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For Very Old Timers

Jeevz said:
Interestingly, it was both Texas Taco Factory and Taco Rico, literally next door to each other. This was in the late 1990s through early 2000s at least. Everyone I knew had their allegiance to one or the other...mine was to TTF. Looks like TTF is now a Starbucks, and Taco Rico survived the battle and still stands there. TTF had another location on SoBe off of Alton.
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Taco rico won that war. They ended up buying Texas taco (and converting Texas taco’s Miami Beach location) then selling or maybe even renting the space next to the UM taco rico to Starbucks.

Also the shake shack used to be a JJ’s (not the original). Before that it was a barbecue place for a short while, before that it was a place called Fishbone (owned by Kevin Rusk who later opened Titanic)… and before that it was a Howard Johnson.
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
The

They looked no different in 2018. My son's single Pentland 9th floor. We just finished get him in.
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LawyerCane said:
I arrived on campus in 1966 and was indeed LUCKY enough to also land in one of the garden apartment-style buildings, 2 BR, I bath, but with a small kitchen area a decent size living room as well. When I saw how small and cramped the “new” dorm rooms were, I was glad to be in the “old” apartment unit for sure!

While I’m now retired and live in Virginia, I make it back most every year for at least one game in Miami and every time, I make a compulsory trip to Shorty’s BBQ. It is the only thing still standing that has not changed since 1966. My kids and grandkids who have made the trips to see a Canes game with me, all know that a lunch visit to Shorty’s is mandatory.

Great memories!!!
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Wow, Shorty's was there in the late 1950's.....best BBQ in town.
 
Wellness center was announcing its grand opening during my orientation.

Fall of ‘96 - Mahoney
Spring ‘97- Pearson
97-98 - Eaton

Livin that Suite Life.
 
LawyerCane said:
I arrived on campus in 1966 and was indeed LUCKY enough to also land in one of the garden apartment-style buildings, 2 BR, I bath, but with a small kitchen area a decent size living room as well. When I saw how small and cramped the “new” dorm rooms were, I was glad to be in the “old” apartment unit for sure!

While I’m now retired and live in Virginia, I make it back most every year for at least one game in Miami and every time, I make a compulsory trip to Shorty’s BBQ. It is the only thing still standing that has not changed since 1966. My kids and grandkids who have made the trips to see a Canes game with me, all know that a lunch visit to Shorty’s is mandatory.

Great memories!!!
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Did you ever go to Bill & Ted's off campus? We could smell the onions frying from the dorms. They had cheap beer and great hamburgers.
miamimarine said:
Nope that was Fox’s Lounge.

Semper Canes!!!
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I well remember Fox's Lounge. As I didn't drink much, I was always the designated driver. What was the name of the restaurant across Dixie from the campus & a bit to the south. They had really good breakfasts and not expensive. Wasn't it near Fox's??
 
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Saw several movies here (Adams Family, Star Trek VI), practically across the street from UM:

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daytonacane said:
I Lived in the 3rd dorm down on the left on ****erson Dr. (in the middle on the 2nd floor) which were the "married dorms" - a lot of athletes were married during that time. They were torn down some years ago. . A pic was posted of them tearing them down. Our dorm was the one closest to the little bridge that went over to the practice field, Hecht Center, etc. When I got bored I would go over to the practice field & watch my husband practice. Across the street was the co-ed dorm. I am an OLD timer and was @ UM from 1957 thru graduation in 1961. Fran Curci was the QB & the coach was Andy Gustafson, Jim Otto, 00 center for the Raiders lived with his wife in the middle dorm. I remember when Curci was inducted into Iron & Arrow. **See below my continued post.

