SUGAR BOWL 1951

 

1951 Sugar Bowl Victory Dinner
Standing L-R: Charles Genrod, former UK football coach Ab Kirwan, Betty Kirwan, former Kentucky Governor, U.S. Senator, and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler, UK Athletics Director Bernie Shively, Mildred Chandler, UK President Herman Lee Donovan, unidentified, Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Helen Wetherby, remainder unidentified.
Photographer: Leon Price Picture Service

The Kentucky Wildcats entered the 1951 Sugar Bowl with a 10-1 record and as champions of the Southeastern Conference.  Nevertheless, they were underdogs to the undefeated Big-7 champions, Oklahoma, who had won 31 straight games.

Played at Tulane Stadium before over 80,000 fans, the Wildcats, coached by Bear Bryant, took an early lead over the Sooners and their outstanding coach, Bud Wilkinson.  UK held on to win 13-7.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Dr. Katherine Roberts

Among the Kentuckians in Hawaii the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor was 1925 University of Kentucky graduate Dr. Katherine Roberts.  Her father, Professor George Roberts, was an agronomist with the UK College of Agriculture.

While at UK Roberts studied Romance Languages but her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa were in Child Psychology.  In 1941 Dr. Roberts had taken a leave of absence from the Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit, Michigan for a one year special assignment in Hawaii.  She worked with the University of Hawaii to prepare teachers in Hawaii to improve their skills in working with students of the many nationalities enrolled in Hawaii's public schools.

Roberts recalled that following the attack all schools on the islands were closed until the following February 2.  Also, everyone on the islands were required to be fingerprinted and inoculated for smallpox and typhoid.  All nonessential civilian employees were asked to leave the islands and gas masks were issued to those who remained.  Roberts returned to Detroit the following September.

LESSONS FROM UK HISTORY

Dr. Frank L. McVey served UK as president from 1918 to 1940.  An economist by training, he and his spouse, Frances Jewell McVey, promoted international activities on the UK campus.

Speaking to a convocation at UK in October, 1943, in the midst of World War II, McVey said that "The people of South America must be received by us on a basis of equality" adding that "we must accept these people with their differences and without condescension if we hope to be good neighbors."

McVey had recently returned from a three month stay in Venezuela during which he represented the United States government in planning for a national university.  He noted that "people of the United States must first learn to understand the peoples and problems of South America" where better hospitals, roads, schools, sanitation, and public health are needed.  He acknowledged that the challenge was great with "75 percent of the population illiterate and with prevalence of tuberculosis, syphilis, and malaria."

But Frank McVey knew if the United States would not help, who would?

Kentucky Kernel, October 8, 1943

UK THANKSGIVING, 1929

In 1929 UK President Frank McVey declared November 28 "a day of thanksgiving."  He noted that, "As members of the University we are thankful for health, for opportunities to work, study and play. We are glad we are citizens of this great Republic and reside in Kentucky."

Like other football rivalries across the country, the UK - Tennessee football game was played on Thanksgiving making it an even more special game for players and fans alike.  Looking ahead to the upcoming football game McVey added that, "It is enough to make us celebrate the day with grateful hearts and to carry in our minds the hope and expectation of a fine victory over Tennessee on Thursday."  But the UK president warned that the celebration must not include alcoholic beverages, especially since prohibition was the law of the land."  He asked that "good sportsmanship and good behavior should be the order of the day."

But just in case the president's request was not sufficient, McVey let the students know that ""The University has asked the federal prohibition department to send a large force of agents to see that the law is obeyed" and "persons violating the law will be arrested by prohibition agents."

The game, witnessed by 20,000 fans in an almost blinding snowstorm, ended in a 6-6 tie and no reports of arrests were mentioned.  But like so many Kentucky-Tennessee football games before and since, Kentucky sportswriters and fans tried to make the best of another disappointment.

A Tennessee sportswriter reported that, "It was a heart-breaking scene for the loyal supporters of the courageous Kentucky eleven. With victory in their grasp ]Tennessee players] Bobbie Dowd and Buddy Hackman changed things so quickly that even now they are trying to figure out just how it all happened."

"...Let's pay tribute to a great Kentucky eleven. They deserved to win the football game today. From the start of the game they had outgained and outplayed Tennessee. But, folks, they didn't outfight the Volunteers. Every single Tennessee man left the field wearing the red badge of courage."  But even though Tennessee had won 28 of their last 29 games, "it will be a long, long time before the narrow escape will be forgotten."  And so it goes....

Kentucky Kernel, November 27 and December 6, 1929

 

UK WOMEN AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

MARION BROOKE SPRAGUE

Marion Brooke Sprague, B.S, Lexington, Pre-Medical Society; Philosophian; W.W.C.A.

