For first time in 56 years, Rice can celebrate a football title

Published Dec. 7, 2013 4:00 p.m. ET

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Rice and football aren’t exactly synonymous. Therefore, it is no surprise the Owls’ victory over Marshall on Saturday gave them their first conference championship since … 1957.

That year, the Owls pulled off one of their greatest upsets, stunning a Bear Bryant-coached Texas A&M team that was No. 1, 7-6. The season was Bryant’s final one as coach in College Station as he moved on to Alabama.

Here’s a look at that upset:

The Owls defeated Baylor the next week and wound up Southwest Conference champions.

And that was the last title for the football team until it defeated Marshall in frigid temperatures in Houston to capture the 2013 Conference USA title.

What was the world like the last time Rice football called itself a conference champion?

Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock was the No. 1 song in the U.S.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States. He suffered a stroke on Nov. 25; Richard Nixon was his VP

In October, Walter O’Malley announced he was moving the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles, which followed an August announcement that the New York Giants were heading to San Franscisco

On Nov. 16 of that year, Notre Dame defeated Oklahoma, 7-0, to snap the Sooners’ 47-game win streak

Willy Schaeffler was on the cover of Sports Illustrated that week, featuring a skiing theme

Texas A&M running back John David Crow was named the Heisman Trophy winner on Dec. 3

The Detroit Lions went on to beat the Cleveland Browns, 50-14, in the NFL championship game

That should give the pro football fans in Detroit and Cleveland hope. If Rice can win a conference championship, maybe there will be a Vince Lombardi Trophy in either of those two cities sometime.