The Way Back: The Super University

It’s long been said that everything is bigger and better in Texas, and that maxim held true in 1965, when the weekly British Sunday newspaper, The Observer, ran a cover story exploring UT’s reputation as a “Super University”—super in both the size of its booming student population and its rising academic prestige. To capture the story, the paper dispatched a heavy-hitting duo: famed documentary photographer and UT’s inaugural photography professor Russell Lee, and journalist-turned-screenwriter Lee Minoff—best known for writing the Beatles’ animated epic Yellow Submarine.  

The resulting 10-page spread showcased campus life in all its burnt-orange, mid-century glory, painting a vivid portrait of an American university “unabashedly on the make.” From its scholarly achievements to football fanaticism, sun-drenched socials to world-class literary collections, Minoff ultimately concluded that The University of Texas offered an exceptional experience for students and faculty alike—and that UT truly was, in every sense, a Super University.

Through Lee’s striking photos and Minoff’s lyrical (and at times delightfully snarky) observations, the piece offered the world a snapshot of Longhorn life, while arriving at a truth all Longhorns know: There’s simply nowhere in the world like the Forty Acres.