Old UT Photos

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[WorsterMan]

My Dad was a WW2 veteran on the GI Bill. He graduated from UT in 1949 with a biz degree. He was also a car guy back in those days. He would have easily identified that car and appreciated it!

 

[mchammer]

My Dad was a WW2 veteran on the GI Bill, that graduated from UT in 1949 with a biz degree. He was also a car guy back in those days. He would have easily identified that car and appreciated it!

Yes, but would he have identified the co-ed? If the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, I suspect he would have.

 

[WorsterMan]

Yes, but would he have identified the co-ed? If the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, I suspect he would have.

Yeah, I suspect he would have recognized her if she was a student... UT was still small enough in the late 40's, you knew a lot people.

 

[WorsterMan]

Speaking of old cars, here are a few in front of Gregory Gym. I don't recognize cars this old but suspect this photo was taken in the late 1920's or early 30's ...

These cars in front of the gym appear to be 1940's?

 

[Driver 8]

Speaking of old cars, here are a few in front of Gregory Gym. I don't recognize cars this old but suspect this photo was taken in the late 1920's or early 30's ...

These cars in front of the gym appear to be 1940's?

Interesting to think about the few times I was in that building (Gregory, and all the other buildings) while on campus and never gave much thought to how long they had been around, or how many other students from years past had been through there. It gives me such an appreciation for the opportunity to be at UT for a little while in my life and experience this great institution and all its gifts.

 

[SabreHorn]

Best car ever parked out front of Gregory was after the Nobis draft. IIRC, Nobis bought a new Riveria and parked it at the curb; Harris bought a Olds and parked it at the curb; John Elliott bought a new Chevy PU and parked it at the curb; Diron (properly pronounced "Die-roan" but dragged out in your best East Texas drawl) bought a used Cadillac convertible (not a collector's item) with over 50,000 miles on it, drove it up the sidewalk, parked it with the top down and left a sign "DO NOT TOUCH".

Great guy, funny guy, not doing well and could use your prayers

 

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[Sangre Naranjada]

Good. The Sponge was an atrocity and really, really needed to be torn down.

 

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[Dionysus]

1944: An aerial view of the UT campus from 80 years ago, looking east. The football and baseball stadiums are in the back, while the new Music Building (today’s Rainey Hall) is the first of the South Mall “Six Pack.”

@JimNicar

 

[Giovanni Jones]

Good. The Sponge was an atrocity and really, really needed to be torn down.

When my daughter was awarded her MA there in May 2022, I think hers was the last (or one of the very last) groups to use the Drum for commencement before the dismantling and demolition began. Not sure but what some of the contractors were setting up on site getting ready to get to work.

 

[cnb]

 

[WorsterMan]

Maroon Madness
Posted on June 28, 2024

It was a great day for the second-ever football game between the University of Texas and Texas A&M. Partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 70s greeted fans who gathered at the University’s athletic field – unofficially dubbed “Athletic Park” by the newspapers – on Saturday afternoon, October 22, 1898. The teams hadn’t met in four years since their initial match in 1894, and a large crowd was expected. A few bleachers on the west side accommodated around 200 spectators, but most of the fans stood along the sidelines several persons deep. It would be another decade before UT students built their first stadium. (See The One Week Stadium)

University supporters arrived in suits, ties, and bowler hats for the men, and colorful Victorian dresses and fashionable hats for the women. As was the custom of the time, fans showed their team loyalty by wearing orange and white ribbons on their lapels, though enterprising male students wore longer ribbons so they could “snip and share” with any coeds who had none.

Above left: A UT football player in his orange and maroon uniform. This is actually a sketch found in the 1897 Cactus yearbook and (poorly) colored by the author. Look closely – there is no helmet. In the 1890s, most football players had long, bushy hair and believed it would be sufficient to protect the head.

About 75 members of A&M’s Corps of Cadets rode a chartered train from College Station, accompanied by a similar number of rooters. The cadets were armed with a variety of noise makers, from cow bells to dinner bells to tin horns, and everyone sported bright red and white ribbons, which were then the colors of the A&M College.

Kick-off was set for 3 o’clock, and it wasn’t long before the audience realized the game would be a lopsided one for a UT win. The reporter covering the game for the Austin Daily Statesman had an apparent fondness for simile. He wrote, “The ‘Varsity boys played like champions, and went through the visitors like a temperance resolution at a prohibition convention,” which was followed immediately by, “Touch-downs were as numerous as pretty new bonnets on a well-developed Easter morning.” The final score was 48–0.

