March 12, 2025
Television sportscaster Tom Hammond coached a Babe Ruth League baseball team of kids ages 13-15 on July 12, 1982, in Lexington. Hammond, a Lexington native, started his broadcasting career at radio station WVLK. He became sports director for TV station WLEX-18 and was the play-by-play announcer for Southeastern Conference basketball games for more than 20 years. Since 1984, he has covered various events on television for NBC Sports including horse racing, the Olympics, basketball and football. Photo by David Perry | Staff
The start of A Midsummer Night’s Run, Aug. 18, 1990, in downtown Lexington. The 5K race, sponsored by Baptist Health Lexington, has been an annual summer event since the inaugural race in 1985, when 1,300 people participated. The 2015 race on Aug. 8 is expected to have almost triple that number. Photo by Tim Sharp | Staff
Aerial photo of Beaumont Farm during the early stages of development of the property in October 1992. Running from the upper left corner is New Circle Road, and intersecting that is Harrodsburg Road. This photo shows the early construction of Beaumont Centre Circle. A Kroger grocery store is now at the far right. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Horse racing analyst, race caller and television broadcaster Mike Battaglia on Derby Day, May 7, 1988, at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Battaglia has set the morning-line odds at Churchill since 1974, and he was the race announcer from 1977 to 1996. Battaglia also is Keeneland’s longtime oddsmaker and is recognized as one of the best handicappers in America. He also is a racing analyst for NBC’s Thoroughbred racing coverage. At the time of this picture, he was 38. Photo by Jim Jennings | Staff
Neighborhood kids sat around chalk drawings that 13-year-old Kim Northrop made on July 29, 1976, on the parking lot of the Cloister Apartments on Pimlico Parkway in Lexington. The kids blocked off traffic to the parking lot so a photographer could get a picture of the zebra and giraffe. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
The bedroom of a suite at the Hilton Suites at Lexington Green on July 30, 1987, the day before it opened. The $14 million hotel was the Hilton Hotels Corp.’s first-ever franchised all- suites hotel. The hotel, with its 174 suites, is part of Lexington Green, a $47 million project developed by the Webb Cos. on Nicholasville Road. Lexington Green also contains a shopping center and a six-story office building. When the hotel opened, rates ranged from $65 to $125 a night. The Governor’s Suite was $250 a night. It was the second all-suite hotel to open in Lexington. In 1985, the Residence Inn opened off Newtown Pike. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
Excavation continued for construction of the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 15, 1947. Completed in 1950, Memorial Coliseum was the longtime home court for the Wildcats and a memorial to the more than 10,000 Kentuckians killed in World War II. The names of Kentuckians killed in the the Korean and Vietnam wars were added later. The UK men’s basketball team played in Memorial from 1950 to 1976, compiling a record of 306-38 (.890). In the background of the picture is Stoll Field, home of the UK football team until 1972. Herald-Leader Archive Photo