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Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog

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Welcome to the Kenneth Spencer Research Library blog! As the special collections and archives library at the University of Kansas, Spencer is home to remarkable and diverse collections of rare and unique items. Explore the blog to learn about the work we do and the materials we collect.

Throwback Thursday: Move-In Edition

August 18th, 2016

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 28,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Welcome (back) to KU, new and returning Jayhawks! Today is Move-In Day and – while we’re not entirely sure what these fellows are doing or where they’re going – we think this week’s picture captures the spirit of returning to campus for a new school year.

Photograph of a packed student car, 1910-1919

A packed student car, 1910-1919. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 71/0 1910s Negatives: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Flashback Friday: Bonus Olympic Edition

August 12th, 2016

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 28,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Yesterday’s post focused on members of the KU men’s basketball squad who played on the U.S. men’s basketball team at the 1952 Summer Olympics. With women’s basketball also underway at the 2016 Olympics, today’s post focuses on Lynette Woodard, who played basketball at KU from 1978 to 1981. Twice a member of the United States Olympic team, she was captain of the 1984 squad that captured the gold medal in Los Angeles – the first gold medal in U.S. women’s basketball history.

Photograph of Lynette Woodard wearing her Olympic gold medal

Lynette Woodard with her Olympic gold medal from the
1984 Los Angeles Olympics. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/20/13 Lynette Woodard:
Athletic Department: Women’s Athletics: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Throwback Thursday: Olympic Edition

August 11th, 2016

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 28,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Men’s basketball is underway at the 2016 Summer Olympics, so this week we’re sharing photographs of the U.S. men’s basketball team that played in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Team USA consisted of fourteen members: seven players from KU’s 1952 championship squad plus five members of the Amateur Athletic Union‘s Peoria (Illinois) Caterpillar-Diesels and two members of the Phillips 66ers. KU head coach Phog Allen was an assistant coach for the Olympic team.

Photograph of "Welcome NCAA Champs - On to Helsinki" banner, 1952

Olympic banner stretched across Massachusetts Street at Seventh, 1952.
This view is looking south; the Eldridge Hotel is on the right.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 66/13 Team Olympic 1951/1952:
Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Photograph of the USA Men's Olympic team, 1952

Members of the U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, 1952.
Assistant coach Phog Allen is standing on the far left.
The seven KU players are kneeling in the front row; from left to right they are
Dean Kelley, Charlie Hoag, John Keller, Bob Kenney, Bill Hougland,
Bill Lienhard, and Clyde Lovellette. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Team Olympic 1951/1952: Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Photograph of the USA Men's Olympic team on podium, 1952

The 1952 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team won the gold medal, defeating the USSR
(also known as the CCCP) 36-25. Uruguay won the bronze. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Team Olympic 1951/1952: Athletic Department: Basketball (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

The Crimson and Blue Handbook describes KU’s road to the Olympics.

[Phog] Allen had recruited his 1951-1952 team members with the promise that they would be the squad to represent the United States in the ’52 Olympics…

[After winning the national championship in 1952], KU went back to Kansas City to face the Springfield Missouri State Teachers [1952 NAIA champion; now Missouri State University] in the first round of the Olympic playoffs. The Jayhawks won 92-65, establishing a new single-game scoring record. The NIT champion, LaSalle, was next, and KU won 70-65 in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden as [Clyde] Lovellette scored 40 points.

The win over LaSalle had assured the Jayhawks of placing seven players on the Olympic squad, and KU met the AAU champion Peoria Caterpiller-Diesels in the Olympic finals to determine who would coach the team in Helsinki. Peoria won in the final eight seconds when Howie Williams, a former Purdue guard, hit a short jumper to break a 60-60 tie. Peoria coach Warren Womble was named the Olympic coach, and Phog Allen was named an assistant.

Allen had kept his promise.

Learn more about the Jayhawks who were members of the 1952 Olympic basketball team and other KU basketball players and coaches who have been involved with U.S. Olympic teams.

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Flashback Friday: Cowboy Band Edition

August 5th, 2016

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 28,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Photograph of the KU Cowboy Band in front of a bandstand, 1941-1942

KU Cowboy Band in front of a bandstand, 1941-1942.
Note that the bass drum says “University of Kansas Band.”
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 22/1/m 1941/1942 Prints:
Fine Arts: University Bands: Marching Band (Photos).
Click image to enlarge.

Photograph of the KU Cowboy Band on a race track, 1941-1942

KU Cowboy Band on a race track, 1941-1942. The image is stamped on back
“R. R. Doubleday, 2523 Ave. A, Council Bluffs, Iowa,” indicating that this picture
was probably taken by renowned rodeo photographer Ralph R. Doubleday.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 22/1/m 1941/1942 Prints:
Fine Arts: University Bands: Marching Band (Photos). Click image to enlarge.

A Lawrence Journal-World article from October 27, 1942, described the Cowboy Band.

The cowboy band, made up of the topflight members of the University of Kansas band, which has played at fairs and rodeos the past two summers is fast growing into a permanent organization at the University, Russell L. Wiley, band director, said today…

The summer trips for the group, which dresses in cowboy boots, big hats and crimson or blue silk shirts, are apparently over for the duration but there are strong possibilities that they will hit the big rodeo circuit in a big way when the war has ended.

Last year the group played for the Sydney, Ia., rodeo, one of the big wild west shows of the country. As a result of that engagement they now have been approached by the management of rodeos including the famous Frontier Days at Cheyenne, Wyo., Madison Square Garden, the Boston Garden, the Empire State fair, Billings, Mont., Fortuna, Calif., and Midland, Tex. Bids have come for the group to play at the Ft. Worth Livestock show and the Little Rock, Ark., Livestock show.

Because Neodesha, Kan., two summers ago, found itself in desperate need of a small band organization to furnish music for its rodeo and called Wiley for help, the band was organized.

The type of music played and the scintillation of its arrangement appeals to both the brilliant young musicians, who formed the organization, and the public, who heard it each day for three hours at rodeos and clamored for more.

In scarcely 18 months the Cowboy band has been developed into a distinct organization with a repertoire of about 115 numbers. Last summer it had been booked for five weeks, but this schedule was set aside in large part because of the war and the cancellation of many fairs and rodeos.

At Sidney the band hit its stride. The members played a total of nearly six hours a day, and yet the youth and vigor of its membership showed no evidence of fatigue. The last numbers of the day’s program were given with the elan of an opening performance.

The group developed a reputation as a singing band and a little humor is injected now and then as well as the singing of popular songs like “Jingle Jangle” and “The Last Roundup.”

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants

Throwback Thursday: Girlfriends Edition

July 28th, 2016

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 28,000 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

Earlier this summer we shared a photograph of five KU students hanging out in Neodesha, Kansas, in June 1918. This week we have another photo of a group of female Kansas students, in honor of National Girlfriends Day on Monday.

Photograph of a group of girls posing, 1930-1939

Group of girls posing, possibly in front of Bailey Hall, 1930-1939.
University Archives Photos. Call Number: RG 71/0 1930s Prints: Student Activities (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants