HOUSTON – Wayne Graham’s office at Reckling Park is full history. But this week, he added a new piece to the collection.

A humidor.

It’s a humidor which holds cigars from Cuba, a place stuck in time, a country now a part of him and his Owls baseball team.

“I didn’t realize how much history is in Havana, it’s incredible,” Graham told KHOU 11 Sports on Tuesday.

The 11-day journey for the Rice baseball team to Cuba was a lesson of life and baseball. It’s a sport played in the United States but it’s one revered on the island nation.

“Our kids went on some sort of playground in Vinales tobacco country and there kids there, 11 year old kids playing pepper, the game of pepper better than our kids could,” Graham said. “It was fascinating.”

The Owls played their first game and won. The game was considered on exhibition, but in a country where baseball is king, any result means more than they expected.

“The team that we won over, I think they were in shock,” Graham said. “They were gracious. Our guys, they hugged and we gave them a t-shirt we had made up before we went down there. The funny thing was, when we went to other towns, people knew what happened in that game.”

Instead of the aluminum bats they’re used to here in the United States, the Owls used wooden one and they were set to play in 4 more exhibition games.

That’s when everything on the trip changed. The death of Fidel Castro meant no more baseball

“Cuba got quiet,” Graham said. “Everything just stopped.”

But the learning for the Rice baseball team continued. They visited Earnest Hemmingway’s home and traveled to sugar cane factories and cigar fields.

“The Cuban people welcome us with open arms,” sophomore outfielder Cody Staad said. “We got to go places, we got to try the food we got to dance and play some baseball. It’s been an opportunity that I can’t grasp.”

But more importantly, this trip served as an appreciation of the freedoms they enjoy. Something not even coach Graham could have even predicted.

“It may have been life changing for some of them,” Graham said.

(© 2016 KHOU)