February 21, 2025
UK volleyball team in SEC action, 1983
The University of Kentucky’s Kim Martinsen, left, and Marsha Bond defended a shot by the University of Mississippi’s Jennifer Maginnis in a match at Memorial Coliseum on Nov. 19, 1983. Kentucky won the SEC tournament match, 3-0. The 1983 team finished with a 44-7 record. They were the SEC champions with a 5-0 record and the SEC Tournament champions, and they made the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight. This year’s UK volleyball team will host the regional round of the 2017 NCAA volleyball tournament Friday and Saturday in Memorial Coliseum. The Wildcats play Brigham Young University at noon Friday. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Santa’s Forest tree lot, 1987
Steve Daniels, a worker at Santa’s Forest, a Christmas tree lot behind Hills Department Store in South Park Shopping Center, walked among the 2,700 Scotch pines and other evergreens looking for a tree to put on display in late November 1987. Photo by David Perry | Staff
Front page the last time Kentucky played Northwestern in football, 1928
The front page of the Oct. 21, 1928, Lexington Herald, including coverage of the only previous football meeting between the University of Kentucky and Northwestern University, a 7-0 loss for UK. The two teams will play in the Music City Bowl on Friday, Dec. 29. Click on the image for a closer look. The football story runs down the left column. Among the other stories on the page include one in the lower right corner with the headline “What’s the odds? Telepathist will try to communicate with Mars.” The price of the 38-page newspaper was 5 cents.
Gratz Park Inn opening, 1987
Elizabeth and Arlyn Wagner checked out a room of the new Gratz Park Inn during a tour of the downtown hotel at its official opening on Aug. 24, 1987. The inn was sold recently, and it closed last week for renovations that are expected to take several months. One of the new owners said the iconic downtown hotel will reopen in the spring as a luxury Hilton boutique property with a new name. Click here to an image from our archives of the building before it opened and sat empty for 11 years. Photo by Steven R. Nickerson | Staff
World Coal Hole, 1983
Long before the CentrePointe development, another downtown block sat undeveloped. It was known by locals as the World Coal Hole. In July 1983, this was the block where the Phoenix Hotel once stood. The Phoenix was demolished in 1981 and 1982 by Wallace Wilkinson, who planned to use the site to build the World Coal Center skyscraper. It was never built, and the site eventually was developed as the Park Plaza Apartments, the downtown Public Library and Phoenix Park. Photo by David Cooper
Bazooka band and jubilee hats, 1950
Three members of the Johnson School bazooka band, wearing their homemade jubilee hats, included Mrs. Dexter Welch, Mrs. Truman Burns and Mrs. Garland Pace as they were set to perform on May 2, 1950, at the school’s jubilee program. Besides a show by the band, the program included a one-act play and the crowning of Jubilee Queen Sue Carol Powell and King William Bader. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Heartbreaking loss for Bryan Station, 1999
Bryan Station High School quarterback J.T. Haskins showed the pain of the overtime loss in the state 4A championship on Dec. 4, 1999, as St. Xavier players began their celebration on the field behind him at Fairgrounds Stadium in Louisville. The Defenders were unable to keep St. Xavier out of the end zone and lost the championship game, 34-31. This year’s Russell Athletic/KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl games continue Saturday at Kroger Field in Lexington. Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu | Staff
Jim Nabors and Anita Madden, 1978
Actor and singer Jim Nabors danced with hostess Anita Madden at the Maddens’ Derby Eve party at Hamburg Place on May 5, 1978. Nabors, the shy Alabaman whose down-home comedy made him a TV star as Gomer Pyle and whose surprisingly operatic voice kept him a favorite in Las Vegas and other showplaces, died Thursday. He was 87. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Coach Joe B. Hall, 1975
University of Kentucky basketball players carried Coach Joe B. Hall off the floor after UK beat Indiana, 92-90, in the NCAA Mideast Regional finals in Dayton, Ohio, on March 22, 1975. The players are, from left, Danny Hall, Rick Robey, Jimmy Dan Conner, Marion Haskins, Mike Phillips and Mike Flynn. Hall turns 89 on Thursday, 32 years after retiring as Kentucky’s basketball coach. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
The Who concert at Rupp Arena, 1982
The Who performed a sold-out show at Rupp Arena on Nov. 29, 1982. At left is guitarist Pete Townshend and in the middle is lead singer Roger Daltrey. Bass guitarist John Entwistle is at bottom. The crowd of 23,000 waved homemade banners, chanted the band’s name and lit matches in tribute to the English group, who at the time proclaimed that they were calling it quits after 20 years as a pre-eminent fixture in rock and roll. The band did break up in 1983 but later got back together. The band played some popular hits including “I Can See For Miles,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Who Are You” and “Baba O’Riley.” More than once, the crowd’s roar in response to the popular songs drowned out the house sound system. Tickets for the show were $15.25. This was the band’s second and last show in Lexington. They also performed July 11, 1980. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
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Kentucky.com news feed
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- Frigid temps and maybe more snow Thursday in KY. What it means for Fayette schools
- With bad weather pummeling KY schools, bill advances giving districts 5 calamity days
- Transylvania grad was one of nation’s most-revered novelists
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- ‘Papa, Papa, Papa!’ Remembering a local teen Jeopardy! winner