Two Major World Wars Brought Campus Training
A practical mechanics course was first offered in 1889 but no regurar mechanical department was organized until two years later. The mechanical building was completed in January, 1892, the "new Dormitory" now White Hall, was completed in 1890. The A. and M. College, which contained a Normal school, a classical course, and an Academy in addition to instruction in the mechanical arts and modern languages, was growing rapidly and expanding widely its scope.
The decade previous to the turn of the century had found the College in a period of extensive growth. In 1880, the College employed six professors and, in 1898, sixteen professors and eight assistants. Picture the main building, the dormitory, and the experiment station in a semi-circle and Maxwell Creek flowing east to west below the administration building of the Kentucky State College. Boys delighted in bathing in the creek during the summer months, while skaters found it a strategic point when it was covered with ice in the winter.
Organized athletics did not find its beginning on the campus until the fall of '92 although previous to this time, occasional games of baseball had been played between teams of the various colleges in the state. No games of college football had been played in the state previous to the fall of 1891. Centre College boasted a football team and, toward the end of the season, sent a challenge to the A. and M. College which was accepted. The students at A. and M. had no idea how the game was played. The A. and M. team had no suits and had to be given preliminary instructions on the field before the game was started. The game ended 10 to 0 in favor of Centre, yet all the scoring was done during the first half before the State team had "caught on."
Major Byers and Pres. McVey review troops in 1915.
It's all aboard and farewell to wives and sweethearts as UK students leave Lexington in 1915.