The talk of the game, though, wasn’t the tally on the scoreboard, but the UT uniforms. While University fans dutifully showed up with their traditional orange and white, the team ran onto the field in orange and maroon.

The reaction, though, may not have been what you expected.

Read the rest of the article via the link below (too long to post here):

Jim Nicar – The UT History Corner

 

[LonghornEE72]

{huge snip}
Jim Nicar – The UT History Corner

That was freaking great!

 

[Horn6721]

Worst

How did you find that?

 

[WorsterMan]

Worst

How did you find that?

Jim Nicar website. Lots of really cool history, photos and stuff on UT.

Click on my link or Browser search Jim Nicar.

 

[Horn6721]

I clearly need to go there. Great stuff

 

[Dionysus]

A huge number of photos on this thread are from Jim Nicar’s Twitter/X account: x.com/JimNicar — many of which are also on his website, The UT History Corner (jimnicar.com).

Here’s another recent one from Jim.

The posed cover for the November 1947 Texas Ranger, a UT student magazine, getting ready for the Thanksgiving Day football game vs. A&M. Back then, men usually wore suits to games, often with armbands (bottom right) to show their team loyalty.

@JimNicar

Would you eat at the “Aggieland Cafe?”
For $1.25 turkey dinner I just might.

 

[mchammer]

A huge number of photos on this thread are from Jim Nicar’s Twitter/X account: x.com/JimNicar — many of which are also on his website, The UT History Corner (jimnicar.com).

Here’s another recent one from Jim.

The posed cover for the November 1947 Texas Ranger, a UT student magazine, getting ready for the Thanksgiving Day football game vs. A&M. Back then, men usually wore suits to games, often with armbands (bottom right) to show their team loyalty.

@JimNicar

Would you eat at the “Aggieland Cafe?”
For $1.25 turkey dinner I just might.

Looks like they played it safe and ordered pie.

 

[Dionysus]

Looks like they played it safe and ordered pie.

Maybe it was post-turkey dinner pie?

 

[WorsterMan]

100 Years of “Texas Fight!”​

Posted on October 30, 2023

The 1923 University of Texas football season could not have started better. Undefeated after the first six games, the team had shut out its opponents 202 – 0. “When Longhorn gridiron prospects are as good as they are,” stated The Daily Texan student newspaper, “the average male student doesn’t care much about the rest of the University anyway. From registration to Thanksgiving, most of us major in football, with a few bothersome minors thrown in by [degree] requirements.”
Guided by first-year coach Ed “Doc” Stewart (so nicknamed because he had a medical degree), the Longhorns posted a 33 – 0 rout over Tulane in a game held in Beaumont, Texas, and a 16 – 0 win over a strong Vanderbilt team at the Texas State Fair. Vanderbilt would go on to win the Southern Conference title, and its only other loss was to eventual national champion Michigan.
The Texas steamroller was slowed by a 7 – 7 tie against Baylor in Waco on November 10. Though it wasn’t a loss, it left Coach Stewart more than a little concerned about the physical condition and morale of his team. The Longhorns left Waco plagued with injuries, and Stewart was forced to cancel practice and allow his players to heal. Only two games remained on the schedule. Rival Oklahoma was coming to Austin the following week, and the Thanksgiving Day game against the A&M College of Texas, in College Station, loomed on the horizon.

Above: The old Men’s Gym at Speedway and 24th Streets, where the Peter O’Donnell Building stands today, was packed for a football rally.
As part of the lead-up to the OU game, a raucous Thursday night football rally was held in the men’s gymnasium. Freshmen sat on the gym floor, the other male students filled the bleachers, and the women’s student section, closest to the stage, though still discouraged from yelling as it was deemed “unladylike,” made it the largest rally crowd of season. Despite the lack of football practice, Stewart was in no mood to lower expectations. Instead, he challenged the students. “I didn’t think you had it in you,” the coach told the crowd. “The spirit that you have . . . shows that Texas fight is not dead.”
“The team fights only as hard as the rooters fight,” Stewart continued, “and they go out on the field Saturday and on the Aggie gridiron with just the fight that you rooters put into them. It is up to each of you individually . . . supporting with all your might the men that represent you on the field. The men have not practiced this week due to injuries and it is up to the rooters to help the Longhorns.”
The coach urged the students to adopt the motto, “For Texas, I Will,” for the rest of the season. Thoroughly inspired, the students responded with some of their favorite UT yells, shouted so loud that “the sides of the building shook with the volume.” Against the rules, even the women contributed to the decibels.