"Marion has ambition.  All her life she wanted to enter the medical profession as a doctor or nurse.  Now we learn that her ambition will soon be realized, as she will enter Johns Hopkins in the fall.  We wish her success.  Marion was not originally a member of the Class of '20, but during the war she left to enter the Red Cross.  After the Armistice was signed she returned to school and we were glad to welcome her into our ranks." [From the 1920 Kentuckian]

Marion Sprague was one of many UK faculty, staff, and students who left the university to contribute in various ways to the war effort.  While she did not achieve her dream of becoming a physician, she did pursue a career as a public health nurse.  After returning to Lexington from Baltimore, Sprague worked for her father, Dr. George P. Sprague, who owned and operated High Oak Sanatorium on the site of the current St. Joseph Hospital.

Sprague later served as a rural health nurse in Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, and New Jersey.  In 1946 she became Executive Director of the Kentucky State Association of Registered Nurses.

President Otis Singletary Birthday

Today, October 31 would have been President Otis A. Singletary's 97th birthday.

Otis Singletary led a most interesting life and career.  Fortunately, during the last years of his life we spent hours recording his oral history.  The interviews contains many serious moments as well as some very funny comments from the veteran educator and administrator.  

After winning numerous teaching awards as a professor, Dr. Singletary valued the close relationships he had developed with students over the years.  As UK president during the unrest of the Vietnam era, he had a hard time dealing with the changing student culture that seemed to distance him from the students.

President Singletary with students in 1975.

For example, the following is an excerpt from my interview with him recorded July 7, 1988:

Birdwhistell:  Students sometimes called you inaccessible.  Was there any way, looking back on it now, you could have done differently at that point to try and make the students feel that, as president, you were more accessible to their needs?

SINGLETARY:  Well, I've always had the feeling that that's what you use when you don't have anything else.  Just say somebody's inaccessible.  Matter of fact, I was accessible to anybody who came in there.  I guess, though, what I should've done is what most people do.  Make a public statement.  If I ever took another job, I would have made such a statement, "My door is open!"  I never bothered to say that because I think it's empty and bankrupt because your door isn't always open.  It's closed quite often because you've got work to do!

But, you should say that and then they'll forgive you.  Everybody will go in and say his door is open.  So, yes, I would do that as a matter of pure cynicism next time around.  I would say, yes, my door is open.

If you prepare a manual for new college presidents, tell them to always say to the students, "My door is open."

 

Senator Walter Dee Huddleston

Senator Walter Dee Huddleston
1926-2018

Senator Walter Dee Huddleston, who died last Tuesday, had been a great friend and supporter of UK Libraries. A 1949 UK graduate, he served on UK's Board of Trustees and on the UK Libraries National Advisory Board. UK Libraries is the home of his collections of papers and oral histories.

In his last oral history interview with me, I asked the Senator what he was most proud of. He said simply, "I am proud of my family, I am proud of my service in World War Two, and I am proud of the opportunity to represent Kentucky in the United States Senate. That is enough for one man to be proud of." Thank you Senator Huddleston for your service.

CHIEF JUSTICE FRED M. VINSON

University of Kentucky Libraries officially accepted the collection of Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson at a dedication ceremony in 1977.  Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, featured speaker at the ceremony, described Vinson as a man of deeds whose life and career could be summarized by noting his "dedication, common sense, and perseverance. He was led on by a continuous crusade to find the truth which he believed to be the only absolute."

Fred M. Vinson
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Jean Baker Henrich

Born near Louisa, Kentucky in 1890, Vinson graduated from Centre College in 1911. President Harry Truman appointed him Chief Justice in 1946.  Truman's choice of Vinson came as no big surprise but some still questioned the qualifications of the former city attorney, commonwealth's attorney, Member of Congress, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Secretary of the Treasury, and close friend of President Truman.

At the time of his nomination, the nation's highest court was being harshly criticized for the feuding among the justices and the perception of politics within the court.  In the midst of what many believed to be one of the low points in the court's history The New York Times editorialized:

         "The Supreme Court, like any human institution, has its bad moments.  It has
         lately had a good many such.  It does not stand as high in popular respect as it
         did.  Under Chief Justice Vinson it should have a chance to climb back on
         the high bench--the loftiest and most responsible judicial bench in the
         world--and resume its task of interpreting the Constitution.  Liberals and
         conservatives on the Court there will still be, but we may hope that the clash
         of their philosophies will now be dignified and fruitful.  Mr. Vinson has his     
         opportunity."

Vinson Court

The Supreme Court members at the beginning of the Brown case. Front row, left to right: Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Fred Vinson, Stanley Reed, and William O. Douglas. Back row: Tom Clark, Robert Jackson, Harold Burton, and Sherman Minton. 

(Courtesy of Supreme Court of the United States) 

Vinson was unable to end all of the bickering on the court.  Moreover, his death in 1953 makes it impossible to know if Vinson could have led the court through the Brown decision in 1954,  At least one biographer argues that the unanimous decisions of the Vinson Court regarding race made the Brown decision possible.

