Tag Archives: Football

Pet Rattlesnake, Heartbroken, Dies

The Biology Department is mourning the loss of its pet rattlesnake. Death came stealing in on Sunday night after Homecoming and claimed it for her own. Some seem to think that the rattler was so disappointed over Western’s loss to Murray that it felt that future life was not worth while, even if that life was to be devoted to science.

None of the other depart[ments] was affected, as no one but Death and the Biology Department would want a rattlesnake or care what became of it.

Yes, we are digitizing more College Heights Heralds.  I do enjoy reading through them and coming across tidbits like the one above from the Nov. 10, 1933 issue.  The October 27th issue had reported the 20 to 6 homecoming game rout.  Apparently it was too much for a devoted Hilltopper rattle snake to take.

The latest issues to be digitized are 1933-1941, 2005 & 2006.  Check them out in TopScholar – search by date.

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Out of the Box – November

75th Anniversary

Board of Regents 11/5/1931kybuilding75th

Cherry Hall

College Heights Herald 11/16/1956

Football, 1913

Founders Day

Fourth Estate 1980

Henry Hardin Cherry

Homecoming

Kentucky Building

ROTC Building

Veterans

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Out of the Box – September

Board of Regents – Special Meeting 9/16/1939 re: Kentucky Building

Kentucky Building

Kentucky Building

Bookstore – department history

BUWKY 9/1939 – student publication

Cafeterias

Cherry Political Papers – collection inventory

Craig Alumni House – everything you wanted to know . . .

Darwin Newton Papers – student papers collection inventory

Downing University Center – building history

Fact Book 1989 – a statistical snapshot from 25 years ago

Franklin Photos – some of the best vintage images of WKU campus

Morehead State 9/30/1939 – football program

ROTC – photograph collection inventory

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A Day in the Archives – Reference

Every day is something a bit different than the day before in WKU Archives.  I may find myself processing photographs, blueprints or president’s papers.  October 2nd was definitely a reference day.

Request 1 – WKU maternity leave policies, when were they first instituted and how have they changed over time.  After a couple false starts in the Board of Regents and University Senate records, information was found in the faculty/staff handbooks created by Human Resources.

Request 2 – Topographic maps of WKU campus. Unfortunately we do not have any in WKU Archives.  It may be that none have been created.

Request 3 – WKU vs Russian football team, all information available.  Film footage was pulled and transferred from tape to dvd.  The poster above was digitized for the researcher as well.

Request 4 – Information and photos of the Rock House for an upcoming exhibit.  A search of KenCat revealed that there is a single photograph, 3 floor plans and Rock House Reunion records created by alumni who once used the building as a dormitory.  Records were pulled for the researcher to use.  The photograph and floor plans were digitized for inclusion in the exhibit.

Request 5 – Photographs to be used in celebration of Gary Ransdell’s 15th anniversary as WKU president.  Luckily the request included a list of events the researcher wanted images of.  A search of KenCat found most of them quickly.  These were forwarded to the researcher to make selections.  Then I went through unprocessed photographs and pulled relevant images for digitization.  Records for these images were created in  KenCat and thumbnails attached.  Now they are available to all researchers.

Request 6 – A request was made for a copy of a SITE committee report.  The researcher had already checked the Board of Regents and University Senate records online.  A search was made of the President’s Office papers and some University Senate records that have not been digitized.  The report was not found and in talking with the researcher, it was decided that it probably never existed.

Research can be quite time consuming.  WKU Library Special Collections & Kentucky Museum Research Strategies is available to help researchers use the online resources before making a trip to the Kentucky Building.  Processing and digitization of WKU Archives collections is user driven.  All requests are answered in the order received.  We are working daily to process additional records, add entries to the database and make more records available more quickly to our patrons.

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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words or at Least 272

WKU Football

The University Archives holds thousands of photographs of thousands of people, buildings and events. We scan on demand for researchers and we scan those images we cannot identify in hopes that someone will be able to help us. Just such an occasion happened this week.  Below is an excerpt from an email regarding the photo above.

” . . . image f7592-1 — great shot . . . fooled me at first . . . magnifying bits and pieces of pic has corrected my first impression and, I think given us the answer on this one . . . first thought it was a FB game in 1930, just months before P.E. Building opened in 1931 . . . but not possible!!! — clothing styles much more like late 50s thru mid-60s era; work on P.E. is obviously remodel for transition into Margie Helm Library (see cutout in middle of  building for new entranceway we now have for  that building AND work on foundation for that addition to the building; work on roof is replacement, not new; obviously not new as well from condition of weathered stonework on side of building) . . . almost certainly fall, 1964 — work on P.E. Building (Diddle Arena already open; opened Dec. 7) conversion to library (which will open in the following fall — 1965 — as Margie Helm Library) . . . scoreboard reads Western 24, Opp O with 15:00 on clock for 4th quarter . . . cheerleaders at lower left wearing sweaters with “E” on them and photographer (guy near cheerleaders) most likely ???? . . . from Glasgow Daily Times — a student at WKU at the time — and camera he is carrying is 35mm that began to become common with media types in early-to-mid-60s . . . conclusion — pic made from top of old Western Stadium press box on Oct. 31, 1964 — Homecoming — a 24-0 win over Eastern Kentucky . . .”  Our thanks to Paul Just for his infinite knowledge of all things WKU sports and his willingness to share with us!

To date nearly 6000 University Archives images have been scanned and posted in our online catalog KenCat which allows researchers to share information with us, share images with friends as well as order prints or digital copies.  Please take a few minutes to check it out.  And if anyone knows the name of the Glasgow Daily Times photographer – please let us know!!

 

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Edgar Stansbury Collection

Edgar Stansbury

Edgar Stansbury

Edgar Bryant Stansbury, son of Emmet and Mable Stansbury was born 1906 in Corbin, Kentucky. He attended Shepherdsville high school and came to WKU in 1926 where he played basketball and football. Upon graduation in 1930 he became assistant coach to E.A. Diddle. After World War II he returned briefly as athletic director in 1946-1947. Stansbury returned to the air force in 1947 and later worked for Rockwell. A lifelong WKU supporter, he died in Largo, Florida in 2009 at the age of 103.

A collection of his personal papers have recently come into University Archives and are being processed. They include 10 scrapbooks compiled over the course of Stansbury’s life regarding WKU athletics and his military career and a photograph collection. Three of the scrapbook have been digitized so far and are available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_alum_papers/

The collection is available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9 to 4.

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Hilltoppers in University Archives

Varsity Lettermen 1959

Varsity Lettermen 1959

WKU athletic records and photographs are a hot item in University Archives.  We answer many questions related to coaching staff, student athletes and teams throughout the year.  In order to facilitate research several series of records have been processed and detailed finding aids made available online.  These include two sets of photographs: 

 

Digitized images are available through KenCat (http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks). 

Several athletic department office records have been processed. 

 

These last records are especially useful to anyone interested in the Hilltoppers as they consist of Media Guides for every major sport(http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/55/), Student Biographical File 1979-2004 (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/54/) and Clipping File 1962-present (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/53/).

We are currently processing the Basketball Office records which consist of correspondence regarding schedules, tournaments and athletes and hope to have a finding aid posted in the near future. 

The University Archives also houses an extensive film, video and audio collection, the bulk of which is made up of athletic film.  The master list is available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/198/

If you have Hilltopper documents, photographs or memorabilia that don’t appear in the finding aids, please contact the University Archives at 270-745-4793 or via email at archives@wku.edu

Check out KenCat to get information on other University Archives collections:  http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks

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