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Transylvania sponsors forum on desegregation of athletics

Posted on February 4, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

NOTICE: This event has been POSTPONED due to inclement weather affecting travel schedules. Check back for a new date, possibly in April 2014. LEXINGTON, Ky.—One who helped make it happen; two who experienced it; and one who chronicled this pivotal moment in the American story. The panel assembled to discuss “Integrating Athletics at Transylvania and Beyond” will bring poignant personal accounts to the Feb. 13 installment of the year-long celebration of Transylvania’s 50th year of desegregation, titled Still Overcoming: Striving for Inclusiveness. It was in the racially charged 1960s when these men together and as courageous individuals broke down the barriers of segregation in collegiate sports. With award-winning sportswriter Billy Reed moderating, hear the stories of former Transylvania and Alabama coach and former UK Athletics Director C.M. Newton; Transylvania basketball star Jim Hurley ’69; and Wendell Hudson, the first African American scholarship student-athlete at the University of Alabama and the 1973 SEC Player of the Year. “Every day there was a reason for me to quit,” Hudson said in the video documentary “Stepping Through: A look at the past 50 years of desegregation at The University of Alabama.” “Every day my freshman year here, every day there was a reason for me not to be successful or to give up and to let that defeat me. And when I talk to young people, like, that’s no excuse, because, you know, everybody’s going to have a story…and it’s going to be

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The ink dries as Transylvania professors release book about The Lexington Tattoo Project

Posted on January 31, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.―It’s been a whirlwind two years for Transylvania University art professor Kurt Gohde and English professor Kremena Todorova, who conceived the wildly popular and nationally acclaimed Lexington Tattoo Project. The tattoos are long healed, and now the only ink waiting to dry is the publisher’s process ink for their new 160-page full-color coffee table book, due to be released Friday, Feb. 7, during an event at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. A multi-phase, multi-media artwork, The Lexington Tattoo Project boldly asked Lexingtonians to volunteer their bodies as the canvas for an inked phrase from an original poem about their beloved Bluegrass city. Gohde and Todorova asked author, poet and Transylvania graduate Bianca Spriggs to write a love letter to Lexington, which resulted in “Lexington is the ___________ of the Universe.” The poem, written in contrapuntal form, incorporated words provided by Facebook friends to fill in the blank. As the 253 participants were inked, Gohde and Todorova photographed each tattoo. Finally, a video was created by digitally stitching together all the photographs, which were cleverly designed to create a secondary image when viewed together. The video includes Spriggs reading the poem, underscored by a contrapuntal music composition by singer-songwriter Ben Sollee. The video premiered on Nov. 15, 2013, during PRHBTN, Lexington’s annual street-art festival, to a wildly enthusiastic audience. “Like so many other parts of the Lexington Tattoo Project, this book is a result of collaborative effort,” said

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Gregory Turay to perform two pieces by Vaughan Williams

Posted on January 30, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Tenor Gregory Turay knows about journeys, not only in distances logged by frequent flyer miles but paths taken when one follows one’s heart. So it’s no surprise that the Metropolitan Opera singer will perform two wayfarer song cycles, “Songs of Travel” and “On Wenlock Edge,” written by prolific English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, for a concert in his hometown of Lexington, Ky., Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m. at Transylvania University’s Carrick Theater. The concert is free and open to the public. The hour-long concert features the six-part song cycle “On Wenlock Edge” for voice, piano and string quartet and the world premiere of John Greer’s arrangement of “Songs of Travel,” a nine-part song cycle for voice and piano. There will be a brief intermission between the two compositions. “I wanted to do a recital of “On Wenlock Edge” because I love the piece,” said Turay. “It’s been a passion of mine since I performed it almost 20 years ago in Charleston, S.C., at the Spoleto Festival with Charles Wadsworth. And then John Greer, my accompanist, suggested the ‘Songs of Travel,’ as he had been working on an arrangement of them for piano and string quartet; it was a perfect marriage!” Turay’s journey into the opera world began in 1995 when he competed and won at the national level of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He was awarded a place in the opera’s Young Artist Development Program, which

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Transylvania to host Kentucky/Indiana All-Star Classic in June

Posted on January 30, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—The intense basketball rivalry between Kentucky and Indiana will electrify downtown Lexington June 13 when the Kentucky/Indiana All-Star Classic comes to Transylvania University’s beautiful Clive M. Beck Athletic and Recreation Center. Though the event—which matches the top boys and girls high school seniors in Kentucky against the best in Indiana, including the “Mr. and Miss Basketball” award winners—launched in 1940, 2014 will mark just the sixth time it will be held in Lexington and the first time since 1996. The Bluegrass Sports Commission (BSC) and the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation (KLEF) announced Jan. 29 that they had agreed to a three-year contract to bring the event to Lexington. WKYT-TV (Lexington) will televise the games live on the CW in Lexington and WYMT in Hazard. And plans call for syndicating a statewide network of TV stations to broadcast the games across the Commonwealth. “This is a very exciting announcement for us,” said Terry Johnson, executive director of the BSC. “We are honored to work with Transylvania, WKYT and others to host an event with such a rich history that supports the amazing work of the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation.” Located on one of the nation’s most historic college campuses, Transylvania’s Beck Center is a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of downtown Lexington. It seats 1,200 in an intimate setting perfect for high-stakes basketball. Transylvania’s storied basketball program has used the facility for its NCAA Division III games since 2001. Free

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Pat Deacon honored for her lifelong commitment to women’s sports

Posted on January 27, 2014July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—When Pat Deacon was a student at the University of Kentucky in the 1950s, there were no intercollegiate sports programs for women, at least not as we know them today. Women who enjoyed athletic competition could participate in sports organized under the auspices of the Physical Education Department. There were no uniforms, no training facilities and no coaches. But there were occasional games against nearby colleges, and Deacon took advantage of the opportunity to play basketball and field hockey. It was not until the passage of Title IX in 1972 that women slowly began to have equal access to sports programs, sports funding and regular competition. That was the same year that Deacon arrived at Transylvania University, where she blazed the trail for women’s athletics until her retirement in 1999. During that period, Deacon served at various times as women’s athletics director, associate athletics director, women’s intramural sports director and physical education professor, in addition to her head coaching positions. She pioneered the modern era of women’s basketball at Transylvania, leading the team through 16 seasons and more than 150 wins. Over 29 seasons, her field hockey teams set the standard among Kentucky colleges, especially with their 98-55-3 record from 1979-88, when they won eight state championships in a row. Deacon was elected to Transylvania’s Pioneer Hall of Fame in 2000. And on Sunday, Feb. 2—National Girls and Women in Sports Day—the University of Kentucky, where Deacon earned both

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