Around you spreads the University of Texas at Austin, one of the largest and most influential public universities in the country. UT was established by the Texas Constitution of 1876 and opened its doors in 1883 with eight faculty members and 221 students — a modest beginning for what would become a research colossus. The school's transformation came from oil.
In 1923, a vast petroleum deposit was discovered beneath land owned by the Permanent University Fund, a public endowment established during the Republic of Texas. The oil revenue flooded in and never stopped, funding libraries, research institutes, and facilities that allowed UT to compete with the Ivy League. Today more than 50,000 students call this campus home, pursuing degrees at a school that ranks among the world's top research institutions.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library — sitting on the east side of campus like a giant limestone filing cabinet — holds 45 million documents from one of the most consequential and controversial presidencies in American history. Hook 'Em Horns is more than a hand gesture; it is the rallying cry of a community that has shaped Texas culture, politics, and commerce for nearly 150 years.