Stewart’s new motto was quick to spread across campus. Friday morning, the Texan announced, “Coach Sweeps Crowd Off its Feet by Virile Exhortation,” and included “For Texas, I Will” on either side of its masthead. Large painted signs – “For Texas, I Will” and “Longhorn Fight” – appeared on the walls in the University Cafeteria, and “Texas Fight” was printed in supportive ads by local businesses in the Austin newspaper.
The Longhorn roster numbered 16 athletes: 11 starters who played both offense and defense, and five substitutes. By kick-off at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, most of the team was still battered and bruised. Three starters, including team captain David Tynes, were out for the game. The student fans, though, were in full voice, and despite the odds, Texas defeated the Sooners 26-14.
The Thanksgiving Day game against A&M was almost two weeks away. While the teams had played each other since 1894, the contests were held either in Austin or Houston. Games at Kyle Field in College Station didn’t begin until 1915, when the Aggies constructed large enough stands to handle the crowds Thus far, the Longhorns had never won on Kyle Field, and A&M was favored again.
The Longhorn football team, Longhorn Band, and Longhorn fans wasted no time preparing to do battle with their state rivals.
Fortunately, the University would have a surprise arrow in its quiver: a song.
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[WorsterMan]

Page 2 of above:



Above: The Aggie football team and campus of the A&M College of Texas in the 1900s. – Texas A&M University archives.

Among the many traditions in College Station, the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets had their own yells and songs, one of them informally known as “Aggie Taps.” The tune first appeared around 1900, and was simply the words “Farmers fight” repeated to the tune of the bugle call “Taps”:



It wasn’t long before University of Texas students spoofed the song with one of their own, usually sung when the football game wasn’t going well for the Aggies. Created in 1903, it was a call to “hit the showers” and retire:



For the next two decades, “Aggie Taps” continued to be sung (separate from the “Farmers Fight!” yell still heard today) and gradually gained importance on campus. By the 1920s, it had evolved into an unofficial alma mater, sung at the end of student banquets and former student gatherings. In 1923, the Corps of Cadets elected to stand and sing “Aggie Taps” as their football team ran onto the field.



Above: The 1910 University of Texas band, part way through the fall term. The football schedule and results are painted on the bass drum. Walter Hunnicutt, the student director, is seated front row right, with a trumpet at his side and holding a baton.

The song also attracted the attention of Walter Hunnicutt. A 1914 UT law school alumnus, Hunnicutt – called “Hunni” by his many friends – served as the student director of the Longhorn Band from 1910 – 1914. After graduation, he returned to his hometown of Marlin, Texas (about 30 miles southeast of Waco), where he briefly joined the law office of fellow Texas Ex, and future U.S. Senator, Tom Connally. After only a year, Hunnicutt was elected Marlin’s city attorney, then enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I. Returning to Marlin after the war, he was elected a Falls County judge in 1922.

Hearing the Corps of Cadets sing “Aggie Taps” in a unified voice made quite an impression on Hunnicutt, and he later described it as “one of the most effective and awe-inspiring songs used by any student body.” Texas A&M’s other songs, though, weren’t so appreciated, especially “The Aggie Battle Hymn,” which included lyrics such as “Well it’s goodbye to Texas University,” and “Saw ‘Varsity’s horns off.” Hunnicutt wanted a song the Longhorn Band could use to “strike back,” and in the fall of 1923 set out to compose a UT version of “Taps.”

For the parts of the song that followed the bugle call, Hunnicutt substituted the words “Texas fight” for “Farmers fight,” but also added to the melody so that it was an original tune. The initial lyrics were:





Above: Walter Hunnicutt’s original score of “Texas Taps.”

The last line – “to hell with all the rest” – didn’t sit well with the University administration, which considered it vulgar and inappropriate. Burnett Pharr, the Longhorn Band director, took a look at the song, smoothed over the lyrics that seemed a bit clunky, and replaced the last line with: “so it’s goodbye to all the rest.” Hunnicutt agreed to changes, and the song became:



Hunnicutt and Pharr asked Jim King, the band director at Marlin High School, to orchestrate the song for the Longhorn Band. It was to be ready in time for a Thanksgiving Day debut.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



On the Forty Acres, the excitement over the A&M game was everywhere, and if the possibility of an undefeated (and one tie) season wasn’t enough, the campus was buzzing with talk about building a new stadium.

