Page 27 - The First Fifty Years

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DRIVEN 21

an Associate Editor of Houston Law Review on Board 3, and the Law Center’s long-time good
friend.

3. PATRICK J. NICHOLSON, IN TIME: AN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON 1 (1977).

4. Not to be confused with “all deliberate speed.” Cf. Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 349 U.S.
294, 301 (1955).

5. Houston offered other educational opportunities for local high school graduates, of
course, but none on such easy terms. In particular, Rice Institute (as today’s Rice University
was then known) was highly selective in its admission policy. The founders of the University of
Houston saw the need for an alternative. NICHOLSON, supra note 3, at 13.

6. Id. at 31, 65.

7. MIXON, supra note 2, at 43. UH became a state university in 1963, but the
University of Texas and Texas A&M University, both with longer traditions and deeper alumni
bases, continue to dominate other state universities where state funding support is concerned.

Today, however, the University of Houston is a Carnegie Tier One university and
home to one of the nation’s leading Honors Colleges.

8. At least insofar as the early pages of Houston Law Review (an esteemed but
obviously limited frame of reference) disclose, there is an “alternate universe” possibility to the
received wisdom regarding the “Bates College of Law” nomenclature: the University of
Houston College of Law as a whole may never have been named, formally, Bates. A one-page
announcement in Issue 5:2 describes plans for the construction, initially, of several structures
that would include “an administrative unit, a library, and a teaching unit” (emphasis added),
but with up to four more teaching units to be built later. “Future growth in enrollment will be
met,” the announcement continues, “by the construction of a new law school, sharing library
and administrative facilities and guided by the philosophy of Bates College, but otherwise
independent, with its own student body, faculty, and curriculum.” (Emphasis again added.) In
short, and at least arguably, what was then meant by “Bates College” was merely the first
teaching unit (together with the central library and administration building), with the naming
of the second, and any other future teaching units (or “schools”), to abide—perhaps in the hope
of a major donation in exchange for naming rights. That never occurred.

9. A.A. White, as told to John Mixon in the 1980s. MIXON, supra note 2, at 39.

Currently, the University of Houston Law Center ranks in the top quartile of
American law schools. See Best Law Schools, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT (2012), available at
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-
rankings/page+3.

10. See generally MIXON, supra note 2, at 44.

11. Id. at 45–64.

12. Dean White was willing to hire from in-state as well, but did so rigorously. Simon
Frank, for example, had been a straight A student at the University of Texas School of Law.
White simply was unwilling to compromise on quality. MIXON, supra note 2, at 52.

13. Id. app. VIII (Tenure Track Faculty Hired, 1947–2011). White, who himself had
spent a year of graduate study at Columbia, believed strongly in the value of post-J.D.
education. He encouraged Blakely to take a year off in 1953 to earn an LL.M. from Michigan;
and Blakely in turn, when he became dean, often sent his locally hired professors off to
“finishing school” at highly regarded institutions like Yale, where UH law grad John Mixon
would polish his credentials. Mixon suggests that Blakely thought he had little to fear from
Yankee influences upon his new hires, whereas in fact most of his newly minted LL.M.s
returned to Houston more invested in A.A. White’s conception of the role of legal education
than they were in Blakely’s. Id. at 133–34.

14. Id. at 49–50, 107–10. Mixon would bookend Decade 1 of HLR’s early history by
publishing in both Volume 1 and Volume 10, writing frequently thereafter, and even
contributing to the Decade 5 issue that celebrated his 50 years of teaching at the Law Center.

15. Basements, as the University would learn to its dismay half a century later when
Tropical Storm Allison nearly destroyed its physical plant—underground library and all—in