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the loui-sville cardinal
volume xli, number 11 university of louisviUe, louisvale, kentucky 40208 november 14, 1969
Delta Zeta, Phi Tau
win float competition
, By CASS HARRIS
Cardinal Campus Editor
For an unprecedented fourth consecutive
year, Delta Zeta Sorority captured first
place in the women's division of the an­nual
Homecoming display contest. Phi
Kappa Tau Fraternity won for the second
straight year the first place trophy in the
men's division.
The two winning floats depicted a
period of time spanning from the Medieval
Age when knighthood was in flower to
the ultra-modern twentieth century age
of technology.
Delta Zeta's float featured a Cardinal
dressed in knight's armor riding a \Vhite
horse, coming down a drawbridge from
Ye Olde Corso's Castle, and piercing a
bearcat with his lance. Spelled out in Old
English letters, the slogan read "Corso's
Cardinals Need No Shield, Eleven Excali­bur,
'Tilt the Field'!". Caro! Spalding
(A&S '72) was Delta Zeta's Homecoming
chairman.
Phi Kappa Tau's float depicted the
lunar landing, with a football-shaped
landing ship in the background and a
daz'-=d bearcat sprawling in a crater, while
the Cardinal astronaut planted his victory
flag on the moon's surface. Their winning
slogan read "Victory: A giant leap for a
bearcat; A small step for a Cardinal."
Homecoming chairman for Phi Tau was
Bob Wooldridge (Speed '71).
Taking second place in the women's di­vision
was Kappa Delta's "Tame the Bear­cats,"
a three-ring circus with a Cardinal
Bearcat Tamer. Nu Sigma Chi received
second place in the men's division with
"Make Cincy Sadder, Budweiser," fea­turing
a giant beer keg and urging UL to
"Tap Cincy for a Big Score."
Chi Omega's Good Ship Corso,' with
Cardinal"pirates and a peg-legged Cardi­nal
captain at the helm, took third place
in the women's division. Their slogan was
"Scuttle Cincy." Lambda Chi Alpha won
third place in the men's division with
"Strip the Cats Bare." Their float dis­played
a large "Barecat House" complete
with appropriate music.
Other Homecoming activities saw Queen
Bobbi Lyddy (A&S '72) and her court
reigning over the football game and dance,
and the retroactive conferring of 800 Juris
Doctor (J.D.) degrees on graduates of the
UL School of Law.
-Photo by John Beckman
Homecoming Queen Bobbi Lyddy
UL's try at the big time only partially successful
-SttJff Photo
Turned on
On his knees before a capacity crowd in
Freedmn Hall i8 comedian Bill Cosby, de­livering
one o I several very funny routines.
Tke Friday concert, featuring Cosby and
Junior Walker was UL's biggest e-ntertain­me-
nt ve-nture yet.
By MARY LOU GRUNDY
Cardinal Staff Writer
"Did you hear Bill Cosby Friday night?"
The coed replied, "Yeah, at times . . .
about as much as I heard the announcer
at the Homecoming game. But I had a
good time anyway." So went the com­ments
Monday of those who participated
in the biggest UL Homecoming yet.
Estimates of the UL Homecoming fea­turing
Bill Cosby and Junior Walker
Concert, parade, game, and dance ranged
from $34,000 to $40,000. Final costs will
not be known until all receipts are ac­counted
for and bills paid.
The concert, attended by 6,949 people
and sponsored by the Student Activities
Board, was the first big-time entertain­ment
venture in UL's history. The com­plications
were as involved as the final
expense.
Four weeks before Homecoming the
SAB was without a concert guest. Glen
Campbell was originally booked but he
was unable to make the engagement.
Cosby contracted
With the help of Gary Steedley, ad­viser
to the SAB, Bill Cosby and Junior
Walker were contracted to appear for
$25,000. Unlike other entertainers, Cosby
has no advance people for staging concerts.
SAB was instructed by Cosby to have
white spotlights and a microphone with
which he could walk around the stage.
