Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/367813
Photogra Phy courtesy of t races of t exas, with Permission from the Peters family The fab five: Bettye Hughes Peters ( second from left) horses around with her Tri Delta sorority sisters in a UT Austin dorm room, circa 1944. The year was 1944. Franklin D. Roosevelt was about to enter his fourth term as president, and America's boys were overseas—attempting to end the war after invading Nazi-occupied Europe with our allies on the rocky coast of Normandy, France. Back in Austin, a growing number of young women were beginning a new school year at Texas's largest university. With thousands of young American men away from home, class sizes had been dwindling across the country—so much so that admissions offices were actively recruiting females and their dollars to keep colleges af loat. Sorority houses had never been more alive as a result, but the times were defined by conservation efforts. Magazine advertisements shamed women who bought what they didn't need: "The Silk in 185 Pairs of Stockings Will Make 1 Army Parachute—Take Better Care of What You Buy." So sorority sisters, like the ones occupying the four-year-old Tri Delta house on West 27th Street, followed the era's new fashion trends: painting thin black lines on the backs of their legs to give the illusion they were still wearing stockings under their garments. The stands at Texas Memorial Stadium that year were filled with the heav- ily female student population. "Yeah, Horns!" the crowd would cheer for the Longhorns. (It would be another decade before a cheerleader coined "hook 'em Horns.") Despite the gas shortage making it nearly impossible for Texas fans to drive to games, and even though the war sent some of the best players to army training camps, football remained Austin's favorite pastime, with many servicemen and -women in attendance; they were given free tickets as a thank-you for their service. Darrell K. Royal—the winningest football coach in UT history and the man for whom the stadium would later be named—was an army boy himself, at the time serving in the Army Air Corps and playing football for the Air Force team. As for the women, their battle was against custom and tradition. On the front lines—as is often the case in times of rebellion—were collegiate women, proving themselves capable of much more than waiting patiently for their sweethearts to return. AW SISTERS OF WAR SEVENTY YEARS AGO, AT THE HEIGHT OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, WOMEN RULED THE SCHOOL. BY JANE KELLOGG MURRAY 12 AUSTINWAY.COM FRONT RUNNER