1912 Rice Grays football team

{{short description|American college football season}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}

{{Infobox college sports team season

| year = 1912

| team = Rice Grays

| sport = football

| image =

| image_size =

| conference = Independent

| record = 3–2

| head_coach = Philip Arbuckle

| hc_year = 1st

| captain = R. E. Cummings

| stadium = West End Park

| prev_year = none

}}

{{1912 Southern college football independents records}}

The 1912 Rice Grays football team was an American football team that represented Rice Institute as an independent during the 1912 college football season. The team compiled a 3–2 record and was outscored by a total of 125 to 40.{{cite web|title=Rice Owls 2017 Football Fact Book|publisher=Rice University|year=2017|page=187|url=https://www.huddle.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/17rice_guide.pdf}}

Rice Institute opened its doors in the fall of 1912, and its first football team was made up of 21 students from the incoming freshmen class.{{cite news|title=Physical Development Keynote of Institute's Athletics|newspaper=Houston Daily Post|date=October 6, 1912|page=43|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29994330/physical_development_keynote_of/|via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news|title=Personnel of Rice Eleven: Arbuckle Has Twenty-One Freshmen Grays to Play Today|newspaper=Houston Daily Post|date=November 28, 1912|page=4|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29995687/personnel_of_rice_eleven_arbuckle_has/|via=Newspapers.com}} In its first game, the team defeated Houston High School by a 7–6 score. In its first intercollegiate football game, the team defeated {{cfb link|year=1912|team=Sam Houston State Bearkats|title=Sam Houston Normal}} by a 20–6 score in Huntsville, Texas.

Philip Arbuckle was hired in 1912 as the football coach and the head of the entire Rice athletic program. Arbuckle was at the time a 28-year-old Illinois native and University of Chicago graduate.{{cite news|title=The Rice Institute Coach: Philip H. Arbuckle Is Man on Whom the Athletic Destiny of School Depends|newspaper=Houston Daily Post|date=October 6, 1912|page=43|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29994921/the_rice_institute_coach_philip_h/|via=Newspapers.com}}

The team played its two home games during the 1912 season at West End Park in Houston. Plans were set in motion to build athletic field on the campus with seating for 12,000 persons to be opened in 1913.{{cite news|title=Finest Stadium In South|newspaper=Houston Daily Post|date=October 6, 1912|page=43|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29995130/finest_stadium_in_south/|via=Newspapers.com}}

At the end of the 1912 season, end George Journeay was selected to be the captain of the 1913 Rice team.{{cite news|title=Rice's 1913 Captain Is George Journeay|newspaper=Houston Daily Post|date=December 17, 1912|page=3|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29995941/rices_1913_captain_is_george_journeay/|via=Newspapers.com}}