Exploring the Coliseum

Today was a pretty eventful day. Let me recap I was walking down the memorial walkway. I cross Euclid Street and I walked up to the big double doors and well to my surprise, they were actually open. So, I seized the opportunity I went straight inside hoping no one would try and stop me. I walked into the lobby and there was another set of double doors, I thought to myself I wonder what’s behind these doors (it was pretty obvious that it was the court). I pulled on that door and guess what, it opened. O yeah I was two for two on the day. Wow, I was finally in. I seized another opportunity and ran around the court imagining what it would have been like to play on that court. It was actually pretty amazing and I might have got in trouble for it. It was fun though doing a little research and playing around at the same time. Anyway let me get back on subject I stood at half court and just turned slowly around and just looked at the dark brown mahogany colored seats imagining nine thousand screaming fans cheering the Wildcats on to victory. I looked up at the walls and there they were the four NCAA banners that were all won while the Cat’s home was there at Memorial. I figured it was enough time that I spent observing the squeaky clean hardwood court. I went back out through the double doors and to the left up the ramp to the top level. On the way up the walls were lined with pictures of Memorial Coliseum from the years past. It just brought so many images to my mind and then I got to the top. I walked around and saw the doors of the Joe Craft Center. So, I turned around and thought that it wouldn’t be a good idea to give it a visit through that entrance (which I don’t really think was a legitimate entrance). I then left and it was, Great Success! I got some pretty good observations finally, without getting in trouble.

Hidden Secrets

Today I returned to my dorm after classes and got to work on researching the coliseum. I thought that Lexis Nexis would be a pretty good place to find and research information on Memorial Coliseum. To my surprise it is not I found some articles that had Memorial Coliseum but they were not relevant to anything I needed. I also searched through Google. All that came up was the dates and results for the games of women's volleyball. That is all that I really found out about the coliseum i guess the rest of this week I am going to spend a lot of time at the university archives. Hopefully there I will find some useful information. I don't know though it is probably to late to change my topic though.

Observations

It is a warm sunny day and the trees down memorial walk provides for me refreshing shade. The trees are all changing into their autumn colors of yellow and orange. I am walking on my way to Memorial Coliseum. I see many people around me; I am not sure where they are going mostly students by my perspective. I pass by Stoll Field and I come to the end of the walk. I cross the bustling street filled with cars with people in a hurry to be somewhere. I rapidly cross the street and there I was standing in front of it, Memorial Coliseum. I first walk up to the old building and before I walked in I walked to the right of the front doors and on the wall of the Coliseum was an inscription. It was stating the reason for the naming of the Coliseum. It was named in memory of all the fallen soldiers from the commonwealth as well as America that had died in battle of the Second World War I turn to the left and yet no sign of life from the Coliseum coming in or out, just people passing by on the street. I see another inscription on the opposite side of the building and I went and read it. It had the date of authorization for building, when construction started, and when it was completed. It also had some familiar names of the University board members. Many of the names are familiar street names around campus that I recognized. I finished observing the walls on the outside. Now, now it was time to go check out the inside. I started walking to the doors and I put my hand on the handle and I tried opening the doors but they just wouldn’t open. It figures that they would have the doors locked. They weren’t just locked but chained also. I walked down and checked every double door and well they were all locked. I wonder why they have the doors locked there. Does the university want to keep people out to keep them from wondering around or do they just want to preserve the history of the Coliseum and keep it protected from vandals. I just know that it put a constraint on my observations.

Introduction

There has been a rich tradition in the Bluegrass state for many years now. No, I am not talking about horse racing, but of course Kentucky Basketball. Hello my name is Brandon Gilles and I am a freshman at the University of Kentucky. In my English 104 class we are writing an essay on where we are now. Where I am right now is Lexington, Kentucky. I have thought long on my essay topic and due to my love for Kentucky basketball I have chosen Memorial Coliseum. I have chose Memorial Coliseum because I have always been a fan of Kentucky basketball. My dad is a huge fan as well as my grandfather and a lot of my other family members. I think that Memorial coliseum is an awesome place to be it has so much history that has occurred inside. The only thing I really know about the coliseum is that it is where Kentucky played back in its glory days; it is where the famous Coach Rupp walked the sidelines. That is all I really know about Memorial Coliseum. That is another reason why I chose this place because I want to discover the history behind the walls. I am going to try and explore new things that other people might not know about Memorial Coliseum. To find out the information I need I will probably access the University of Kentucky archives. Also, I believe the best way to get a feeling for what I am going to write about is to actually do some exploring of my own in Memorial Coliseum. Some of my concerns about this project are that it might be difficult to get some of the information that I might need. My goal for this project is that I would like to learn even more about the tradition of Kentucky basketball and just let other people that might not know about the tradition in on my discovers.