The Fred Vinson Collection is comprised of over 400 boxes of correspondence and legal papers and over 200 photographs.  Twenty-four oral history interviews regarding Vinson's life and career are also available in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.

For further information see:

James E. St. Clair and Linda C Gugin, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson of Kentucky: A Political Biography

Kentucky Encyclopedia

DUCK AND COVER

Clyde Lilly, Chairman of the University Safety and Emergency Subcommittee

Recent international events remind anyone who lived through the height of the cold war tensions and the Cuban Missile Crisis that threat of a nuclear war were very real.  Newspapers regularly showed huge maps on their front pages of how far the damage would spread across the countryside if specific cities or military installations were struck.  Nuclear radiation from the blast would permeate even more of the nation.

Schools held regular bomb drills during which students were told to duck and cover under their little school desks.  Buildings that might provide the most shelter, usually in a basement, during an attack were marked with large signs so the public would know where to go.  One might even come across a display for a home fallout shelter for sale in the parking lot of a local shopping center.

By the spring of 1962 fourteen buildings had been designated by the UK Campus Safety and Emergency Subcommittee as fallout shelter areas.  The committee reported that 4,196 people could be sheltered safely on the main campus while the Medical Center Complex could accommodate another 2,000.  Yellow signs measuring 12 by 20 inches with black lettering were placed outside of each designated building.

Among the UK buildings chosen were:

Taylor Education Building

Holmes Hall

Keeneland Hall

Barker Hall

Lafferty Hall

Fine Arts Building

Funkhouser Building

Home Economics Building

Memorial Hall

Students Playing cards in a fallout shelter in Taylor Education Building
during a shelter manager instruction class. 

Three years earlier a "family fallout shelter" had been constructed in Maxwell Place, the home of President Frank Dickey and his young family.  President Dickey reported to the UK Board of Trustees at their November 20, 1959 meeting that "he had been requested" to allow the shelter to be constructed in Maxwell Place by the Office of Civilian Defense Mobilization.  The $1,500 shelter "could be used as a sample and viewed by the public" to "encourage private citizens to construct their own fallout shelters."

Governor Bert Combs and President Frank Dickey
inspecting the Maxwell Place Fallout Shelter

President Dickey noted that "his first reaction" to the proposed shelter "was negative but it seemed desirable "even though it would cause some trouble" to cooperate with the federal officials.  He recommended approval by the board and following "a few questions" the board approved the proposal.

Fortunately, the shelters were never needed.

KIRWAN: RELATIVE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

As the academic year opened fifty years ago in the fall of 1968, University of Kentucky leadership was transitioning.  President John Oswald resigned the previous spring following political sparring with Kentucky's new governor, Louie B. Nunn who also served as Chair of the UK Board of Trustees.  During his five year tenure as president, Oswald oversaw major changes in UK's academic program and faculty culture as well as a physical transformation of the campus.

Albert D. Kirwan

Albert D. Kirwan, a soft-spoken, scholarly, former football coach now led UK as president on an interim basis.  He faced a local community which felt alienated from the growing university, a student culture becoming more vocal about their needs both academically and socially, and high expectations left behind by his predecessor.  He and Betty Kirwan brought much needed stability, if only temporary, to the campus as they opened up Maxwell Place, the president's home, to the community.

Kirwan assured the press that, "My goal is to keep the impetus going.  There will be no slacking off.  I intend to give students and faculty confidence that the show will still go on."  Speaking to a convocation of new students and their parents Kirwan estimated that he would be president for only several more months as a committee was already hard at work to select a permanent president. 

Kirwan spoke proudly of his predecessor accomplishments to grow the university and the community college system adding that, "Most notable of all we have recruited many new faculty who are young, vibrant, and dynamic."  Kirwan counseled the first year students that "they would have a major role in the shaping of their university, especially today in a time of increasing trends to violence and instability.

Kirwan served until August, 1969, guiding the university firmly and steadily through a difficult and unsettled time at UK.  At its September, 1969 meeting, the UK Board of Trustees retroactively named Albert D. "Ab" Kirwan the "Seventh President of the University of Kentucky."  Kirwan returned to his teaching and research and witnessed his successor's efforts to deal with growing student unrest including demonstrations following the Kent State shootings that closed the university.

Kirwan died November 30, 1971


Additional information can be found at:

Kentucky Kernel, August 27, 1968

Frank Mathias, Albert D. Kirwan (University Press of Kentucky, 1975)

Kirwan bio:  https://libraries.uky.edu/libpage.php?lweb_id=326&llib_id=13

Frank G. Dickey Hall

Dickey Hall opened on campus in 1964 as the Frank G. Dickey Education Annex.  Frank Dickey served as UK's fifth president after serving as Dean of the College of Education.

