Totally major

Students settle in on the main quad in 1991 for a 13 Nightmares concert sponsored by the Major Activities Board, which officially turns 50 this year. (Photography by Laurence Williams, AB’93; Copyright 2025, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

Race to the bottom

Held annually between 1910 and 1940 (and several times in years since), the Mustache Race was a roughly monthlong competition between senior men to see who could grow and maintain the University’s most magnificent set of whiskers. Originating from an informal senior tradition requiring all men to grow out their facial hair, the Mustache Race eventually became an institutional event held under the auspices of Blackfriars, the men’s musical theater club. Contestants were judged by select women students and the campus barber for excellence in “mustachery.” Winners were awarded prizes and featured in the Maroon; losers (as shown here in 1935) were thrown into Botany Pond. (Though winners occasionally found themselves “ignominiously propelled into the murky waters of the botany pond” too, as the Maroon described the 1934 event.) After petering out in the late 1940s, the race has been revived multiple times, with varying degrees of success. Did you participate? (More importantly, did you win?) Share your story at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (UChicago Photographic Archive, apf4-02787, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Work studies

In this 1956 photograph, Elin (Ballantyne) Christianson, AB’58, AM’61, pours a cup of coffee for English professor Mark Ashin, AB’37, AM’38, PhD’50, in Green Hall’s dining room. Green Hall opened in 1899, connecting the two original women’s dormitories, Kelly and Beecher Halls, which, with Foster Hall, had opened in 1893. Today Kelly, Beecher, and Green Halls anchor the east side of the Social Sciences Quadrangle and house the Department of Psychology. Did you live, work, or eat in Green Hall? What was the best meal you had there? Send your memories to uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by William M. Rittase; UChicago Photographic Archive, apf4-02841, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Day of Reg-oning

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a cement mixer? The latter could be correct in this 1968 snapshot of builders at work on the University’s key construction project of the era: The Reg. Named for industrialist Joseph Regenstein, the Regenstein Library shook up the look of campus with its rough, brutalist style when it was finished in 1970—though architect Walter Netsch declared it to be “more gothic” than other University buildings. How did the Reg change your time on campus? Share your memories with us at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by David Travis, AB’71; Copyright 2025, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

One student’s University

In June 1974 this magazine ran a story by Frank Gruber, AB’74, on University life and culture, titled “One Student’s University.” A photographer with The Chicago Maroon, Gruber chose representative photos of campus life to go with the story, including this one of a percussion concert on the main quad in celebration of Malcolm X’s birthday. Other photos show a group of rugby players, a parade for the rededication of Harper Memorial Library, and one of Gruber’s roommates washing dishes. In his story, Gruber describes how he and his friends explore Chicagoland, direct and screen original films, and put on jazz concerts for the community. He notes that arranging the concerts was “very stimulating,” though they “also lost a fair amount of the University’s money”—especially during a weekend when “the temperature was minus twenty.” Have any photos of your University experience? Share them at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Frank Gruber, AB’74; UChicago Photographic Archive, apf4-04055, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Campus views

ABC News filmed an episode of Viewpoint at Mandel Hall on April 28, 1982. The series began in July 1981 and was moderated by longtime anchor Ted Koppel. The New York Times described the show as an “experimental effort to provide ‘a forum for criticism and analysis of television news.’” The episode recorded at UChicago explored media coverage of international affairs, with a particular focus on conflicts in the Middle East and Central America. Producers chose UChicago as the broadcast location for this episode due to the University’s strong roster of faculty experts in global politics, including Marvin Zonis, an expert on Middle Eastern politics and later professor emeritus of business administration. Did you attend the taping or watch the broadcast? Share your point of view at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Bill Mudge, AB’83; Copyright 2025, The Chicago Maroon. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)

Hubble’s repairman

NASA astronaut and mission specialist John M. Grunsfeld, SM’84, PhD’88 (left), is shown aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour alongside payload specialist Ronald Parise in 1995. Beginning in 1999, Grunsfeld was involved in three separate missions to repair the Hubble Space Telescope (named for Edwin Hubble, SB 1910, PhD 1917), which earned him the nickname “Hubble’s repairman.” During these missions, Grunsfeld installed new gyroscopes, cameras, sensors, and batteries that extended Hubble’s life and sharpened its view of the cosmos. In recognition of his contributions, Grunsfeld was inducted into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2015. (UChicago Photographic Archive, apf1-13821, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library)

Classroom legend

Paul J. Sally Jr. (1933–2013) was a professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago from 1965 until his death in 2013, specializing in p-adic analysis and representation theory. A teacher since the age of 21, Sally won a Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1967 and served as director of undergraduate studies in the math department for 30 years. He was known as the “Math Pirate” or “Professor Pirate” for the black patch that covered his left eye, which he lost due to diabetes. The nickname suited not just his appearance but also his personality. Sally loathed cell phones, once calling them “an interference to human existence.” Legend has it that he even encouraged students to help destroy phones that rang during class. Did you study with Sally? Share your memories at uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu. (Photography by Dan Dry)

Have photos from your UChicago days? The Magazine may be able to share them in Alumni News and in a future Snapshots. Send high-resolution scans and your memories of what the pictures are about to uchicago-magazine@uchicago.edu.