The Rice baseball team won the College World Series in 2003, surprising Stanford 14-2 in the final game. This made Rice University the
smallest school in 51 years to win a national championship at the highest collegiate level of the sport.Rice participates in NCAA Division I-A athletics and is part of the Western Athletic Conference. However, in 2005 Rice
will leave the WAC and join Conference USA. Rice Stadium seats 72,000
and was the site of Super Bowl VIII and a speech by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1962 in which he challenged the nation to send a man to
the moon by the end of the decade. In addition to football, Rice Stadium also serves as the performance venue for the
university's Marching Owl Band or "MOB." Despite its name, the
MOB is a scatter band which focuses on performing humorous skits and
routines rather than traditional formation marching. Prior to the dissolution of the Southwest Conference, one of the most
entertaining half-time shows to watch were during Rice vs. Texas A&M games, if only for the sheer contrast of the pure
military precision of the Aggie Band versus irreverant whackyness of the MOB.Rice's mascot is an owl named "Sammy." In previous decades the university kept several live owls on campus in front of
Lovett College, but this has been discontinued. Wild owls are still
occasionally seen inhabiting the oak trees that cover the campus.