Just after the First World War, improvements to the nation’s roads, combined with the popularity of Henry Ford’s Model T automobiles, meant that more Americans were able to travel and willing to drive to sporting events, such a college football games. By the 1920s, attendance at games increased significantly, and it launched a national stadium building boom.

In 1922, new stadiums opened at Vanderbilt and Ohio State Universities, along with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and the following year, the Universities of California, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Illinois joined them. By the end of the decade there would be more than 20 new football stadiums – including Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Duke – and the facilities were often dedicated as a memorial to those who had fought and perished in recent world war.

In Austin, the University’s Clark Field, constructed almost entirely by students (see The One Week Stadium), was aging and needed more that its 20,000 seats. Though riding the train was still popular, more Longhorn fans were driving in from the Hill Country towns of Burnet, Marble Falls, and Fredericksburg, and making weekend trips from San Antonio and Dallas, which made the limited seating a serious problem. For UT to build a new stadium, a win over the favored Aggies was rumored to “put the idea over” on the Board of Regents, which was set to consider the issue at its December meeting.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1923, thousands of boisterous Longhorn fans made their way to College Station, many wearing armbands that read: “Win or Lose, Stadium for Texas by Thanksgiving 1924, For Texas I Will.” At the start of the game, just after the Corps of Cadets had sung their “Aggie Taps,” the Longhorn Band sprung Hunnicutt’s surprise, “Texas Taps,” which was an immediate hit with the University crowd.

In the course of the game, the song was played several more times, and as the Texas fans learned the words, the air was filled with the sounds of “and it’s goodbye to A&M.” The Longhorns eked out a 6 – 0 win, their first on Kyle Field. The following month, the Board of Regents approved a new stadium. One year later, Texas Memorial Stadium was officially dedicated in Austin on Thanksgiving Day, 1924.



Above: The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets form a large “T” on the field at the 1924 Thanksgiving Day dedication of Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. – Portal to Texas History

“Aggie Taps” survived a few more years. While it was popular with the Corps, it had less support with the residents of Bryan and College Station, as well as the College administration. The lyrics didn’t really measure up for the song to be an alma mater. Instead, “The Spirit of Aggieland” was introduced in 1925 to fill the role, and “Aggie Taps” was discontinued soon afterward.

“Texas Taps” has been played for a century, and was officially renamed “Texas Fight!” in the 1970s.

 

[Dionysus]

1940: Looking down on part of the UT campus with the football stadium and Clark Field no. 2 for baseball, where the Bass Concert Hall is today. The rectangular Gregory Gym is just left of the stadium, and the future East Mall to its north — then still a neighborhood.

source: @JimNicar

 

[Dionysus]

Did you know? Before lights were added to DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in 1955, the traditional kick-off time for home UT football games was 2:30 pm. Later in the season, as the days grew shorter and sunset neared 5:30 pm, the lack of lights was sometimes an issue.

source: @JimNicar

 

[ViperHorn]

Did you know? Before lights were added to DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium in 1955, the traditional kick-off time for home UT football games was 2:30 pm. Later in the season, as the days grew shorter and sunset neared 5:30 pm, the lack of lights was sometimes an issue.

source: @JimNicar

I think we should go back and refer to aggy as A&M College of Texas.

 

[SabreHorn]

Well, for decades their school song referred to it as "Texas AMC"

 

[WorsterMan]

