University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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In building up institutions of learning, we all are aware of the fact, that there is no unanimity, no concentration of efforts outside each particular sect or denomination. And no one of these denominations has the capacity or means of building up a first rate institution of learning. In order to accomplish this end, to fill this great educational desideratum which now exists, a University of the first order should be built by the state, and it should emphatically be a first class one, and should occupy ground as high, and a position as commanding, an influence as extensive as any in the older states. Minutes of the House of Representatives, Nov. 28, 1857

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THE YEAR Whether for a Conference champion football team, a Nobel Prize winner, or the four-millionth volume acquired by the Library System, the Tower blazed orange so frequently that students almost took its bril- liant hue for granted and rightly so. It was a year of achievements for the First Class University. The Texas Longhorn football team was her- alded as the Number One team in the nation for awhile. The basket- ball team was the first Southwest Conference team to win the National Invitational Tournament. Humble halfback Earl Campbell brought home the University ' s first Heisman Trophy. Texas momentum was in high gear. Then Dr. Ilya Prigogine won the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemis- try, making him the University ' s first Nobel laureate. The new Perry- Castaneda Library and 17,000-seat Special Events Center accommo- dated a University population which had doub led in 10 years. But the UT community sometimes questioned the validity of the term first class institution. In a Spring referendum, students voted to abolish the Stu- dents ' Association and a mild stir arose over the administrative fate of the Division of General and Comparative Studies. Whatever their consequences, these events converged to form a Uni- versity of the First Class.

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