Boatwright exhibit commemorates UR football

As Michael Whitt, a sports historian who works as the special projects assistant at the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, walked down the stairs into the library, he casually mentioned that some of the items in the "UR Football Comes Home" exhibit had belonged to his father.

"It's a lot of smiles and a couple of tears," Whitt said about curating an exhibit containing some of his deceased father's possessions.

As Whitt described the history of University of Richmond football, he also offered a glimpse into his family's connection to football at the university.

Whitt's father, the Rev. Bob Whitt, was the Spiders' statistician for 32 years. He attended Richmond and later decided to volunteer his time at the games. After he died, his Richmond athletics possessions were given to the university archives.

Whitt said that when he was about 11 or 12 years old, his father would let him sit in the press box and listen to the radio for other games' scores so they could be announced during breaks in the game.

"And I was so proud that I was the man, the person who gave it to them," Whitt said.

Now, years later, he is providing Spider fans with a different type of information.

The "UR Football Comes Home" exhibit is located on the second floor of Boatwright Memorial Library. It opened Aug. 23 and it will remain on display through Jan. 28.

Fred Anderson, the university archivist and the exhibit's other curator, said his department had been asked by library staff to put together the exhibit. At first, it was only going to be on display for Alumni Weekend, he said, but then the library staff decided they wanted to have it up in time for the first football game and leave it on display for an extended period.

More than 60 items are spread out among eight cases. The items range in date from the beginning of Richmond football to present day.

"You never want an exhibit to be all one dimension," Anderson said. "That is, just photographs or flat documents. And so, I thought it was particularly appealing to use an old football helmet and an old megaphone that the cheerleaders used to shout through."

Although there are several football game programs from over the years and many pictures, there are also other items such as a letter sweater and a ribbon from one of the literary societies that first started the football club.

Boxes of items in the university archives proved that the items were only a snapshot of the history of football at Richmond.

Anderson said that they had chosen from at least 200 different items, but that they were limited with the space available at the library.

In addition to the physical exhibit in the library, there is also a "UR Football Comes Home" digital exhibit.

The digital exhibit does not mirror the exhibit in the library. Crista LaPrade, the digital production services supervisor at the library, said that the department had also scanned the insides of some of the items for the digital exhibit, which is available online.

"So, that was our goal, to provide a little bit of inside insight into those documents," LaPrade said. "So we didn't want to match exactly what was out there in the physical exhibit, but we wanted to highlight whatever they had highlighted as well ... when it's online you can actually put up more," LaPrade said.

Many groups in Boatwright Memorial Library came together to create the digital exhibit. Emerging Web Technologies Librarian Andy Morton said that he was able to create an online template on Omeka, a free software package, after LaPrade's department took the photographs. Morton said the cataloguing department at the library also helped.

Anderson said that the computer created the opportunity to show many more things, like the pages of football programs.

"And the digitizing of it makes it available to anyone, anyplace, at any time," Anderson said.

Whitt said that he hoped that viewers could see the ups and downs of Richmond football and how the university has had a tradition of football players who, when the game was over, carried what they learned at Richmond into the rest of their lives.

Whitt said that one person had asked him why the exhibit would be located in the library.

"Well, we're one of the few colleges where the football players know where the library is," he said, then laughed.

Contact staff writer Michelle Guerrere at michelle.guerrere@richmond.edu