Hey Coogs,
I’m a former member of the scouts page - long ago. I was a UH student from Fall 2003 - Spring 2005 and a drumline member during the infamous Superbowl. I ended up transferring to Texas A&M where I graduated. Despite my Aggie degree, I have held a strong romance for UH and eventually met my wife at the UConn football game in 2016 (not a graduate, but met through a staff member at the game). I am grateful for what UH has given me, despite not being a full-fledged alum. I do wear UH apparel when the Coogs are playing and even confused my Aggie bretheren when I have my Aggie ring and Cougar hat on.
That said, I’ve recently moved to sunny Southern California (Any of y’all out here? The SoCal club is nonexistant) and decided that given my Ags have their own dedicated historians, I would like to put some amateur attention to UH history and lore. First on my list is researching the history of UH’s humble beginnings as Houston Junior College. I was not entirley shocked that the years of 1927-1934 are glazed over a bit, specifically the sporting years (especially in the sports records on Wikipedia, et. al.) under John R. Bender - the first Athletic Director and the first real football coach of the fledgling Houston Junior College Cougars. I was able to access some digital records and have started piecemeal together the 1927-1934 sports schedules. I was able to find out that the Football team was disbanned in Fall 1931 and I’ve found a couple neat photos of sports teams, the HJC logo and the first UH logo used (1935) in sports. Did y’all know the original colors of the school (HFC) were Royal Blue and White? Also the original (HJC) school fight song was a variation of Rudy Vallee’s (U of Maine) Stein Song? Really cool/nerdy findings.
My idea is to slowly put things together and update the school’s wikipedia page to the level of detail deserved of the institution. If NYU, UT Arlington (surprising), or UCLA can have a detailed history - why not HJC/UH?
Edits:
09/27/22 - Updated heading title to go with my other “Early HJC and UH History” post series.