The Choice of Orange and White​

Of the many and varied traditions that pervade American campus life, none is as prevalent or pronounced as a college’s colors. Often so closely allied with a university’s name, it’s difficult to imagine one without the other. At the sight of bold blue, Yale alumni often remember their alma mater, while the combination of blue and maize invites graduates of the University of Michigan to recall their favorite student memories. Dartmouth claims forest green, Princeton touts orange and black, Nebraska boasts scarlet and cream. The colors brighten football stadiums on crisp autumn afternoons, embellish official university seals, dramatically illuminate campus landmarks, and are draped in abundance at spring commencements. Along with the printed name of a college, its colors are the signature visual element that binds generations of students and alumni to their university.
The origins of most college colors coincide with the arrival of intercollegiate athletics in the mid-nineteenth century, but their individual histories are as diverse as the colors themselves. At a New England regatta in 1858, Harvard crew members Benjamin Crownshield and Charles Elliot hurriedly supplied crimson bandanas to their teammates so that spectators could easily distinguish them in a race. Elliot was named Harvard’s 21st president in 1869, and served in that capacity for four distinguished decades. In 1910, the year after he retired, crimson was officially named the University’s color. Through much of its early history, students at the University of North Carolina were required to join either the Dialectric or Philanthropic Literary Societies, and sported colors to declare their membership. The Di’s color was light blue, the Phi’s opted for white. When UNC fielded its first athletic teams, the combination of white and Carolina blue was the obvious choice to represent the University. At the University of Virginia, silver gray and cardinal red had been used since the Civil War, symbolic of a Confederate uniform dyed in blood. But as college sports became more popular in the 1880s, student leaders voiced concerns, claimed the colors were inappropriate for athletic contests, and believed the gray was “lacking in durability.” In 1888, UVA students held a mass meeting to settle the matter. Allen Potts, a star athlete on the football team, attended the gathering wearing a blue and orange scarf he’d acquired during a summer boating expedition at Oxford University. A fellow student pulled the scarf from Potts’ neck, waved it to the crowd and asked, “How will this do?”
For the University of Texas, the choice of orange and white was an extended and sometimes precarious journey that began almost as soon as the campus was opened, and ended with most of the students disappointed in the final result.
~~~~~~~~~~
When the University of Texas opened in 1883, baseball – not football – was the sport of choice for UT students, and afternoon inter-class games were played on the relatively flat northwest corner of the Forty Acres. The team waiting to bat often took shade under one of the old trees that are today known as the Battle Oaks.
In the spring of 1885, the latter half of UT’s second academic year, a student enrolled who claimed to have the only curve ball pitch in the state. The curve ball was a new addition to the game, welcomed by baseball progressives, hated by the sport’s purists. Nevertheless, students eagerly formed a team “that rated high in brain power, low in brute force,” and challenged any college in Texas to a game. Southwestern University, 30 miles north in Georgetown, answered the call and invited UT to a picnic and baseball contest. The University accepted, and students arranged to make the trip to Georgetown on a chartered train.
It was a cloudy and gloomy Tuesday morning, April 21, 1885, when the baseball team, along with most of the student body, arrived at the downtown Austin train station at Third Street and Congress Avenue (photo at left), and boarded passenger cars bound for Georgetown. Mrs. Helen Marr Kirby, the University’s Lady Assistant, accompanied the group to chaperone the co-eds. Everything was on schedule until the final whistle sounded. Just as the train was ready to depart, Miss Gussie Brown from (of all places) Orange, Texas, urgently announced the need for some ribbon to identify themselves as UT supporters.
Today’s college fans arrive at stadiums clad in t-shirts and caps. But in the 1880s, colored ribbons were worn on lapels to show team loyalty. The more enterprising male students sported longer ribbons, so they would have extra to share with a pretty girl who had none. The truly ingenious (or just plain desperate) wore ribbons almost down to their knees.
Two of Gussie’s friends, Venable Proctor and Clarence Miller, always ready to impress the ladies, jumped off the train and sprinted a half block north along Congress Avenue to Carl Baryman’s General Store. Between gasps for breath, they managed to ask the shopkeeper for three bolts of two colors of ribbon. “What colors?” the shopkeeper inquired. “Anything,” was the response. After all, the train was leaving the station, and there was no time to be particular.
The shopkeeper gave them the colors he had the most in stock: white ribbon, which was popular for weddings and parties and was always in demand, and bright orange ribbon, because no one bought the color, and the store had plenty to spare.
Loaded with their supplies, Proctor and Miller hustled back and boarded the moving train as it left for Georgetown. Along the way, the ribbon was evenly divided and distributed to everyone except for a law student named Yancey Lewis, “who had evolved a barbaric scheme of individual adornment by utilizing the remnants.”

Above: The 1898 University of Texas baseball team.