Dickey Hall construction

The building cost, which cost $200,000, contained two graduate classrooms, 12 regular classrooms, an observation room for education classes, 49 offices, and several reception areas.  The building also housed the Education Library and the Bureau of School Services.

Dickey Hall was officially dedicated March 11, 1965.

WHERE WILL WOMEN STUDENTS LIVE?

Veterans enrolling at the University of Kentucky following World War II created a housing shortage on campus.  The July 19, 1946 Kentucky Kernel reported that barracks were being constructed around the campus for up to 48 women and 50 men but they would not be ready in time for the beginning of the semester.  Also, planning and construction for Shawneetown, a new housing project on the agricultural farm, was just getting underway.

Dean of Women Sarah Holmes warned UK officials that the university should not house returning male veterans at the expense of the women students.  However, 69 women students, including Chi Omega and Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority members and former women residents of the Shelby House, still did not have housing for the fall semesters.

Dean Holmes negotiated for the university to rent the former Odd Fellows Home on Sixth Street for 200 women students.  She was also using scholastic standing to determine which women students had first access to the 694 beds available.  Women students with the lowest grades would be forced to find living accommodations off campus.

Dean Sarah Holmes

Writing in 1946 Dean Homles noted:

"I cannot help but wonder if the doors are closing for women students at our co-educational institutions.  It is a short-sighted policy to provide educational benefits for veterans at the expense of women.  More women than ever are applying for entrance to institutions of higher learning.  Some people are saying let women wait their turn.  There is no turn in higher education for women.  The veterans' pressure will be felt perhaps five or ten years.  Women cannot wait until this pressure is reduced.  Though discrimination against women students is not actually designed, many of our present policies actually have that result.  It is the responsibility of not only Deans of Women but other college officials to see that women as well as men have their chance for higher education."

FRANK DICKEY NAMED FIFTH UK PRESIDENT

Sixty-two years ago this week Frank G. Dickey became the University of Kentucky's sixth president at the age of 38.  The previous six years he had served as Dean of the College of Education.

The Board of Trustees set the new president's salary at $21,000 or $1,000 more than the Dean of the new Medical School was making.  Dickey's predecessor, Herman Lee Donovan, earned only $12,000 annually, but since the university had no retirement program at that time the Board voted to award Donovan $15,000 each year of his retirement. 

President Dickey and family

Dickey beat out formidable competition for the presidency including Elvis Stahr, Dean of the College of Law and UK Provost, Frank Welch, Dean of the UK College of Agriculture, and Louis Pardue, Vice-President of Virginia Tech.  Stahr would go on to serve as president of both West Virginia University, Indiana University, and the Audubon Society.

Frank Dickey resigned in 1963.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY 1925-1968

Kentucky Kernel, June 11, 1968

"I'D FEEL SAFER IF THEY WERE IN A CAGE"

"Coeds Speak Out On Law Students' Capers" announced the headline across the front page of the May 24, 1962 Kentucky Kernel.

University of Kentucky law students had, over the years since moving into Lafferty Hall in 1936, become well-known for their sexist behavior towards women students.  Located on a busy walkway in central campus, it was nearly impossible for women students to avoid Lafferty Hall and the future lawyers.  One UK student told reporters Bob Baugh and Kyra Hackley that she would "feel safer if they were in a cage."



Law students outside Lafferty Hall, 1957

The reporters noted that, "Regardless of the pleasure the parade of coeds gives the law students, the females have other ideas.  Many freshmen coeds admit they are flustered by the thought of passing in review."  Women students had become tired of what the Kernel labeled as "Law Students' Capers," with capers generally defined as a frivolous, carefree episode or activity.  To many women students the behavior of the law students was far from frivolous or carefree.  "I feel like a factory part rolling past the assembly line inspector," said student Lynda Hanson.  

Women students reported going "out of their way to avoid the jeers," with one student admitting that she "always cut through the Botanical Gardens to avoid the whistles of the law students."   Another student proposed "an overpass be built over the law school to prevent embarrassment."  

In one of the harshest critiques, a woman student remarked that, "They look like a bunch of lounge lizards and lolligaggers [and] you would think they would have better things to do than squawk and gawk."   I suppose anticipating that many of the young legal minds would one day be in the Kentucky General Assembly it was suggested that "If they have so many pennies to pitch, why don't 'they go to Frankfort and pitch them into...the floral clock."

Some of the women students apparently appreciated the attention they received and noted that "not all of the comments are derogatory."  Nancy Clay McClure added that, "Yelling at coeds is here to stay," while Joy Mason simply noted, "I love it."  Betty Groger concluded that, "I think it just shows those boys are really normal after all.  I'll start worrying when they're not perched like a flock of chattering birds on the steps."

Fortunately, today's women students at the University of Kentucky do not have to endure such blatant sexism on campus.  But that progress should not distract from the necessity of assuring that UK is a diverse and inclusive environment for everyone where discrimination in any form is unacceptable.

