Rix was born on March 24, 1882 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended Dartmouth College, where he played on the football team as a halfback in 1905, and served as the basketball team captain for the 1903–04 and 1904–05 seasons. Rix graduated from Dartmouth with an A.B. degree in 1906. He was a member of the Pi Chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the Casque and Gauntlet. In 1910, he was teaching as an English instructor at Austin College.