text: Kennedy Speech Rice Stadium also hosted a "We choose to go to the Moon" speech by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962. In it, he used the Rice football team to challenge America to send a man to the Moon before 1970.
  "But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?  We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."
  Conference affiliations
  Independent (1912–1914)
  Southwest Conference (1915–1996)
  Western Athletic Conference (1996–2004)
  Conference USA (2005–2023)
  American Athletic Conference (2023–present)
  Head coaches
  † 15–27–2 overall per NCAA due to 1975 forfeit win over Mississippi State.
  Championships
  Conference championships
  Rice has won eight conference championships, five outright and three shared.
  † Co-championship
  Division championships
  Rice has won two division championships.
  † Co-championship