WHERE THERE'S SMOKE THERE MIGHT BE FIRE

In the late 1940s the University of Kentucky Student Government Association passed a rule forbidding student smoking in restricted buildings that were "non-fire-resistant" or temporary frame units. The student rule did not apply to faculty or staff. 

In February, 1948 Dr. Thomas D. Clark brought charges against James Clarkson for smoking in Frazee Hall.  The student had been reported by history professor James Hopkins.  At his hearing, Clarkson pleaded ignorance of the policy since he was a "first-quarter" student and he had not seen any no smoking signs in the building.  Nevertheless, Mr. Clarkson was found guilty and fined $5.

Eight years later on the evening of January 24, 1956 a fire destroyed 75% of Frazee Hall including the offices, books, and papers of most of the university's history faculty.  Theories about the cause of the fire did not include careless cigarette smoking but did point to the possibility that students may have "bombed" the building using some type of incendiary device.

Frazee Hall Fire

Later that year on May 14, 1948, a Kentucky Kernel headline asked, "Faculty Exempt Under Smoking Law or Not?" Six students had recently been fined $5 each for violating the no smoking policy.  The article  noted that other student smokers had not been fined because of a lack of cooperation from the faculty in reporting offenders.

Two students, Rusty Russell and Jack Sorrelle, introduced a bill before the Student Government Association to make the non-smoking policy also apply to faculty and staff  including in private offices.  SGA leadership reminded everyone that faculty would have to accept the policy before it could apply to them.  While there is no readily available record of how the issue was resolved, it is safe to assume that few, if any, faculty or staff accepted the ban on smoking.

During the following fall semester Norwood Hall, built in 1910 and home to the Botany Department, was destroyed by fire.

Norwood Hall

Fortunately, today's UK tobacco policy makes everyone healthier and safer.

UK'S FIRST WOMAN GRADUATE

In 1888 Belle Clement Gunn became the first woman student at UK to earn a baccalaureate degree.

Gunn, a Lexington native, spent her childhood on a farm near Shelbyville, Kentucky, where she attended the highly regarded Science Hill Academy for girls.  Her family moved to Lexington in the early 1880s where Gunn attended public schools and the Sayre Institute.  Classmates remembered Gunn as "well above average in scholarship, but not so brilliant as to inspire envy and jealousy."  She participated fully in the social life available, including the literary societies.

Prior to the 1888 commencement, President Patterson called Belle Gunn to his office.  He asked the only woman graduate, "I suppose you will not want to sit up on the platform with the young men on Commencement Day, will you Miss Gunn?"  Gunn replied, "I've been through four years in classes with them and I don't see why I shouldn't sit on the platform with them now."  

At commencement President Patterson was reportedly "most gracious" to the first woman graduate whom he referred to as the "Eldest Daughter of the Institution."

Congratulations 2018 graduates!

A LAKE ON THE UK CAMPUS WITH GONDOLAS?

Each spring rain reminds me of what might have been in the area of campus where the new student center is nearly complete.  The University of Kentucky almost had an attractive body of water and green space that would have become an iconic feature of the campus.

At the June 4, 1890 meeting of the Board of Trustees, Major P. P. Johnston offered the following resolution regarding a low area on the north side of the campus extending from the corner of Winslow (Euclid) and Limestone east to Rose Street that filled with water after heavy rains:

 "Resolved that it is the sense of this Board that the depression in our ground next [to] the city be converted into a lake suitable for boating, bating, and fishing and that the chair appoint a committee with full authority to execute the work, said committee to confer with and secure the cooperation of the authorities of the city [to] promote persons interested in the improvement and if possible induce them to bear a portion of the expense.  The Committee is authorized to expend on behalf of the College in this work such sums as the Executive Committee may prudently allow."

Major Johnston, a Virginia native and confederate veteran, practiced law, farmed and bred horses, and was active in Democratic state and local politics.

Apparently no real improvements were made to the body of water following Major Johnston's resolution.  By 1927, Alfred P. Robertson writing in the March 25, 1927 Kentucky Kernel, called once again for improvements to the "lakelet."  Citing the annual spring flooding of the area of campus he suggested facetiously that UK form a rowing team adding that, "Kentucky might not care for rowing.  Probably not.  It is a great deal of work."  Moreover, he envisioned a body of water that could provide a romantic setting for evening gondola rides.

Eventually, the university drained the water after encouragement from the city due to it being a health hazard.  A new gymnasium rose on the location in 1924.  Apparently all of the water issues had not been resolved as the gym flooded in 1928 and again in 1936.  By the time a new student center opened next to the gym in 1938, an improved storm sewer seemed to alleviate any further major flooding.

