015, gave the uniforms his seal of approval.

“Okay these are [fire],” Covington said in a tweet.

SportsLogos reported that Rice joins the likes of Air Force, Purdue and the University of Central Florida (UCF) in having worn or slated to wear space-themed uniforms.

Rice enters its matchup against McNeese after it suffered a turnover-riddled 66-14 loss to 14th-ranked University of Southern California (USC) on the road.