Although men's basketball previously had been played informally at The University, the first official team was established in 1906. Magnus Mainland, a lineman for the UT football team, organized, coached, managed, and played on the first Varsity basketball squad that year. In this team photo Mainland is shown wearing his “T” letterman sweater. In the inaugural season the team won seven of the eight games scheduled.
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The University Co-Operative Society was organized by UT faculty and students in June 1896 to supply The University with reasonably priced books, stationary, and athletic goods. Classics professor William James Battle was the primary force behind its establishment, modeling it after the highly successful Harvard Society. The first location of the Co-op, as depicted in this photograph, was in a small room under the stair landing on the second floor of the Old Main Building..
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