Old UT Photos

Photos of some Co-op sponsored ribbons worn by fans circa 1950s-early 1960s:

("Hit the road Toad", "Hogs to Ham" -- I've been told it doesn't take much to amuse me...)

 

L. Theo Bellmont with 1915 basketball team. Stars instead of Longhorns or "TEXAS" on jerseys.

 

Some classic UT cheerleader photos:





If this wasn't such a respectable family-friendly site, I might make a remark about how big her mouth is... But I'll refrain.



1963-64:










UT vs Cal 1961. Picture of the hired nightclub dancer / cheerleaders from this humorous episode below (note the high heels):
To put this in today's context, this would be like if our cheerleaders couldn't make the trip, and some fans hired a bunch of scantily-clad strippers from a local gentlemens club to be our cheerleaders for the game. And at Cal moreover!

 

I'm surprised that Cal noticed the attire, considering they had never seen a goodlooking female on that campus.

 

And these women shaved their arm pits and legs.

 

I think that's Cam, Ferris Bueller's best friend, on the back row on the left.

 

Clifford Antone 1970s

 

Artist Farrah Fawcett sculpting under the tutelage of artist Charles Umlauf at Umlauf's Austin studio. 1971

 

1961 Panty Raid -- description and photos

It was a quiet, unusually warm Thursday evening in Austin on November 2, 1961. Just after 11 p.m., a fire ignited in a trash bin next to Moore-Hill Hall, which then housed UT athletes. Though the blaze was self-contained, because it was next to a residence hall, the city fire department erred on the side of caution and sent eight trucks to extinguish the flames. With such a commotion, the denizens of Moore-Hill, along with the men of Brackenridge, Roberts, and Prather Halls across the street, poured out of the dorms. The fire was easily doused, but once the students were outside and away from their books, they weren’t all that motivated to return. Instead, the group decided to take a study break and pay a friendly visit to the women’s dorms.

Setting off around the back side of Gregory Gym, the crowd continued to swell. Students from the petroleum and chemical engineering buildings on the East Mall (today’s Rappaport and Schoch Buildings) joined the ranks, reinforcements came from the central library then housed in the Main Building, and still more as the group passed by the Texas Union. When the mob arrived at last in front of Kinsolving Residence Hall, some 2,500 to 3,000 men were chanting, “We want panties!”



Above: Headline of The Daily Texan on November 3, 1961.

The coeds of Kinsolving smiled, giggled, and waved from their windows, but only one pair of panties was tossed from a third story window. The crowd changed tactics. Instead of the direct approach, the men began to serenade the ladies with The Eyes of Texas. This didn’t work either, and not wanting to waste the evening, the group moved across the street to try their luck at Blanton.

Blanton residents were more cooperative. A single pair of undergarments appeared, quickly followed by “an airdrop of flimsies which rallied the troops.” The men below chanted and sang, and some would-be Romeos attempted to scale the second floor railings.

By now, the entire University Police force, along with 12 additional officers of the Austin Police, had arrived to break-up the proceedings. The crowd, though, was far too large, and the best the authorities could do was to keep everyone moving. The police charged. The longhorns stampeded. North to the Scottish Rite Dorm, where the girls were instructed to lower their window shades, and sprinklers were turned on to flood the lawn. West to the sorority houses and some limited success, and then back to the campus. At Andrews residence hall, some of the girls went up to the sun deck to “greet their worshippers.” Before long, even the statue of Diana the Huntress, in the center of the women’s quad, was sporting the latest in female lingerie.

Photo above: UT men climb the walls of the Littlefield residence hall (not recommended!) during the November 1961 panty raid.



Above: The police charged. The longhorns stampeded.

“Why aren’t you taking part?” a UT student asked a police officer. “Just too old,” was the overheard reply.

Dean of Student Life Arno Nowotny arrived on the scene, collected Blanket Tax cards by the handful, and set up appointments for their owners to retrieve them the following morning. The cards, which proved students had paid their campus fees, were required to gain entrance to UT sporting events, especially football games.

