Archive for: The Way Back
The Way Back: All That Jazz
By Ben Wright
The Roaring ’20s permeated campus in a variety of ways, one of which was through Tex-ette, the state’s first coed jazz orchestra. Thanks to Tex-ette, one could...
The Way Back: Pool Party
By Chris O'Connell
Beginning in the early 1940s, the Aqua Carnival was a campus sensation. Used to raise funds for the swim team, the annual event had diving contests, synchronized...
The Way Back: A Tower By Another Name
By Marisa Charpentier
Unlocking the vault of UT history During the first two decades of the 1900s, students convened at a lesser-known tower to participate in frowned-upon traditions:...
The Way Back: Garnering Gavels
By Danielle Lopez
Unlocking the vault of UT history Among UT’s vast collection of artifacts are 160 gavels that once belonged to John Nance Garner. In 1931, as Speaker of the...
The Way Back: Pig Out
By Ben Wright
Unlocking the vault of UT history Before Bevo, Longhorn fans were endeared to another four-legged friend. Pig Bellmont was named after Gus “Pig” Dittmar, a...
The Way Back: Texas Campeón
By Ben Wright
Unlocking the vault of UT history. Texas football lost the 1972 Cotton Bowl to Penn State in Dallas. But within two days, the Longhorn Band was on to its next...
The Way Back: In Formation
By Ben Wright
Unlocking the vault of UT history Russell Lee was one of the 20th century’s most important photographers. Trained as a chemical engineer, he spent the 1920s struggling...
The Way Back: Old Mane
By Ben Wright
Tucked away in a collection of Civil War miscellany at the Briscoe Center, this lock of hair was taken from Old Sorrel, the horse that Confederate general Stonewall...
The Way Back: Turtle Power
By Ben Wright
There’s no evidence to suggest that the inhabitants of Turtle Pond ever met Tessie, a giant mechanical Franken-turtle built at UT in 1954, but at roughly 4 feet...
The Way Back: Mr. Frank and Me
By Ben Wright
Many Texas Exes pine for the Forty Acres, but Allen Reid Robertson, BJ ’52, Life Member, had more reason than most. The 21-year-old’s studies were interrupted...