Crowning the King & Queen
Campus
Homecoming celebrations conclude during the halftime intercession of the football game with the crowning of the King & Queen.
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Homecoming
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October 2011
Campus
Paint the Town Blue
Kernel File Photo
Each year, UK students & organizations compete for the best window painting design in this popular competition. The Kentucky Kernel | Celebrating 40 years of independence
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Events
Kate Carpenter OMECOMING comes around
through downtown actually opened
every year, but have you ever
the festivities. This led to a pep rally,
thought about what it was
the crowning of the Centennial
like years in the past? Surprisingly, it
Homecoming Queen and a street
wasn’t too much different.
dance. Fifteen years later, in 1980, the
This year, homecoming has many exciting events coming your way. On
classic pep rally was still going
Sunday, Oct. 16, there is a DanceBlue
strong. Except instead of just meet-
5K at Commonwealth Stadium.
ing for the pep rally, UK cheerleaders
Registration is from 1 p.m. to 2:30
led a “Wildcat Roundup,” and they
p.m., and the race is at 3 p.m.
circulated through the campus,
On Monday, Oct. 17, the UK
dorms, and sorority and fraternity
Symphony Band is performing a con-
houses to gather fans and head to
cert at the Singletary Center for the
the stadium.
Arts at 7:30 p.m. It is $5 for students
In 2000, the annual homecoming
and $7 for everyone else. After the
parade was modeled after New
concert, there is a pep rally to warm
Orleans tradition. Similar to today,
up your school spirit for the week.
there was a 5K Run/Walk at the
On Friday, Oct. 22, there is a home-
Arboretum, with proceeds going to
coming parade at 7 p.m. in downtown
the Helping Hands of Lexington.
Lexington. A parade is part of the homecoming tradition. In 1965, homecoming was actually only a two-day event. A parade
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All in all, not much has changed in terms of homecoming traditions. Except, of course, in 1980 a six-pack of Miller Lite was only $1.99
Kernel Entertainment Guide
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Homecoming
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October 2011
Kernel File Photo
Kernel File Photo
Homecomings Warren Wheat
History
Past
OME call us the Silent Generation. Born of the Great Depression literally on the
This time of year the pleasant scent of dried burley
on the Kentucky River, but “the place” was Danceland
tobacco leaves stacked for auction in nearby ware-
featuring the music of Little Enis, a left-handed gui-
houses floated across campus on brittle fall air.
tar-picking rockabilly artist and Elvis imitator. We
Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers they
Believe it or not, we wore sport coats and ties or
danced to “I wanna shout,” and did the Continental.
sired, we grew up being taught to duck under our
sweaters to most football games and felt hats with
Contrary to the hit “I could have danced all night,” we
desks in case of nuclear attack.
brims. Student ID cards admitted us and our dates to
couldn’t; women who lived in the dorms and sorority
all football and basketball games, thanks to the $89-
houses had strict curfews. Many an embrace broke
a-semester tuition.
when the warning lights flickered. One thing though,
cusp of World War II, wedged between the
The UK Alumni Association has invited us, the university class of 1961 — septuagenarians all — back to campus for homecoming this year and to be inducted
In our day, so to speak, a joint was a place to drink
when we danced, we actually touched, and you could
into the Golden Wildcat Society. The Thursday
beer; booty was a pirate’s treasure; thongs were what
through Sunday weekend will include a reception and
are now called flip-flops; and the only bogart we knew
dinner, races at Keeneland, Homecoming Parade and
was an actor. The only time the word gay was used
was president, Camelot was on, Americans were ad-
football game, classes — without quizzes — and a
was in “Deck the Halls” and “My Old Kentucky
vised to build bomb shelters, the U.S. finally rocketed
tour of the campus.
Home.”
an astronaut into space, TV was labeled “vast waste-
A half a century since we received our degrees in
Few, if any, rode bicycles to class, and backpacks
understand the words of the songs. When the class of ‘61 left campus John F. Kennedy
land,” a wall divided Germany, Elvis began his movie
Memorial Coliseum? OMG, or LOL, as the great
were considered fitting equipment only for Boy
grandchildren of the Class of ‘61 would say.
Scouts and soldiers, certainly not college students.
Most of us arrived at the University of Kentucky in
Many of our classmates were older, veterans attend-
The Civil Rights Act is law, the U.S. beat the Soviets to
1957, the year a Soviet satellite, Sputnik 1, beat the
ing college on the GI Bill hoping to resume their lives
the moon, the Berlin Wall crumbled, the Soviet Union
United States into space, Arkansas National Guard
following the Korean conflict. They added a unique
collapsed along with communism, an actor was
troops blocked African-American students trying to
maturity and stability to campus life, not to mention
elected president and now, an African-American. The
attend classes at a white high school, “The Bridge on
stiff competition for grade curves.
U.S. fought a war in Vietnam, and wars on poverty
the River Kwai” won an Oscar and Elvis Presley ruled the pop charts.
Most of our favorite hang-outs exist today only in
career, and “West Side Story” won the Oscar. It’s nine presidents later. Everything has changed.
and drug abuse, open-heart surgeries are routine,
memory: The Buffalo on Euclid in Chevy Chase, the
human organs are transplanted, airplanes fly faster
Paddock at Rose and what is now the Avenue of
than sound travels, unmanned aircraft piloted re-
Men sported flat top haircuts, crew or burr cuts, wore
Champions next to a tiny eatery that specialized in
motely take out enemies, handheld wireless comput-
Bass moccasins and Weejuns, Converse Chuck Taylor
fried baloney sandwiches, and a bar you got to by
ers provide instant communications and data.
high tops, crew neck sweaters, felt hats with brims
turning left at a bent tree off Richmond Road where
So let them call us the Silent Generation.
and open collar shirts with tees. Women wore skirts
beer was free at 3 o’clock. Tree’s gone; don’t know
below the knee, long socks, saddle oxfords and penny
about the bar.
We hit campus with little individuality in styles.
loafers. We probably didn’t even know the meaning of the word “cleavage.”
Warren Wheat was a daily editor at the Kentucky Kernel in 1961. He is a retired journalist who worked for
On special occasions we danced at the Circle Bar on the road to Richmond, ate steaks at Johnny Allmans
USA Today, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The News-Enterprise in Elizabethtown and the Lexington Leader.
The Kentucky Kernel | Celebrating 40 years of independence
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Saturday
The Football Game UK was the first SEC school to play football. The first homecoming game was on Nov. 25, 1915. Kentucky played Tennessee, and won 6-0. UK has had a homecoming game every year since 1946 and has a 46-18 record. 1960 through 1979, as seen in the Kernel archives, were quite the lucky years. This year, the team hopes to be that lucky when it plays Jacksonville State on Oct. 22.
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Kernel File Photo Kernel Entertainment Guide
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Homecoming
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October 2011