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TBT: Fall Classic From the Roaring Twenties

Image of the flyer for the Fall classic Altoona Speedway : national 250-mile championship. Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1st, 1924.

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


The first week of September marks the start of the autumn season. Yes, that’s your cue to finally get that Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte you’ve been waiting for all year! 

Today’s TBT celebrates Labor Day, a national holiday in the US since 1882. This particular advertisement details a celebratory race in honor of our nation’s backbone, the working class. For a quick history interjection, the Altoona Speedway, known as the world’s fastest oval board racetrack, opened in 1923 and hosted two races annually, one on Flag Day and one on Labor Day. These races attracted large crowds of people, and board racing, although dangerous, was a popular entertainment element during the Roaring Twenties.

To see the entire TBT document, feel free to click here. For more information about the Altoona Speedway, please click this link. 

With that, we hope your Labor Day weekend was spent joyfully with friends and family, leaving you refreshed to conquer the semester ahead!


Isabel Choi ’26 CLAS, Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library.



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TBT: And Our Full Days Now

1957 Belle Air Yearbook. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

1957 Belle Air Yearbook. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


Happy first official week of school, Wildcats!

Although we’re sad to leave summer behind us, we are so happy to have you back for the 2023 fall semester! Today’s #TBT is a page from the 1957 edition of the Belle Air Yearbook detailing how Villanovans of the 1950s spent their time in school. Isn’t it funny how “Studies, sports, and bull sessions” have been a central part of Villanova’s campus culture since the 50s? It’s safe to say not much has changed! What are you looking forward to doing back on campus?

Wishing you the best start of the semester,

Your Falvey Communication & Marketing Team


Isabel Choi ’26, Communication & Marketing Student Assistant at Falvey Library.



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TBT: Flipping Pages

Do you have your new planner for the academic year yet? Check out this 1924 calendar from The Four Provinces Orchestra. Each month has both English and Gaelic spellings. Explore additional items like this in the Joseph McGarrity Collection.

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

1924 calendar from The Four Provinces Orchestra. Each month has both English and Gaelic spellings. (The Joseph McGarrity Collection.)


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. 

 

 


 


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TBT: Pack Your Bags

Villanova student sitting on a suitcase surrounded by bags for move-in day.

College, V. (1960). Belle Air 1960. Villanova, PA: Villanova College.


New Student MoveIn is TWO WEEKS away! We’re looking forward to welcoming all the new Wildcats to campus on Friday, Aug. 18. Check out all the Orientation events here! This week’s Throwback Thursday (#TBT) courtesy of the Belle Air 1960 (p. 120). The head cap “dink” (pictured above) was required attire for all first-year students at Villanova College in this era. Read more about Villanova’s Orientation traditions in this blog! View the full yearbook in the Villanova University Digital Library.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. 

 

 


 


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TBT: Two Scoops, Please

Image features the Student Programming Council scooping ice cream in 1992.


Some things are mint to be like summer and ice cream! July is National Ice Cream Month and this week’s Throwback Thursday (#TBT) features the Student Programming Council scooping ice cream in 1992. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.

What’s the best ice cream flavor? Let us know in the comments.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library.

 

 


 


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TBT: Nova Knicks

Image of the Villanova Wildcats 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship team. April 4. Houston, Texas. Courtesy of University Archives.

Villanova Wildcats, 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Champions. April 4. Houston, Texas. Courtesy of University Archives.


This week we’re throwing it back to the 2016 National Championship team! With news of Donte DiVincenzo joining Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson on the New York Knicks, Nova Nation is excited to see the former teammates on the court this fall.

Image courtesy of the New York Knicks Twitter.

Image courtesy of the New York Knicks Twitter.

Check out the digital exhibit “Wildcats Past & Present: Moments from the History of Sports at Villanova,” for additional championship memorabilia and unique items representative of the varied sports played at Villanova College, and later Villanova University.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library.

 

 


 


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TBT: School’s *NOT* Out For Summer

Image of students in the Reference/Reading Room (Villanova College Library).

Photograph, Summer School, 1950s. Villanova University Archives, Villanova University.


Summer sessions are in full swing on campus! This week’s Throwback Thursday (#TBT) features a photograph from summer school at Villanova College in the 1950s. Notice the backdrop? That was the Reference/Reading Room (Villanova College Library), known today as the Dugan Polk Family Reading Room (Falvey Library). Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. 

 

 


 


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TBT: Dog Days of Summer

Image of 15 dogs gathered around a kitchen table.

Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


We’re officially in the “dog days” of summer!

Spanning July 3 to Aug. 11, the “dog days” of summer are usually the hottest days of the year. According to Merriam-Webster, the term is in reference to a star, not our furry friends…“In the ancient Greek constellation system, this star (called Seirios in Greek) was considered the hound of the hunter Orion and was given the epithet Kyon, meaning ‘dog.’ The Greek writer Plutarch referred to the hot days of summer as hēmerai kynades (literally, ‘dog days’), and a Latin translation of this expression as dies caniculares is the source of our English phrase.”

Stay cool, ’Cats!


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Her favorite “dog day” is Aug. 1 (her birthday). 


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TBT: Rallying Since 1866

Photograph of Villanova Baseball player George Emma standing on a base with his mitt in mid-air. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library. Image was taken March 28, 1957.

Photograph, Baseball (George Emma), March 28, 1957. Photo courtesy of the Villanova University Digital Library.


With All-Star Week quickly approaching, the first half of the Major League Baseball season is almost finished. This week’s Throwback Thursday (TBT) features a photo from the 1957 Villanova University varsity baseball season. Did you know that Villanova first began playing varsity baseball in 1866? The program is one of the oldest collegiate programs in the country! “In a history that spans more than 150 years, Villanova has played more than 3,500 games and has had more than 1,500 student-athletes wear the uniform.”

Check out additional baseball photos in the Villanova University Digital Library. Looking for more information on the history of Villanova athletics? The exhibit, “Wildcats Past & Present: Moments from the History of Sports at Villanova,” features assorted and unique items representative of the varied sports played at Villanova. Prefer a podcast? Both episodes of the History of Athletics at Villanova can be played here.

For more baseball, explore the resources below! Catch a game this weekend: The Philadelphia Phillies begin a home series with the Washington Nationals tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. Congratulations to LSU men’s baseball! The team defeated Florida 18-4 in a winner-take-all Game 3 of the Men’s College World Series finals Monday, June 26, in Omaha, NE.


Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Library. Her favorite baseball team is the Cleveland Guardians. 

 

 


 


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TBT: Villanova 1964, Peter, Paul, and Mary Sing Out

Peter, Paul and Mary

For this Throwback Thursday, we rewind to 1964 when legendary folk band Peter, Paul, and Mary visited Villanova to play for a crowd of 4,500. Alluded to in the Belle Air yearbook simply as “The Folk Singing Trio,” Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers, sang their newly recorded hits like “If I Had a Hammer” and “Puff, the Magic Dragon.”

Peter, Paul, and Mary were a combination of entertainment and activism and sang “If I Had a Hammer” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” at the Million Man March on Washington shortly before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke, according to Michael Scott Cain’s Folk Music and the New Left in the Sixties, part of Falvey’s collection.

Check out this memory (page 64) and many others, courtesy of our Digital Library.

 


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Last Modified: June 22, 2023

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