Beer-Bike Tee Shirt Gallery
1974–2010
The Beer-Bike tradition dates back to 1957, the year Rice University instituted the residential college system. The associated T-shirt tradition is somewhat more recent; originally intended as a simple uniform to identify and unify the competitors, the Beer-Bike themed tee has grown into something of a sport of its own. From the bike track to the parade route, each college’s members proudly display their water-balloon-soaked vestments as a tribute to the wit and artistry of their friends and teammates.
Beer-Bike tees are ephemeral; they cannot be purchased, they are never reprinted, and without care they disappear from collective memory. The purpose of the Beer-Bike Tee Shirt Gallery is to preserve these artifacts for future generations to study (with equal measures of admiration and perplexity). If you have an old Beer-Bike shirt that isn’t represented in the gallery, send a high-resolution scan or photograph to the curators and we’ll find it a permanent spot in our online collection.
—Dan Sandler and Jen Cooper
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