Old UT Photos

Dionysus said:
1890: UT’s Old Main was completed in three parts. West wing opened in 1884, and the middle section with the bell tower and an auditorium in back was ready in 1889. UT’s first on-campus spring commencement ceremony was in June 1890 in the auditorium.

(The auditorium section on the far right looks like the Great Hall at Hogwarts.)

1890-old-main.jpg

@JimNicar
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Kinda looks like the house in the “Citizen Kane” movie.
 
1968: Touchdown Texas! UT defeated rival Texas A&M at the annual Thanksgiving Day contest 35-14, in Austin. Look close - UT students still wrapped the goal posts in orange before the game.

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@JimNicar
 
1968... ahh, 50 years ago. A lot of changes came that season.

First season of the the new Wishbone Offense. Memorial Stadium was a grass field then, next season the Horns played on Astroturf. I believe the West side upper deck was started late 1968 and was completed in time for the 1969 season opener vs. Navy.

In 1968 the Horns finished the season 8-1-1 and pounded Tenn. in the Cotton Bowl 36-13. Bill Bradley started the season at QB and James Street took over in game 3 vs. Tech in the 3rd qtr. and after that game leading the Horns to 20 straight wins.
 
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Dionysus said:
1927: UT President Harry Benedict made it a personal tradition to send out holiday cards with a poem he’d composed. This one was mailed to UT alumni across the state.

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@JimNicar
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President Benedict's son, H Y Jr (Benny) was a long time family friend. I regret that we (my wife and I) did not save anything when he moved (Benny) to the country north of Dallas. I remember a set of dishes in white with pictures of Campus buildings on them.

PS The wife "babysat" for his children when she was growing up, we met at UT and married after I graduated.
 
1931: Before UT’s School of Architecture settled into Goldsmith Hall, it was located in a renovated B Hall, originally UT’s first men’s dorm on the east side of the Forty Acres. The architecture library was on an upper floor.

1931.jpg

@JimNicar
 
^^^^ ahh, nostalgic Gregory Gym. My brother and I never attended a game there but my Dad often talked about attending games there when he was a student in the late '40's.
 
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January 1933: Construction of Littlefield Fountain on a cloudy day. The east wing of Old Main is seen upper left; on the far right is the original Law Building, replaced in the 1970s by the Graduate School of Business.

1931-littlefield.jpg

@JimNicar
 
Joe,

Pathetic article; no mention of Gordon (the newspaper man) or the Indian Princess?

Article is obviously written by a fur-in-ner
 
Did you know? The Cactus Cafe in UT’s Texas Union was originally the “Chuck Wagon” — an eatery/soda fountain that served three meals a day. A full breakfast combo was 25¢ and a hamburger cost a dime. You can still see the ornate beams of the cowboy-themed ceiling.

cactus-cafe.jpg

@JimNicar
 
Someone told me that when the famous locals were playing at Cactus Cafe, it still had the full service counter. I could never picture it but that image kind of brings it to life.
 
1905: Still thinking of winter? Here’s a day of icy fun on the UT campus.

The Texas Toboggan Team

jimnicar.com/2016/01/05/the-texas-toboggan-team

toboggan.jpg

@JimNicar

Remember THE GREAT FROLIC!

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snow-old-main-west-side-view-from-the-womans-building.jpg

The west side of a snow-covered old Main Building, seen from an upper floor in the Woman’s Building. The large north wing (on the left) housed the University Library on the first floor, and a 1,500 seat auditorium directly above.
 
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Dionysus said:
1974: The architectural model of UT’s new Disch-Falk Field. It was ready the following year, and the team, under the guidance of Coach Cliff Gustafson, went on to win the 1975 College World Series, the third national title for the UT baseball program.

disch-falk-1974.jpg

@JimNicar
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Nice. Brings back good memories.

I remember seeing many games from the aluminum bleachers they added along the first base/right field line. While those were considered the lousy seats by most, you got to watch the opposing relief pitchers warm up just feet away. The pop of the baseball hitting leather at 90 mph just feet away was like music to my ears.

Late 80's early 90's there was a frequent ump at the Disch named Jenkins who was really fat and used to get heckled a lot by some fans. Willie Nelson also showed up a lot.
 
Here is one of my favs from more modern times but this photo is now almost 50 years old... Jan. 1, 1970.

I was there that cold and history making day....

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Wow, take a look at the construction of perhaps the first scoredboard with an official sponsor. There was no date on the photo so I'm guessing perhaps: mid - late 1930's.

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Joe Fan said:
Guess who had an office at UT?
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Didn't know he guested at UT Austin, but have a personal story about Darwin and my time at UT.

Was in the master's environmental engineering program at UT, in a course on alternative treatment methods of waste. We had to chose a topic to research, write up, and present to the class as part of the grade. I chose "vermiculture" (it's the use of earthworms to treat soil-based waste).

I went to the PCL and researched what might be in UT's collection and found that Darwin's last work was on the subject of vermiculture --- perhaps even was the seminal scientific work on the subject. He studied their behavior his entire life. But the book in UT's collection was shelved in the Tower, since it was an old selection.

I dutifully went over there and was allowed up to --- don't remember the floor --- but remembered I had to climb up a somewhat circular metal staircase to get to these stacks and went through the collection to find this book "The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits" he had published apparently just one year before his death, around 1881.

I almost trembled as I opened the book and saw the printing date, 1881, and was amazed at the shape it was in, but convinced it was of the original printing. I don't recall ever knowing if Darwin was at UT, but thought that any number of UT alums of ours, but back in the day of Darwin, would have picked up this book and used it like I was doing in the 1980s.

I discussed this book with Dr. Armstrong and he had knowledge of Darwin's work and took interest, as well as did Dr. Loehr, who UT had brought down from Cornell as part of the UT Centennial "million dollar chair endowment effort" --- Loehr was a national expert in "land treatment of wastes" which of course included vermiculture, well, Texas is a bit warmer than New York. He also was aware of Darwin's work in this area. At the time Dr. Loehr was also Chairman of EPA's Science Advisory Board and testified with EPA Administrator William Reilly before the Senate on issues such as the Valdez oil spill.

Ah, the benefits of attending "...a university of the first class..."

I wonder if C. Darwin himself gave that copy to his fellow faculty while in Austin. Damn.
 
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