My husband and I lived in the "married" dorms on ****erson Dr. 1957-61 and he was under full football scholarship and was told it was valued @$4,000/yr. They also purchased his annual each year and upon graduation presented him with a beautiful class ring. We married at age 19 just before he started @ UM and we remained married for 42 years till his death. We attended a 25th reunion of the class of '61@ Miami and won a silver cup for the longest marriage to the same person. I attended school in the evening and worked @ what was then called Variety Children's Hospital off Red Rd. near the campus. I loved UM and Miami. There was a panty raid on campus, plus someone set up a lit huge arrow on a roof of a building & shot it off after a football game that we won. A big group of us went up to Lauderdale for spring break which was absolutely wild & crazy and loads of fun.. I am now 84 and still love the 'Canes & as long as I can stay upright will continue to come down for at least one or 2 games a year. I attended the last game in the Orange Bowl (so sad) & had the pleasure of meeting "The Rock" & sat next to Snelly's son & family. UM was honoring all football players who had every played @ Miami. Over these 65 years, I have experienced extreme bad times and ultra great times. All things evolve, so my guess is that within 3 years, we will be back to the ultra great times. GO 'CANES.
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Appreciate your memories. I would just say, I was not the one who posted the picture of the married dorms being torn down, another poster did, but I remember it well. I started at UM in 1986 when those apartments were still in use, and I had a work study job for the Housing Department where I rode on a truck that would go around and replace the stoves, refrigerators, and other furniture in the dorms and apartments, but especially the apartments. Had to replace a lot of stoves and fridges in the married student apartments, as they actually used them, while a lot of the unmarried students just ordered takeout.

I was fortunate to hear a lot of stories about UM in the 1950s and 1960s from my fraternity's alums (we lost our charter from 1971-1986, so we had no alums during those years). Both Ted Hendricks and Rick Barry were alums of my fraternity (as well as Walt Kichefski), so I met some incredible people and got to hear some great stories.

Funny thing is, the apartments were supposed to be "temporary", they were built with money from the influx of GI Bill students after WWII. That's why UM built the apartments so cheaply and simply. But, hey, we got about 50 years out of those craptastic concrete block buildings.

Sorry to hear that you lost your spouse, but happy that you had so many good years and memories together. GO CANES!!!
 
ben said:
Taco rico won that war. They ended up buying Texas taco (and converting Texas taco’s Miami Beach location) then selling or maybe even renting the space next to the UM taco rico to Starbucks.

Also the shake shack used to be a JJ’s (not the original). Before that it was a barbecue place for a short while, before that it was a place called Fishbone (owned by Kevin Rusk who later opened Titanic)… and before that it was a Howard Johnson.
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I preferred Texas Taco Factory over Taco Rico, but I ordered from both while I was in law school. The stand-alone building on the south end used to be a Pizza Hut (and we used to hit the pizza buffet there all the time when I was an undergrad) and the spot in the little shopping strip to the north was a place called Great Sub Connection. We used to prank people in the Eaton/Mahoney/Pearson dorms by calling random 4-digit numbers from the lobby and saying "Gray Suh Connection" or "D'Pizza" and then seeing if someone would come down to the lobby (since phone numbers were shared by 4 people in a suite).

In the same vein, we would call in fake orders to D'Pizza and other pizza places, and then see if we could offer to buy the pizza for half price when the delivery guy realized that the person on the order hadn't actually ordered. Those were some Academy Award level acting performances...
 
Great thread. Thanks to all those that posted pics. Brings back some great memories.

I was in Stanford & it looked a lot like the other dorm pics on here. Off-campus on Brickell Ave (Villa Regina) after the first 18 months. Had incredible views over Biscayne Bay on one side & the Centrust building (PEI tower) in the other direction.

  • Dalts in Coconut Grove had the best chocolate cake.
  • Deli: Wolfies.
  • Joe's Stone Crab on South Beach: best key lime pie in Miami and the stone crab are fantastic.
  • News Cafe: everything on the menu was great. Great for people watching & taking in the whole South Beach scene.
  • Publix for groceries.
  • Fuddruckers: all I remember is the milkshakes.
  • Unicorn Village: the bread was the bomb. Was a good place for vegetarians/vegans (I'm not but was dragged along).
  • Tony Romas: used to eat a whole rack of ribs & the onion loaf in bed with my wife and then go to sleep...and be totally fine in the morning. Would feel so terrible in the morning now if I did that.

Now that I live in CA, my biggest regret is that I didn't find some great Cuban restaurants. Any suggestions for next time I come to a game?
 