Unfortunately, it rained much of the afternoon, the curve ball curved not, and Texas outfielders ran weary miles in a lost cause. The score was a lopsided 21 – 6 win for Georgetown. According to one witness, the University’s colors were “christened on a dire and stricken field.”
Or were they? Even though the first baseball team had sported orange and white, the colors were by no means official, and subject to the whims of future UT students.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Above: The 1893 University of Texas football team.
After a decade of starts and stops, the University of Texas fielded its first “permanent” football team in 1893. The first recorded game was actually ten years earlier, during UT’s inaugural fall term, though it was a rather embarrassing two-goals-to-none loss against a group of high school students at the private Bickler School in downtown Austin. Football, the newfangled sport that could draw 50,000 spectators to a Princeton-Yale game in the 1880s, required a little more time to be accepted in the Lone Star State.
The UT football team of 1893 played four games, a pair in the fall and two more in the spring. The first was against the Dallas Foot Ball Club, which claimed to be the best in the state. Held at the Dallas Fair Grounds, the game attracted a record 1,200 onlookers. It was a tough and spirited match, but when the dust had settled, the “University Eleven” had pulled off an 18 – 16 upset. “Our name is pants, and our glory has departed,” growled the Dallas Daily News. The UT club would go on to a spotless record and earn the undisputed boast of “best in Texas.”

A close-up view of the 1893 UT vs. Dallas football program, which listed the University’s colors as Old Gold and White.
But the squad from Austin didn’t wear orange. While their black and white uniforms almost exactly matched those worn by their foes from Dallas, the UT footballers had donned yellow caps. More important, the program for the game declared the University’s colors to be “old gold and white.”
In the 1890s, the UT campus consisted of a still-unfinished Victorian-Gothic Main Building, a chemical lab building to its northwest, and a plain-looking men’s dorm, known as Brackenridge Hall, or B. Hall, nestled down the hill to the east. All were fashioned from pale yellow Austin pressed brick, and trimmed with cream-colored limestone quarried in nearby Cedar Park. (The Gebauer Building, built in 1904 for engineering, is today the home for College of Liberal Arts, and is the last survivor of this early UT architecture.) Students identified themselves with their surroundings on the campus, and several University teams donned gold and white uniforms.

Above: The Forty Acres in 1898. From left, Chemistry Labs, an unfinished old Main Building, and B. Hall, the men’s dorm. All were constructed from yellow-buff brick and limestone trim.
Of course, gold and white weren’t official, either, and only lasted a year. Members of the UT Athletic Council wanted a more “masculine” color, and in 1894 orange was paired with white once more. But athletes and equipment managers began to complain about team uniforms. The orange was “unstable” and had a tendency to bleed during washing, while the white soiled quickly and was difficult to clean. In 1898, to save cleaning costs, the Athletic Council opted for a darker color that wouldn’t show dirt as easily: maroon.
For the next two years, UT football, baseball, and track uniforms, along with letter sweaters, were orange and maroon, and the hues were incredibly popular with UT students. Soon after the colors made their appearance, maroon caps with orange T’s were available for $1.25 in stores along Congress Avenue. (For those worried about any similarity to the colors used in College Station, Texas A&M teams sported red at the time. Maroon wasn’t adopted by the Aggies until the 1930s.)
Right: 1898 UT football players were wearing maroon sweaters with orange T’s.
While orange and maroon may have been a hit with the students in Austin, the sudden change was more than controversial among the alumni. By 1899, a stranger to a University of Texas home football game might have wondered if there weren’t multiple teams pitted against the visiting squad, as UT fans displayed orange and maroon, orange and white, and gold and white ribbons on their lapels.
In the spring of 1900, after considerable discussion, the Board of Regents decided to hold an election to settle the matter. Students, faculty, staff and alumni were all invited to send in their ballots. Out of the 1,111 votes cast, 562 were for orange and white, a majority by just seven votes. Orange and maroon receive 310, royal blue 203, crimson 10, royal blue and crimson 11, and few other colors scattered among the remaining 15 votes.
Over the next three decades, UT athletic teams wore bright orange on their uniforms, which usually faded to a yellow by the end of the season after having been washed a few times. By the 1920s, other college teams sometimes called the Longhorn squads “yellow bellies,” a term that didn’t sit well with the athletic department. A recent discovery has shown that in 1925, UT football coach “Doc” Stewart ordered uniforms in a darker shade of orange that wouldn’t fade, and would later become known as “burnt orange” or “Texas Orange.” The dark-orange color remained in use into the 1940s, when shortages during World War II made the dye unavailable. UT uniforms reverted to bright orange for another two decades, until coach Darrell Royal revised the burnt orange color in the early 1960s.

​

 

[SabreHorn]

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't we the only school that has its primary color trademarked.

Also, DKR admitted he went back to the darker orange because it was closer to the color of the J5V football, making it harder for the defense to see.