The “Waller Creek Riot” occurred on the University of Texas campus in 1969.  The first stages of adding the “Upper Deck” to Memorial Stadium required rerouting of San Jacinto and the “bulldozing” of several hundred feet of Waller Creek near 21st Street.  The project was a particular favorite of Board of Regents Chairman Frank Erwin.  On the fateful morning, Erwin rushed the demolition crews into action to beat a temporary restraining order that the Sierra Club was seeking.   Numerous students chained themselves to trees to obstruct the planned destruction.  Others climbed high into the cypress trees.  With the situation escalating, Erwin called in an additional force of approximately 30 helmeted Austin police with clubs, 25 state troopers, and a hook-and-ladder fire truck that could reach the students in the trees.  Reportedly he ordered the police to “arrest everybody you need to; once the trees are cut down, there won’t be anything to protest.”   Using the fire truck ladders the police removed the protesters allegedly sawing off a limb with a person still on it. Twenty-seven people were arrested but no one was seriously injured.  With the protest ending in failure and no court order, construction proceeded.  Although it took some time to recover, today that stretch of the creek is quite scenic with stately cypress trees lining the banks.