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GojiraCane said:
You mean like the Married Couple's area? No, but I got a picture of it in 1992 as it was being torn down near Hecht.

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I lived in married housing in 72-74.Pretty sparsely furnished. We went and purchased a waterbed rather then sleep on that ****** one they provided. Cost about $50. Played intramural FB (illegally) for a dorm team. We went on to play in the OB for the Championship. Next year played Independently for the Muffdivers. They opened the Rat my first year on campus. Friday night 25 cent beers. You can imagine how that went.Hung out with a bunch of guys called the CopperHeads. Don’t know why the Copper was, but do know why the Heads part applied, dope was freely exchanged and smoked on campus. Became friends with QB Ed Carney who also lived in Married Housing and we shared some classes together and sometimes studied together. Good guy, but we used to joke that our chances of winning might increase if Art Carney was our QB. Spent a couple of fun years got a good degree and moved to Atlanta. But I’ll always be a #CANESNATIONLIFER🙌🏽
 
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jakeman1 said:
Tried explaining the difference to my kids, between their dorm rooms now and what I had for four years in Pentland Tower. I don't know if they've upgraded inside much, but to think kids pay $70k+ a year and live there is crazy.
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At the time I didn’t think anything of it. Looking back at Pentland, it was something out of a school of East German architecture.
 
hotshot said:
I lived in campus housing from 1963-65, then moved off-campus. Think my 3 story, garden apartment-style building (now razed of course) was at the corner of ****inson and Ponce. At the eastern edge of the campus. Three scholarship basketball players lived right above me on the top (3rd) floor. The suites in all these three story buildings (and there were a LOT of them all over campus) had 2 br and 1 bath. Three students per suite (so someone had a private bedroom). Had a kitchen and a spacious living room.

There were a few high-rise residence halls -- Eaton & Mahoney. That was it, iirc.

Quick walk from my apartment across Dixie Hwy to Breeding's Drugs (good breakfasts), my bank and Burger King. Ben Gaines' Holiday Inn was at the southern edge of that strip mall across Dixie. The Student Union and pool was constructed in 1964-65 while I was on campus.

I was proof that admissions standards back then at "Sun Tan U" were pretty **** low. They needed all the students (and their parents' money) they could get back then to finance a building program. Think the annual tuition/room & board was in the $3000 range, give or take a few hundred.
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The 10 meter platform was the first constructed in Miami, except for the Fountainblu on Miami Beach.
Swim team used Venetian Pools to train..
 
LawyerCane said:
I arrived on campus in 1966 and was indeed LUCKY enough to also land in one of the garden apartment-style buildings, 2 BR, I bath, but with a small kitchen area a decent size living room as well. When I saw how small and cramped the “new” dorm rooms were, I was glad to be in the “old” apartment unit for sure!

While I’m now retired and live in Virginia, I make it back most every year for at least one game in Miami and every time, I make a compulsory trip to Shorty’s BBQ. It is the only thing still standing that has not changed since 1966. My kids and grandkids who have made the trips to see a Canes game with me, all know that a lunch visit to Shorty’s is mandatory.

Great memories!!!
Click to expand...
Actually Shortys burned down in the late 70s, was closed for years.
Had to pass very stringent buiding codes for rebuild..
 
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TheOriginalCane said:
I was fortunate to hear a lot of stories about UM in the 1950s and 1960s from my fraternity's alums (we lost our charter from 1971-1986, so we had no alums during those years). Both Ted Hendricks and Rick Barry were alums of my fraternity (as well as Walt Kichefski), so I met some incredible people and got to hear some great stories.
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Kappa Sig lost its charter? Know why? Were they the only ones?
 
Lived in Mahoney hall when I first got to campus for the first year. had a great room to myself in Eaton hall the following year over looking the lake. Took a sofa from the lobby and turned my room in to a little studio. Great memories here. Also lived in the apartments for a year. “Smith house” all super jocks. Great memories here also. I then moved off campus for the remainder till graduation. Some of the greatest memories of my life happened during those years.
 
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