University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

Page 23 text:

Villainous engineering students mutilate yet another Peregrinus, left. white tawstudentsdispiay proper reverence tor the animal by incorporating it into an official school banner, right. The west wng of Old Main. Between 1884 and 1908. the law school was housed first in the west wing of Old Main, and then in the basement. School officials forgot about the law students in the basement when a supply house salesman came to take cap and gown orders. Law students answered this slight by refusing to wear traditional gowns at all; the sunflower ceremony tradition of white suits and sunflowers was born, and persists in part to this day. In 1908 the school moved to the new Law Building on the south side of the campus at 21st and Wichita. It was in this building that Col. Simkins. toward the end of his Contracts class, was interrupted by a braying donkey in the adjoining Cavanaugh tract. After the class laughter died down. Simkins told the class that it was just your brother calling you! Hence the term first year J.A.'s.” Simkins gave an annual lecture defending the Ku Klux Klan. which he helped originate in Florida, as the protector of women and children. Simkins is also one of the originators of the Peregrinus. 0 0 Main as if appeared after the law school moved to its new bunding. The Law Ounding. home of the law school from 1908 to 1953 Anecdotal History — 19

Page 22 text:

The'©turn ol the Peregrinus Almost four years after Gillespie Stacy and Harris Brush captured the law school mascot on June 13. 1921. the Peregrinus was returned to Dean Hildebrand at a public meeting in the engineering building, on March 22. 1925. Engineering and law students raided one another's buildings during the 1920's, seeking the Peregrinus or. at the engineering end. a scale model oil derrick. The original two professors ol the law school pose with the entire faculty of the University of Texas Former TexasSupreme Court Chef Justice Robert Simonton Gould, seated at far left, and former Governor Oran Milo Roberts, seated second from the right, were hired by the Board ol Regents as the second and l st professors, respectively. Col W. S. S nkm. CSA In 1904. prohibitionist Carrie Nation came to ihe university. Two students misinformed Mrs. Nation, telling her that D. A. Frank of the law school gave poor grades to any student who refused to drink and gamble with him on a regular basis. Frank protested his innocence and challenged Nation to inspect his room. The students, a step ahead, had already planted poker chips and cards all over the room. Nation later descended on Col. Simkins after students tipped her that he. too. was a drunken gambler. Simkins nonchalantly puffed on a cigar, ignoring that she was even there, while she screeched and preached in the manner that made her famous. AN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE LAW SCHOOL 8 — Anecdotal History

Page 24 text:

Exactly thirty years ago, the law school moved to its structure on 26th Street. Townes Hall appears above left, sans current construction buildings and Tarlton Library. Tarlton Law Library was housed in the east Townes Hall, the far right in each picture, until the fifth academic law library in the nation was built in 1980. Prof. Johnson bolts oot a show tunc in 1977 The Assault and Flattery revue began in 1952 in an open-air theater near the Main Building, and became a real spectacle the following year when Oean Page Keeton. Prof. Corwin Johnson. Prof. Gus Hodges. Cornell law dean Gray Thoron. Judge Joe Sneed of the Ninth Circuit, and Fulbrtght Jaworski partner Jack Procter won first place with a cancan line billed as A Dozen Wicked Legs. Featured over the years have been Dean Ernest Smith performing an elegant soft shoe in tails. Corwin Johnson, above, singing his showstopper Mr. Wonderful. That's Me. and associate dean T. J. Gibson in one hit after another. Above and left: the Law Building.