May 18, 2024
The first UK-EKU football game, 1998
Kentucky wide receiver Craig Yeast celebrated after catching a 54-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tim Couch on Sept. 12, 1998, during the Wildcats’ 52-7 throttling of visiting Eastern Kentucky. It was schools’ first-ever meeting. With that score, Yeast tied a 45-year-old UK record for career touchdown catches. His 17th career TD grab put the Wildcats up 35-0 with 2:27 left in the first half. Steve Meilinger had 17 career touchdown catches from 1951-53. Yeast holds career UK receiving records for receptions (208), yards (2,899) and touchdowns (28). Two games later, Yeast and Couch would hook up for the longest play from scrimmage in UK history, a 97-yard touchdown pass. The 1998 UK team would finish 7-5, including a trip to the Outback Bowl. EKU, which was ranked No. 9 in Division I-AA, finished 6-5. The 2017 game will be the fifth meeting between the two schools, with UK winning each contest. Photo by David Stephenson | Staff
Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch celebrated after tossing a record-tying TD pass to Craig Yeast on Sept. 12, 1998, against Eastern Kentucky. In that win, and the season-opening 68-34 thrashing of Louisville a week earlier, Couch completed 61 of 80 passes for 770 yards and 12 touchdowns. In the victory over the Colonels, Couch, a junior, threw for five touchdowns, tying Babe Parilli’s UK record of 50 career TD passes. He finished his UK career with 74 scoring throws but has since been passed by Jared Lorenzen (78) and Andre Woodson (79). Click here to see other images from our archives of Couch. Photo by David Stephenson | Staff
Downtown Georgetown, 1991
An aerial picture of downtown Georgetown in Scott County, March 11, 1991. Main Street runs diagonally from the lower left to the top. The Scott County courthouse can be seen in the middle. Today, the silver water tower in the lower left side of the image is gone, and the Scott County Health Center is at the right of the where the water tower was. In 1991, the population was not quite 12,000. Today it is 33,000. Click here to see other images of Georgetown from our archives. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Lexington fire school, 1948
Lexington firefighters demonstrated ladder work on the practice tower near the University of Kentucky on June 9, 1948, for delegates attending a three-day fire school. Salvage, pumpers and hose procedures were demonstrated to more than 200 firefighters from throughout the state who witnessed the demonstrations. A new fire training tower was dedicated Tuesday at the Fire Training Center on Old Frankfort Pike. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Lexington’s first policewoman, 1955
Lexington police officials marked the 91st birthday of retired policewomen Maggie Egbert on July 14, 1955, in a ceremony at her home at 431 West Second Street. In 1917, Egbert was hired as the city’s first policewoman. She retired in 1946. Police Chief E.C. Hale, senior clerk Evelyn Clancy and Policewoman Ida Oplas presented Egbert with a cake, a bouquet of gladiolas, a box of candy and a bed rest. Egbert weighed 98 pounds, but she was a force of nature. She was paid $50 a week, and from the first, she understood her job as far more important than being a mellowing influence on her fellow officers. Published in the July 15, 1955, Lexington Leader. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Centre City condos under construction, 1985
The Centre City condominium building at 355 South Broadway was under construction on May 3, 1985. The Peoples Bank building is at right. Photo by Christy Porter | Staff
Turfland Mall site, 1962
A farm at what would become Lexington’s first mall, Turfland Mall, on Jan. 14, 1962. Harrodsburg Road run horizontally across the middle of the image. Lane Allen Road runs up from the lower left corner, headed toward the Picadome and Southland neighborhoods. The Springs Motel can be seen in the center of the image. The motel opened in 1948 with 68 rooms and was a popular Lexington resting stop because of its proximity to Keeneland. The dining room was popular for its hot Browns, prime rib, fried chicken and Southern-style green beans. It was renamed the Springs Inn in the 1980s, and it closed on Nov. 23, 2008. The landmark motel was razed the next year. A CVS drugstore, a McDonald’s and a Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers restaurant were built on the site. Turfland Mall opened in 1967 with 560,000 square feet and 45 stores, including major tenants McAlpin’s and Montgomery Ward. The mall closed in 2008. Parts of the mall were later demolished or converted into a Home Depot and a UKHealthCare health center. Click on the image for a closer look. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Blue Grass Field meteorologists, 1959
Dix Newton, right, the chief meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau at Blue Grass Field in Lexington, and Art Hall inspected a transmissometer in December 1959. A transmissometer measures ceiling, visibility or visual range day and night through the use of a photoelectric cell and a rotating beam. The photo ran with a story highlighting the weather in Lexington in 1959. The highest temperature that year was 95, and the lowest recorded was 4 below zero. Newton had a five-man staff, working around the clock, making weather observations, advisories and forecasts. Newton came to Lexington from Cleveland as chief of the Blue Grass Field weather office in January 1947. The local bureau had been in existence less than three years at that time. He remained in that role until his death in 1965. Published Jan. 10, 1960, in the Sunday Herald-Leader. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Kentucky football’s ‘new breed,’ 1992
University of Kentucky quarterback and team captain Pookie Jones, surrounded by, from left, teammates Emerson Wells, Alfonzo Browning, Mark Askin, Damon Betz and Zane Beehn in August 1992. Many of them were part of the early recruiting classes of then-third-year coach Bill Curry. The photo ran with a story labeling them as “the new breed” of Kentucky football. That’s what the players called themselves because they were the recruits who turned down the traditional powers and decided to stay at home, assume the ground floor of something new, and turn the program around. It started in 1989, when Askin, of St. Xavier, turned down Notre Dame. Then Murray’s Jones said no to Nebraska. Then Owensboro’s Beehn politely declined Illinois. “We’re the group that’s the leaders,” Beehn said. “We’re not the only leaders on the team. Marty (Moore) and Brad (Armstead) and those guys are leaders, but we’re right there with them.” The Cats started that year strong, winning three of their first four games, before faltering and losing five of their next six, finishing the season 4-7. The next year, Jones would lead the team to a 6-6 record and a Peach Bowl appearance. Published Aug. 30, 1992, in the Herald-Leader. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Villanova upsets Georgetown, 1985
The Villanova basketball team was swarmed by the media and fans after upsetting Georgetown in the NCAA Final Four championship game on April 1, 1985, in Rupp Arena. Eighth-seeded Villanova, coached by Rollie Massimino, won the national title with a 66-64 victory over Patrick Ewing and defending national champion Georgetown. In the center of the image, CBS’s Brent Musburger and Billy Packer can be seen interviewing Massimino and a Villanova player. Massimino, 82, died Aug. 30 from cancer. Columnist Mark Story says the masterpiece of his long and colorful career will always link the coach with Lexington. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Fire demonstration for Henry Clay students, 1950
Henry Clay High School chemistry students extinguished fires on April 26, 1950, at the Lexington Fire Department’s central fire station. The fires were set for a lecture and demonstration on fire prevention. The lesson started with students riding from the school to the fire station and included lessons on proper use of fire extinguishers. At left, boys extinguished an oil fire, while the girls fought a paper-and-wood fire. Published April 27, 1950, in the Lexington Herald. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
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