“The riot ebbed and flowed from dorm to dorm for two scream-filled hours,” reported The Daily Texan. It wasn’t until well after midnight that the last cry of “We want panties!” was heard.

 

That gut on the second story ledge looks like Sabre!

 

Viper,

In 1961, I weighed a whopping 90-95 pounds at most; the gut didn't come for another decade or so.

 

My childhood house, after we moved out, became a rental house. Later, I lived there again in law school. Anyway, in between, in the 70s and early 80s, Clifford Antone and Angela Strehli lived there. When I moved back in, the windows were all nailed shut and you could see where the “plants” had been growing inside.

For at least a year, some very interesting travelers would show up in the middle of the night assuming it was still their go-to crash pad and party location.

 

Very interesting @VYFan ... I bet that house has some stories to tell

 

Damn! I forgot about panty raids. Those were always a good to get away from the books during dead week before finals or the first week of school.

 

or any night during the semester!

 

So..... were any of you successful in garnering a souvenir from one of those raids?

 

After pledge lines one year, a large group gathered on the lawn of the SDT house to watch the always comical annual fight between the SAMmies & the Tau Delts. It was a nonevent except for the hilarity of the drunks on 25th trying to hit each other without getting hit. That turned into a pantie raid on Heflin Manor (private dorm on the corner). The police were called to disperse the crowd, but not before a pair that would fit Bevo was thrown out a third floor window. They honestly looked like a parachute floating down. Not even APD would pick those up.

To keep from being arrested, the crowd turned to the girls watching on the SDT balcony and began to serenade the SDTs with "Jesus Loves Me", everyone waiting to see if anyone including APD claimed the parachute treasure.

 

Yes, but it wasn't easy or painless.

 

A friend of mine from high school had a sister that was a senior that lived in one of the girls dorms. They knew, from experience, that the first week of school would mean a panty raid. So, she and her roommate went an bought the largest pair of panties they could find and pulled on them in their dorm room to stretch them out more. When the panty raid went down, they waived them out the window, all waded up, and then threw them out. The panties ballooned out and the guy they landed on was covered, the crotch on the top of his head and his ears sticking out of the leg holes. The rest was covering his face and shoulders. All the other guys let out a collective, "Whoooa" followed by a round of "Groooos"! That guy looked stunned and everybody laughed at him, and were taunting him to call the phone number written on the panties. He just crammed them into his pocket and said "sheeeyet". What a prank!

 

Technically not a UT photo but still cool for those who have spent time in Austin.

A man with a horse on top of Mount Bonnell in Austin, early 1950s. These days, all of that area in the background is filled with mansions, boat docks etc... Crazy to see it so undeveloped.


@TracesofTexas

 

Interesting. Austin wasn’t exactly horse country even in the 50s. I wonder whether he was a Texas Ranger or some other LE.

 

He may be thinking: "I'm going to shoot a hole in those d@%# kids' boat if they land on my property again."

 

I believe that it a Texas Ranger. You can kinda see a badge pinned to his breast pocket. No causal horseback rider would be carrying both a rifle and a Colt .45 Model 1911 around the outskirts of town.

He is looking for outlaws (like a bank robbery suspect), an escaped convict or illegal aliens.

- Mike

 

1931: Among the several proposed designs for UT’s Main Building and Tower was this one: shorter, wider, Spanish-themed and capped with a red-tile roof. Looks a little too busy, and I can’t imagine this becoming a UT icon.


@JimNicar

 

1910: The UT library — today’s Battle Hall — under construction. As it was decades before the introduction of air conditioning, the library was placed facing east and the main reading room on the second floor so as to catch the southeastern breezes coming up from the Gulf.


@JimNicar

 

Another slightly off-topic photo here.

Scholz Garten in Austin, circa 1900. Established in 1866 and still going strong. General George Custer dined and drank here at one time.


@TracesofTexas

 

I was there....interesting times....

 

Getting pumped before the big game: the 1969 National Championship!


@TexasExes

 

That dude on the right drum has his game face on!!

 

Willie Nelson and Darrell K. Royal circa 1975.


@TracesOfTexas