University of Kentucky - Kentuckian Yearbook (Lexington, KY)

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may place their typewriters or pads. It is situated on the topmost portion of the center section and one may get an unobstructed view of all plays and players. The press stand is wired with electricity and electric lights are available. At the onset of the work last spring thousands of yards of dirt were removed from what is now the playing field. After the south sections were constructed tiling was laid uYider the playing field. The tiling was overlaid with twelve inches of crushed stone and clean cinders. Workmen then transferred from the country two acres of bluegrass sod to place it over the space. Now this has settled and a thick crop of bluegrass waves with the wind. The field, by next fall, should exceed that of old Stoll Field in beauty and durability. At equal distances from each end of the pla3-ing field pipes run horizontally across the plot. These pipes automatically revolve and send small streams of water to all parts of the field, covering a radius of one hundred feet when water is needed on the grass. Around the gridiron there will run a cinder track when work is completed on the oval. This track will be a quarter of a mile in circumference and will have a 22-yard straightaway, according to specifications. Kentucky’s cinder path will be quite an improvement over the dirt ones of former 3'ears and the Wildcats will welcome it. Another feature of the ground is the arrangement and shape of the goal posts. Steel posts, with the bar extending four feet over the playing field, were used during last season and will continue to be used in future years. This feature wras constructed because of the ever-present danger of some player striking his head on the straight wooden goal post which was formerly used. The construction of the stadium was under the superintendency of Douglas Thomson, and he was assisted by Maury Crutcher, former Wildcat football star, as assistant superintendent. Among the subcontractors were: J. J. Fitzgerald, plumbing; J. T. Jackson Lumber Company, form work; Allen Electric Company, wiring, and Combs Lumber Company, seats, all of Lexington. L. K. Frankel and J. J. Curtis, Lexington architects, both members of the firm and alumni of the University of Kentucky, acted as consulting architects and rendered valuable service. The Osborne Engineering Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, were employed as consulting engineers. The stadium, as it stands today, is a masterpiece of art and in years to come alumni of the greatest university in the South may look back upon the results of their labor and smile Avith a satisfaction lingering in their hearts with the w'ords “I helped” beating against their inward souls. A local contractor who has seen several of the large stadiums in the North and East, includ- ing the Ohio State stadium and the Illinois stadium, says: “The stadium on Stoll Field is the most perfectly designed and best constructed of any that I have seen. “The designers never overlooked any details regardless of how small they may have been, for one can sit in any section and have a perfect field of vision. The playing field has been graded in such a manner as to permit perfect view from any seat in the stadium and the concrete work is the best that I have ever seen.”

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University of Kentucky HE Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, founded in 1865, which slowly developed into the University of Kentucky of today, owed its origin to an act of Con- gress of June 2, 1862, known as the “Morrill Land Grant Act,” under which act public lands were donated to the several states and territories which might provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and mechanical arts. Kentucky’s allotment of such lands was 300,000 acres. When the Commonwealth, however, established the Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1865 under this act, it did not make it an independent institution, but a department or college of what was then known as “Kentucky University” (now Tran- sylvania). . The Commonwealth had, in 1863-64, taken over “Bacon College,” located at Harrodsburg, and changed its name to “Kentucky University,” and in 1864-65 this new institution was transferred to Lexington and consolidated with old Transylvania University, the oldest institution west of the Alleghany Mountains. When this union of the two universities was effected, old Transylvania gave up her name and the name “Kentucky University” was given to the university, resulting from the consolidation. . It was at the time of the consolidation of “Bacon College” with “Transylvania University, under the name of “Kentucky University,” that the Agricultural and Mechanical College was established and also made a college of “Kentucky University.” This connection with Kentucky University, however, was severed in 1878, and the Agricultural and Mechanical College, more often called State College, was located in what is now Woodland Park until 1881-82, when the location was finally changed to campus on South Limestone street. The development of the University of Kentucky is shown to some degree by the changes in its official titles, which were as follows: Kentucky University, Agricultural and Mechanical De- partments, 1866-78; Agricultural and Mechanical College (State College), 1878-1908; State Uni- versity, Lexington, Ky., 1908-1916; University of Kentucky, 1916—. The presidents who have served the university are: John Augustus Williams, 1866-67; Joseph Desha Pickett, 1867-68; James Kennedy Patterson, 1868-1909; James G. White, acting president, 1909-10; Henry S. Barker, 1910-16; Paul P. Boyd, 1916-17; Frank LeRond McVey, 1917— The first graduate of the university was William Benjamin Munson, B.S., in 1869. Mr. Munson resides in Denison, Texas, and is president of the Denison Cotton Mill Company. The first degree granted to a woman was B.S. to Miss Bell C. Gunn (Mrs. Charles Kay) in 1888. John Wesley Gunn was the first graduate in civil engineering, in 1890, and Professor J. Richard Johnson was the first graduate in mechanical engineering, in 1893. The first buildings on the present campus were the Administration building, the Old Dormitory and President Patterson’s home, built in 1881-82. Other buildings have been erected from time to time as need required and funds permitted until there are now thirty-one university buildings. The latest are the men’s new dormitory, built in 1921-22; the Stadium and the men’s new gymnasium, erected by the students and Alumni Association in 1923-24. Some of the changes that may interest old students and alumni -who visit the university from time to time arc: In the administration building, the conversion of the old chapel into a library and study hall to relieve the congested condition of the Carnegie Library (the university convocations are'now held in the men’s new gymnasium) ; the giving over of the first floor to the administrative offices and basement to the university postoffice, book store and cafeteria. The old dormitory, now known as “White Hall,” and the second dormitory, now “Neville Hall,” have each been converted into offices, recitation rooms and libraries. The expansion in the engineer- ing shops and the conversion of the old quarters into a recreation and lecture hall called “Dicker Hall.” Since the completion of the men’s new gymnasium the former gymnasium has been re- constructed and is no y the alumni hall and girls’ gymnasium. Other interesting changes, too numerous to mention in the limit set for this article, must be omitted. The university has at present ten general administrative officers; 156 officers of instruction, and 89 on the staff of the Experiment Station and Agricultural Extension, with a total enrollment of 3,567 students in 1923-24.