Celebrating the Holidays: postcards from 100 years ago

Curated by Jeff Suchanek and Gary Chaffee. Scanned by Lewis Warden.

NOTE: Slideshow does not work with Internet Explorer but seems to work fine in Firefox.

Postcards of Lincoln on Exhibit | uknow.uky.edu

Postcards of Lincoln on Exhibit | uknow.uky.edu



To see these images and more please visit the Carl Howell Postcard exhibit at the Margaret I. King Building.

Racing For Love, Life, & Freedom?

Keys' Sadie Hawkins Day Race - UK Stoll Field (1951)
Source: 1952 Kentuckian, p. 278

Gals, grab your guys! Sadie Hawkins Day is upon us!

This pseduo-holiday debuted in Al Capp's Li'l Abner comic strip back in November 1937, and quickly caught on, in American pop culture for decades to follow. The story began when Sadie Hawkins, the "ugliest" female residing in the fictional Dogpatch, KY, tried to find her fella. So, her father set up a foot race for umarried girls to chase after the unclaimed bachelors of the town. Two years later, Life magazine reported that a couple hundred college campuses, including the University of Kentucky, picked up on this popular trend.

The tradition carried on for another 40 years or so, with young women chasing down young men; all dressed up in caricature or and stereotypical "hillbilly" outfits. Later, after the "Sally Mae"s caught their "Li'l Abner"s (both characters from the comic), a Sadie Hawkins Day dance typically ensued, where the best Sally Mae and Li'l Abner were chosen.

Though the exact date of Sadie Hawkins Day is often debated, it's generally around mid-November; most often either the Saturday after November 9th (unsure of this basis) or on November 15th (the anniversary of its 1st appearance in Al Capp's comic strip). Either way, it should NEVER be confused with another cited "Sadie Hawkins Day" date - February 29, or Leap Year - when women are "allowed" to propose marriage to men. The true Sadie Hawkins Day was set (though unintentionally) by Al Capp, in 1937, in his fictional little mountain town in KY.

WUKY: Big Blue Sports Archives Preserves Memory Of "The Shot" (2009-11-05)

WUKY: Big Blue Sports Archives Preserves Memory Of "The Shot" (2009-11-05)
On the cusp of another UK basketball season, we visit with the school's archivists and revisit a Memorial Coliseum Magic Moment featuring the 1958 National Championship Team.

Click on the WUKY link above to listen to Doug Boyd and Deirdre Scaggs talk about one of the great moments in UK basketball history.

Hear more stories and learn more about the history of UK at http://exploreuk.uky.edu

A Halloween Ghost Race?

2007ua015_134 Ben Williams negatives

Shameful

The New and Improved Explore UK

The Explore UK website has received a face lift and a considerable amount of new content. Thousands of images, depicting men's and women's basketball and football, have been added to the site. Oral histories, including several interviews with Bill Keightley, covering the history of UK athletics are also new. In addition memorbila, including UK Basketball trading cards, men's basketball programs, Cat's Pause and a collection of post cards have also been added to Explore UK.

Another exciting feature is a comment section, which will allow visitors to the site the opportunity to help us expand Explore UK. We continue to add content to the site in the coming months including Adolph Rupp oral histories, women's basketball programs and football programs. Please keep in mind that the site is new and we are still working to get all the bugs fixed but we hope you enjoy.