For college concerts, Cosby and Walker
rely on students to help remove stage
equipment before Cosby appears. Thus
the confusion after Junior Walker per­formed.
Complications with the sound system
and the size of Freedom Hall caused diffi­culty
in hearing. Lou Bornweiser, chief
director for WXKE, handled Freedom
Hall's acoustics. Bornweiser and r..is staff
attempted to correct acoustical problems
with four complete sound systems. "It
was the biggest sound system in the whole
state of Kentucky," said Bornweiser.
$4,000 worth of sound equipment was
rented for $135.
According to Bornweiser, faulty sound in
the Hall was due to misplacement of con-trois
during the first half of the show,
Cosby performing with his own micro­phone,
and the size of Freedom Hall. He
called Freedom Hall "an acoustical mon­strosity."
· Promotion for the concert was the key
to success or failure. During the four
weeks prior to the concert, SAB contacted
all the major ticket outlets in the Ken­tucky,
Southern Indiana, and Cincinnati
area. Notices and tickets were available at
Louisville record shops, W AKY radio sta­tion,
high schools, Indiana University, all
major Kentucky colleges, and on the UL
campus. A thousand posters costing $500
were sent to all these places. Advertising
was done in the Courier-Journal and
Times, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Fort
Knox's underground paper.
Donna Hill, secretary in charge of pro­motion,
estimated the total cost of publici­ty
at $2,000. According to Miss Hill, pro­motion
costs included W AKY's fee of six
per cent of the gross. She also said, "This
was the most promotion done for a UL
event. It was the first time we had a
unified effort with students. Problems
were minimal compared to the size of the
event and the time we had."
Chris Askins, chairman of the ticket
committee, was not so satisfied with pub­licity.
She said, "Publicity wasn't suf­ficient.
W AKY publicity was out of this
world but the rest of it wasn't worth two
cents. Publicity was the whole thing."
Distribution of tickets was unsatisfac­tory
to many UL students. Midway
through the first half of the concert stu­dents
seated in the end zones staged a mass
movement to the empty box seats on the
sidelines. ·
'Not enough time'
Miss Askins attributed the student dis­satisfaction
to several things. She said,
"We didn't have enough time even though
we covered more area than ever before.
We needed eight weeks not four."
Also, campus organizations were sent
letters urging them to purchase blocks
of seats three weeks before tickets went
on the open market. Slow response from
the organizations held up ticket selling
I •
for three days. Miss Askins said UL stu­dents
were able to purchase tickets the
week following confirmation of the or­ganizations'
block seats.
Another problem was inadequate help.
Steedley and Miss Askins both said a full­time
person was hired to sell tickets but
she "didn't work out." Classes prevented
sufficient student help.
Students were reluctant to sell tickets,
said Steedley. "No student wants to deal
out 1,000 or 2,000 tickets and be respon­sible
for the money involved."
All the tickets were split into fourths
for distribution. The record shops had an
individual block to sell as did the other
schools and Belknap Campus. The result­ing
empty box seats on the sidelines were
due to insufficient sales at individual
places, said Steedley.
Seating arrangement
When asked about the seating at Free­dom
Hall, Miss Askins said it was done
in the round for a better percentage of
good seats. Steedley said, "Performers
like Cosby will not appear in a hall that
does not have maximum seating. We
couldn't use Convention Center because
it only seats 7,500 people."
A special student section was not pro­vided
because there was no guarantee as
to how many students would purchase
tickets. Don Belcher, athletic ticket man­ager,
said 2,566 tickets were purchased
by students. The remaining 4,383 tickets
were purchased by alumni and the com­munity.
According to Steedley, the success of
the concert depended partly on the re­sponse
of the community. "With a student
body of 3,500," said Steedley, ''we have
to depend on the community when we
want to have something big-time."
A question heard on campus when it
was made known that Cosby would be
the main attraction was, "Why at UL?"
Dale Orem, associate director of alumni
relations, said it was an effort to attract
more alumni to Homecoming. "Something
like Cosby solidifies the entire weekend
and," said Orem, .. people had more rea­son
to come."