Alumni Gym Flood 1928

Alumni Gym Flood 1936

Today's UK students have witnessed the construction of a new student center that incorporates Alumni Gymnasium and the original 1938 student union building.  Even though the lake is gone, the new student center promises to provide many amenities wanted and needed by today college students and will prove to be a wonderful addition to the UK campus.

Congratulations to everyone involved in making the new student center a reality.  Now, if we could only have a lake beside it!

A FORGOTTEN DEAN - JOSEPHINE PRICE SIMRALL

Dean Josephine Price Simrall

As a former dean I understand that some deans are forgettable.  But others deserve remembering.

Josephine Price Simrall was born the oldest of six daughters to Charles Barrington and Isabella Downing Price Simrall July 19, 1869 in Covington, Kentucky.  Simrall's mother attended Daughters College in Harrodsburg, Kentucky prior to the Civil War and her father became a highly regarded attorney for the Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific Railway Company.

Josephine Simrall earned a B.S. degree from Wellesley College in 1893.  She later earned a certificate from the Cincinnati Kindergarten Training School before doing graduate work at the University of Cincinnati, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia.  From 1916 to 1919 Simrall served as Head of Psychology and Instructor in English at Sweet Briar College.

President Frank McVey hired Simrall as Dean of Women and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Kentucky beginning in the fall of 1919.  Writing on her behalf Emilie W. McVea, president of Sweet Briar College, described Simrall as "an excellent teacher" with "unusual executive and administrative ability, and much social accustomness (sic)."

Chancellor Frank W. Chandler of the University of Cincinnati noted that "Miss Simrall is possessed of marked literary talent and was active in this community in the work of women's organizations."  He added that, "She is sympathetic and gentle in manner, but by no means lacking in force."

In addition to her administrative and teaching duties, Dean Simrall was active in campus events and even wrote and performed in campus plays.  But she resigned in the spring of 1921 to become Dean of Women at the University of Cincinnati where she served until 1933.

A Kentucky Kernel editorial noted that Dean Simrall would be returning "home" and stressed that she had been "notably successful in the supervising of the education of women."  Moreover, "Her sympathetic attitude toward women students and her perception of their needs as well as her ability to understand the student point of view are a few of the characteristics that contributed to her success."

Simrall's successor?  Another Seven Sisters graduate (Vassar) and English instructor at UK, Frances Jewell.   The newspaper described Jewell as "one of the outstanding figures in the university faculty."  She "brings to her new position rare knowledge of student life and problems and a personality that begets confidence and elicits admiration and respect.

Two year later Frances Jewell married President Frank McVey and gave up her positions as dean and instructor.  Nevertheless, she would become arguably the best known and most highly regarded woman in UK's long history.  But Frances Jewell McVey would want us to remember and acknowledge her successful and all but forgotten predecessor, Josephine Price Simrall.

WBKY/WUKY

Today, March 19, 2018, WUKY marks a new era of broadcasting in its new off-campus facility.

University of Kentucky radio broadcasting began in April, 1929 when Dr. Frank L. McVey announced into a radio microphone in Lexington: "The University is on the air...."  For the broadcast of educational programs from studios on the Lexington campus, WHAS Radio in Louisville (Kentucky's first radio station) agreed to install all necessary equipment and direct telephone lines; the university and the station would share equally the transmission charges.

This agreement began a partnership which attracted national attention.  President McVey's, somewhat apprehensive about the whole idea but willing to take a change with it, expressed his hopes for the medium during the maiden broadcast:

"Life is faster with greater possibilities and subject to disasters as always.  This is the sort of universe we live in.  Now comes the radio, bringing to every part of the world the sound of the human voice from every country of the globe.  No such possibilities of good and no such opportunity for mere bunk, have been offered to the public as through this amazing invention.  The University of Kentucky is not interested in adding to the trivial, so two important forces for constructive effort in our state have agreed to cooperate in giving to the radio audience, what is hoped will be interesting, stimulating and helpful."

From the WHAS studio in Louisville, owner Robert Worth Bingham, who also owned the Louisville Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, reiterated WHAS's noble intentions of reaching the isolated and uneducated -- "it is for those whose need is greatest who fill my mind as I think of what this work of our may mean to them."

The University of Kentucky programs were aired Monday through Friday at noon, initially for fifteen minutes and expanded by 1931 to forty-five.  While primarily offering agricultural information, lectures on a variety of topics, as well as musical presentations, were also offered.  From the beginning, the university appreciated its responsibility, and under the guidance of Elmer G. "Bromo" Sulzer, who began his work at UK in public relations, energetically and successfully lobbied for the expansion of its radio commitment.

For additional information see "WHAS Radio and the Development of Broadcasting in Kentucky, 1922-1942"
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.bing.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1014&context=libraries_facpub

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE....

As I approach my fifty year high school reunion, I am startled, like so many generations before, how fifty years could pass so quickly.  Spending one's career on a college campus offers the illusion of eternal youth.

