{"id":152445,"date":"2023-03-31T12:24:21","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T16:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=152445"},"modified":"2024-08-19T17:13:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T21:13:27","slug":"12-bates-catfacts-about-jimmy-carter-jimi-hendrix-julia-child-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2023\/03\/31\/12-bates-catfacts-about-jimmy-carter-jimi-hendrix-julia-child-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Bates ‘CatFacts’ about Jimmy Carter, Jimi Hendrix, Julia Child, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During our annual stint on the Great Day to Be a Bobcat livestream, we shared a few fun and interesting CatFacts with viewers, which we now share with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great Day 2023 was another great success: 2,315 alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, and friends made gifts this year, far surpassing the donor goal of 1,855 (a number that represents Bates’ founding year). All told, donors contributed $839,026 to Bates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mays and Carter<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Benjamin Mays, the revered civil rights leader who graduated from Bates in 1920, and former President Jimmy Carter were close friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attending the 1985 dedication of the Muskie Archives and receiving an honorary degree, Carter spoke about Mays, saying, “I want to thank this college for making it possible for Dr. Benjamin Mays to overcome the handicaps of white supremacy and racism and to take his place among the prominent leaders of our nation and the world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this circa 1980 photograph, Carter and Mays warmly greet one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Howard University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Play Ball! <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This vintage Bates baseball glove belonged to Donald C. Webster ’41, a 6-foot-5 Bobcat pitcher who was dubbed a \u201clanky portsider\u201d by The Bates Student <\/em>and an \u201celongated lefty\u201d by the Bangor Daily News<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Remembering Rand <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The first Bates baseball field was on the old Rand Field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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‘Fruitful Diversion’<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 1983, when Julia Child (right) received a Bates honorary degree, she was praised for creating \u201crecipes for fruitful diversion and happiness among friends.\u201d At center is <\/em>President Hedley Reynolds; trustee at left is unidentified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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David Wilkinson \/ Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Fantastic Five<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The Bates field hockey team was undefeated in its first five years of intercollegiate competition, 1967\u20131971. Its first loss came in November 1972. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mirror<\/em> image below is from 1967, the team’s inaugural season, in which Bates defeated the University of Maine\u2013Farmington; Gorham State College, now part of the University of Southern Maine; Westbrook College (twice), now part of the University of New England; Colby; and the University of Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bates Illustrated<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This Bates\u2013Colby football photo, taken by Daryn Slover for Bates College when Garcelon Field was a natural grass (or mud) field, was splashed over two pages in Sports Illustrated<\/em> on Dec. 6, 2006, for the magazine’s “Football America” issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bates
Daryn Slover for Bates College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bette Davis Eyes<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Legendary actor Bette Davis\u2019 father, Harlow Morrell Davis, was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Bates in 1907. She didn’t think much of him: \u201cHe was too bright to enjoy being alive,” she wrote. “His contempt for all of humanity including himself was so great that he abused and neglected himself physically…. He worked himself to death.” The elder Davis died of a heart attack in 1938 at age 52.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We Dig It<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In January 1980, 12 Bates students, led by Nick Kofos ’80, set a Guinness world record by playing volleyball for 71 straight hours in the old Rand Hall gym. From the 1980 Mirror<\/em>, the photo below shows the games-played total with 16 hours to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nursing School<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 1942, to meet the need for healthcare workers in World War II, Bates launched a five-year nursing program. It graduated nearly 100 students before ending in 1958. This nursing cap has the official Bates Department of Nursing pin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Let’s Dance<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In 1922, the Bates trustees voted to allow students to have campus dances. Campus dancing had been prohibited since the college\u2019s 1855 founding. With the ban lifted, Chase Hall Lounge became the place where Bates men and women went cheek to cheek for the first time in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In League with Jimi<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

On March 16, 1968, the Bates rock band The Hanseatic League opened for legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix at the nearby Armory. The photograph of Hendrix below appears on the website Concert Archives<\/a>, Also performing that night was the legendary Lewiston garage band Terry and the Telstars. In 1975, Queen performed at the Armory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Concert Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During our annual stint on the Great Day to Be a Bobcat livestream, we shared a few CatFacts with viewers. From there to here!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":152515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,11012],"tags":[12318,6164],"class_list":["post-152445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-student-life","tag-catfacts","tag-muskie-archives-and-special-collections-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152445"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164581,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152445\/revisions\/164581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}