Judging By Our Covers

Celebrity alumni, sports stars, iconic campus buildings, mind-bending abstract illustrations—Alcalde covers have run the gamut throughout the past century, and some designs have aged better than others.

Hits

January 1966
A rare campus snowball fight fills us with nostalgia.

January 1960
We love this fierce, timeless portrait of the first female drummer in the Longhorn Band.

March|April 2011
Both retro and modern, this take on SXSW founder Lewis Black is one of our favorites.

Misses

March|April 2006
Readers called this cover "completely wrong" and "hideous."

March|April 1984
A jogging computer—get it? We don't either.

November 1972
Not sure what's scarier: the lobotomy or the mustache!