But today's college students consider 1968 ancient history.  I remind myself that when I was in college a person celebrating their fiftieth high school reunion would have graduated from high school between 1919 and 1922.  I for sure thought those people were old!

But it is also strange how many topics have remained so consistent over five decades.  While everything around us seems to be changing rapidly in this still relatively new century, in other important ways time moves slowly or seemingly in circles.

As examples I share Kentucky Kernel headlines from fifty year ago, March 11, 1968:

 

This week we celebrated International Women's Day while the Kentucky General Assembly debated medical marijuana and additional restrictions on a woman's right to choose.   Students focused on spring break and the Big Blue Nation obsessed over a player's injury heading into post-season tournament play. The questions about capital punishment remain unresolved.

The past fifty years have witnessed important changes regarding civil rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, as well as other much needed changes within our society.  Medical advances have been astounding and technology has dramatically altered the way we live. 

But I wonder if at my high school reunion we will still debate Beatles or Stones, GTO or SS396, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In or The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, In Cold Blood or The Graduate, or might we simply realize that we have grown older in what seems like an instant and embrace our memories and the positive changes that have occurred while recommitting to the changes still needed with inquisitive and open minds?

UK'S FIRST WOMAN MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Laura Clay

In 1894 the Kentucky Equal Rights Association petitioned the governor to appoint a woman to the UK Board.  The Association contended that UK’s women students still did not receive equal opportunity.  Two years later the Kentucky General Assembly debated proposed legislation allowing women to serve on the UK Board.  

UK President James K. Patterson, who took credit for the admission of women to the college 14 years earlier, unabashedly appeared before the legislature vigorously opposing the change.  He argued that the education of ninety-nine percent of women did not prepare them to serve on the board.  

Laura Clay, a leading advocate of women's rights who should have been UK's first woman board member, immediately saw the contradiction in Patterson's position.  She noted that most Kentucky women received their college educations at UK so if they were not qualified to serve on the board it must be because their college educations had been inferior!  

Some legislators supported the petition going so far as to stress that since women comprised thirty-five percent of the student body the board should have similar representation.  Nevertheless, a majority of legislators disagreed and the proposed legislation failed.

A woman did not serve on the UK Board of Trustees until 1939 when Governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler appointed Georgia Monroe Blazer.  Upon her appointment Blazer commented that "people feel there is a real place on the board for a woman."  At her first UK Board meeting "Mrs. Blazer was cordially welcomed and she graciously assumed her duties."

UK Board 1958

Ironically, Blazer, an Illinois native had attended the University of Chicago rather than UK.  A resident of Ashland, Kentucky, her husband Paul G. Blazer, ran the Ashland Oil and Refining Company.  Georgia Blazer was active in educational and cultural endeavors statewide.

Blazer served on the UK Board until 1961, many of those years as Secretary of the Board.  Georgia and Paul Blazer endowed the Blazer Lecture at UK in 1947 in memory of their son Stuart.  In 1962 UK named a new student residence Georgia M. Blazer Hall.  UK opened a new Georgia M. Blazer Residence Hall in 2014 as the original building is scheduled for demolition.

THE LONG AND DIFFICULT ROAD TO UK DESEGREGATION

Kentucky's Day Law, "An Act to Prohibit White and Colored Persons from Attending the Same School" became law in 1904.  By the 1930's African-Americans began to increase pressure on Kentucky public universities to desegregate.  

The debate involved UK administrators, governors, and citizens.  The first response to the demand for access and equal treatment usually cited the Day Law arguing that it could not be changed.  The second response was usually "southern culture" was not ready for such a change.

White leaders continued to offer inadequate solutions such as paying the tuition for Kentucky's African-Americans to attend out-of-state universities.  They also called for the establishment of regional institutions in the south for African-Americans that could offer programs like engineering and law that were not offered at Kentucky's historically black Kentucky State University.

Governor A.B. "Happy" Chandler would later take credit for the desegregation of Major League Baseball, but in his first term as Governor he failed to provide leadership on the issue when desperately needed for his state.  Likewise, Dean of UK Law Alvin Evans also failed to lead and even displayed a lack of commitment to equality under the law while demonstrating incredible insensitivity to his fellow Kentucky citizens.

Lyman Johnson won a legal battle to enroll at UK as a history graduate student in 1949.  The undergraduate program at UK desegregated in 1954 following the Brown decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Fortunately, we have overcome many of these earlier obstacles.  But as Black History Month has come to a close, let's remember that challenges remain and that it is the responsibility of each generation to eradicate discrimination and inequality in all aspects of American life.

