My Eulogy for Ted Scruggs

In Loving Memory of Ted Scruggs

·      Weren’t those touching tributes to Ted by his good friends?  I’ve known Mike and Bill and Bobby almost as long as I’ve known Ted.  We all met at Rice in 1967 when Ted and I were both freshmen.  If these guys were in town (usually for school holidays or spring break), they usually ended up visiting Ted at Rice.  They have been dear friends of Ted their entire lives.  But I must tell you that I was Ted’s best friend.  This, of course, isn’t true but Ted just made me feel that way.  I bet he made most of you feel that way too.  When we were with Ted, he always made us feel like we were his very best friend.  What a gift he had to make us feel that way!

·      I was asked by the family to speak today as the representative of Ted’s good ‘ole days at Rice.  I didn’t have any connection to Rice before coming to Houston but Ted sure did.  Both his dad and uncle graduated from Rice as well as his mom.  Truth be told, Ted would have probably rather gone to UT to be with his friends Bobby and Bill and his sister Karen but no self respecting namesake of an All-Southwest Conference Rice tight end could go anywhere else but Rice.  So Ted took his football scholarship to go play at Rice and made his parents proud.  The only problem with that plan was that his catastrophic knee injury during his senior year at Jones effectively ended his college career before it even began.  Oh, Ted tried and showed flashes of his past brilliance on the field at Rice and Ted always believed he was still the best at his position in spite of his injury but college stardom was just not to be.  But that didn’t keep Ted from being another kind of star at Rice!  He was the best poker playing, cigar smoking, bottle rocket throwing, girl chasing (and catching), party-throwing student I had ever seen! 

·      In a word, Ted was COOL—from his Greek god physique and good looks to his gold Riviera ride to his bachelor pad dorm room at Wiess College.  Ted was figuratively and literally a Big Man On a Campus that needed one.  And rather than being snobbish and condescending to us regular students (or wienies as we were lovingly called) he embraced us and took us into his cadre of ever expanding friends.  Oh sure, he had close friends from the Rice football team that he hung out with like Mike Birdwell, Bill Holmes, and Larry Caldwell, but there was also room for wienies like me and Josh Paillet and John Mikus and Scott Litin. 

·      My sophomore year at Rice was my best year at Rice, not counting my Grade Point Average.  That was the year that Ted and I decided to room together at Rice.  Rice was pretty unique in those days and did not have separate dedicated dorms for athletes like most big schools.  Instead, they integrated the athletes in the Rice college system with the other students at Rice to emphasize that our athletes were student-athletes, not just athletes.  That policy at Rice turned out to be my salvation.  I found that the Rice athletes were the most well rounded students on campus and not coincidentally, most fun.  And I had told myself the first week that I was at Rice that if I couldn’t have some fun in addition to studying, then I wasn’t going to make it there.  I probably wouldn’t be wearing this Rice ring today if I had not met Ted.  He knew how to balance both the academics and the fun and drug me along with him as well as others here in this room.  Thank you Ted for helping me keep my sanity during those early years away from home.

·      Rooming with Ted that year was something special.  Ted never did anything the ordinary way.  Traditionally, our typical dorm rooms had two beds and two desks in it for two students with a bathroom shared with the adjacent room.  But that’s not how Ted did it!  When Ted and Mike and Bill and I roomed together, Ted told us to move all four beds into the same room and to use the additional room as our party room.  You may be wondering how we could have gotten four beds into a regular two-man room—that problem was solved by Mike Birdwell who had custom bunk beds made so that we could all sleep in the same room.  The party room was then outfitted with the latest stereo system, couch, bar and, of course, black lights!  I told you Ted was COOL!  Oh if those walls could talk…

·      Another fun aspect of being Ted’s friend in those years was that he had to give you a nickname.  How many of you here were given a nickname by Ted?  In my case, Ted gave me several.  First, it was just “Drouet”.  Drouet do this, Drouet do that.  You get the picture.  Later, as Ted began to recognize my own COOLNESS, I became “Louie Drouie”.  And finally, in recognition of my black belt in COOLNESS, I became KK or Kirwin Kool.  I wore those nicknames like medals of honor!

·      Unfortunately or fortunately as the case may be, the party came to an end when I got married after my sophomore year.  No more living on campus, no more Kirwin Kool, just buckling down and getting my grades up to get a job and take care of my family.  In his own way, Ted did the same and concentrated on getting that Economics degree from Rice.  He proudly wore his dad’s Rice 1947 graduation ring the rest of his life.

·      During the years since Rice, Ted and I remained close friends.  I proudly drank at Theodore’s and the Texas Beach Club and was honored to be included as a groomsman at Ted and Suzan’s wedding.  Which leads me to point out that being Ted’s friend was not just about being cool and having fun.  You knew in your soul that Ted had a heart as big as his massive chest and that there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for you.  I believe that while Ted got his athleticism and engineering interests from his dad, it was his mom that gave his that giant, caring heart.  All of us here recognized it and knew there was nothing he wouldn’t do for each of us in our time of need.  I am so thankful that he found a life partner in Suzan who did the same for him in his time of need.

·      Finally, I’d see Ted’s parents at almost all of the Rice home football games but Ted’s interest in that Rice endeavor waned and was rarely seen out there.  I was happy to host Ted and Suzan to a Rice football game a couple of years ago and it was difficult then for Ted to get around.  Nevertheless, he still had a great time and I could tell that he still had great memories of Rice and that field.  I couldn’t help thinking that attending that game was one of several items that Ted had on his bucket list.

·      As I said at the start, I was asked to talk about Ted and our Rice days.  I hope I have given you at least a taste of what it was like to be Ted’s friend during those both difficult and wonderful times in college.  And what a taste it was—Ted was the Tabasco sauce to my Cajun red beans and rice!  He spiced up the lives of everyone he touched.  I am proud to have been part of his life and I will dearly miss my best friend.  I love you, Ted.