Often hailed as the impossible project, the 70,000-seat Rice Stadium was completed in just nine months — from the first design on paper to the opening night game. After receiving the plans, construction crews broke ground in February, working 24 hour-shifts for the next seven-and-a-half months. Because Brown & Root pledged to build the stadium at their cost of $2,250,000, other businesses donated lumber and materials where needed. Concrete molds from a highway project were pulled over to set the columns. Workers were finishing the job as Patti Page sang the National Anthem for the Rice Owls’ nighttime season opener against the Santa Clara Broncos on September 30, 1950. (The Owls won, 27 to 7.) Since then, the stadium has hosted college bowls, the Super Bowl, and President John F. Kennedy’s speech announcing the U.S. Space Program effort to go to the Moon.