Kentucky Kernel, March 14, 1939

UK FOUNDERS DAY COMMEMORATING 153 YEARS

UK's second President Henry Stites Barker celebrating Founders Day, 1917

SOCRATES BITES COED

Perhaps not as big a story as "Man Bites Dog" but "Socrates Bites Coed" made the front page of the Kentucky Kernel 50 years ago this month.  Thankfully, student Mary Menge was not injured badly by the bite administered by UK President John Oswald's dog Socrates.  There is absolutely no evidence that the dog bite at Maxwell Place hastened President Oswald's departure from the University.  Neverthless, he resigned only two months later in April 1968.

BLACK STUDENT UNION, 1968

President John Oswald described the UK campus in 1968 as a state of ferment.  Free speech, anti-war protests, the women's movement, and student rights issues consumed the campus.  But the push by African-American students for a range of issues needing attention and change was at the forefront of the ferment because of its historical antecedents and its impact on the university's future.

UK President John Oswald and BSU President Theodore Berry

The UK Black Student Union, founded in January 1968 and led by its first president, Theodore Berry, became the focus of the movement on campus.  On February 15 the BSU met with President John Oswald to state their goals.  The BSU called for more black students at UK, as well as more black professors, administrators, and staff.  Noting the difficulty of recruiting black professors because of UK's "white image," the BSU argued that black faculty needed to be "actively recruited by UK in order to get them to come here."  President Oswald agreed emphasizing that "UK should make a greater effort to recruit Negro teachers on a personal basis."

The BSU also demanded an end to off-campus housing discrimination.  Even though the university maintained a list of housing that did not discriminate by race, incidents of discrimination remained.

A course in African-American history became central to BSU's call for action.  Not only did the UK History Department not offer such a course, Professor Carl Cone, History Department Chair, attended the February meeting to say that he would "not recommend that the course be included in its curriculum for the next year."

Cone argued that "the course was too specialized for general interest."  This was a History Department that among its regular curriculum taught two courses on Japanese history; one to 1600 and another from 1600 to the present that likely did not have "general interest!"  He did concede that an existing course in American history "would be broadened to include more about the American Negro."

Cone's comments received a "dubious reaction" from the audience.  The BSU presented Cone a petition signed by 900 UK students stating their interest in a black history course.  In 1968 only 150 African-American students attended UK.

In its reporting on the meeting between President Oswald and the BSU the Kernel identified the organization as a "militant Negro group."  Responding to the label Theodore Berry pushed back saying, "If militant means speaking up for what is rightfully ours without asking, then we are militant, but not in a sense of violence."

But events during 1968 moved at a frantic pace. Assassinations took the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy creating unrest and uncertainty across the nation.  President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Locally, President Oswald left UK in April precipitated by disagreements with Kentucky Governor Louie Nunn and other politicians over free speech and other university policies.  Jim Embry replaced Theodore Berry as presidents of the Black Student Union.

In October 1968 the once recalcitrant Professor Cone announced that a new course in Negro history would be available for the spring 1969 semester.  The course, to be taught by white professor Steven Channing, "will be offered at least once every year and will be open to about 100 students."

Jim Embry, 1968

Cone noted that his change of heart resulted from a change nationally in the history profession in the previous eight to nine months that now considered a black history course a relevant part of the curriculum.

Noting the BSU's long advocacy for such a course, BSU President Jim Embry reacted by noting that, "Our asking for the black history course last spring is now showing its effects.  It should have been done in the first place.  My elation is not that great, but I am glad it's going to be started."

The University of Kentucky owes a debt to Theodore Berry, Jim Embry and many others who forced the university to be more progressive in regard to race and diversity.  Over the past five decades much progress has been achieved but much more remains to be done.  Black History Month is a time to reflect and reaffirm UK's commitment to diversity but the effort must continue throughout the year.

"NIGHT SCHOOL FOR JANITORS AT STATE"

A brief article on the back page of the May 27, 1915 Idea, the student newspaper for the all-white University of Kentucky, noted that "the first Negro night school at State University" had just completed its first year of operation.

UK Custodians 1904

The campus YMCA sponsored the classes taught by YMCA student members.  Several of the "teachers" studied law including Elmer Robertson who directed the program.  The classes were described as "the first attempt at work of this kind on the campus" and "a marvelous success."

The classes, held in the basement of the Main Building three times a week, covered six subjects.  The article noted that, "The janitors have been intently interested from the beginning and their regular attendance has been gratifying."  There is no known record of how many custodians took advantage of the program or their identities.  Also, we do not know how many years the program may have operated. 

The thirteen student teachers listed are: "H. Scott, Jackson, Peak brothers, Redwine, C.B. Smith, Griggs, C. Dotson, S.K. Clark, Sartin, Grainger, Hodges and Reddish." 

YMCA Members, 1916

UK would not fully desegregate for another four decades and even then it would take years for UK to increase the number of African-American students and become a welcoming environment.  Most agree that the process of making UK a fully inclusive environment continues to this day.  But for a time in the early years of the 20th century, UK students tried to make a positive difference in the lives of African-American staff.