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.
