This is a hand painted ceramic University of Houston Cougar Decanter, roughly 12 inches high, and produced by the McCormick Distilling Company in 1972.
I have very little information on this over sized ring. It was presented to Frank H. Newnam, Jr., P.E., (A&M ’31) in 1972. Newnam had a distinguished career as a Civil Engineer and was responsible for developing the Port of Houston Master Plan. I can only speculate that Newnam contributed his expertise to the development and planning of the future and continued success of the University of Houston.
This lesser known variant logo was designed by former Disney artist Arthur C. Evans. Evans famously created the sailor mascot logo series which included the University of Houston’s “Sailor Coog” logo. In an era before licensing, many of Evans’ logos were marketed to schools with the same mascots.