I don't think they all covered full tuition - I think there was a sliding scale, IIRC. But I do know my room and board (and books) were the major costs. I think that the real culprit is the state and federal governments not providing the subsidies that they used to, which I don't think college students today realize was the case just a few decades ago. Maybe there wasn't free college, but there was affordable college and it was because the government contributed. Reagan and his ilk did that part in.
I'll add in that some of the costs now are amenities (not all, of course, I'm not saying that college isn't significantly more expensive than it was). But I've read a number of articles about how top universities are building amenities to attract wealthy students that will pay full tuition (I've put in a link to one of the articles, but there are more). I'll start with food service. We had three choices at every meal and one was a salad bar. And the food was fine, not fancy, but some of it was actually really good. What I see in the cafeterias now is mind-boggling. Do they really need 31 choices? Part of the fun of going to college was living a student lifestyle, figuring out how to budget for things, for example.
https://www.usnews.com/news/college-of-tomorrow/articles/2014/09/22/how-do-schools-market-themselves-to-attract-students
The dormitory known as Apartment 5 at St. Leo University in Central Florida has a fitness center, arcade gaming area, large saltwater aquarium, and a “relaxation room” with “state-of-the-art energy pods” for napping. At the University of California—Davis, residence halls have their own swimming pools, spas and private outdoor courtyards.
I did graduate with some student loans that took a long time to pay off. And the job market in the 80s was pretty sour.
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