Flashback: Tracking NRV history

Roanoke Times file Oct. 1937 | Maple Shade Inn in Pulaski reopens after a spring fire.

1987
(25 years ago)
-“Radford University’s library is running out of shelf space for its books, so the school has proposed a $3.5 million addition to the John Preston McConnell Library.”
-“When Radford bounced back from its first loss in 24 regular-season games, the rebound almost blew George Wythe off the field.”
-“Virginia Tech’s football and men’s basketball programs were placed on NCAA probation Monday and the head coaches of the teams that inherited the penalties said the sanctions were more severe than expected.”

1962
(50 years ago)
-“Gov. Albertis S. Harrison will head a group of state and are civic leaders who will participate in the dedication of Inland Motor’s new facilities here [Radford] Oct. 29.”
-“Army, the best in the East, beat Virginia Tech Saturday by the margin of two fumbles.”
-“One dog led to another here [Blacksburg] Sunday, as searchers found a Montgomery county woman who had been missing for two days.”
-“Lloyd Jordan, major domo of the Southern Conference, is a man on a mission. He wants to get the VMI-Virginia Tech game on television, if not nationally, at least regionally.”
-“Take a Virginia-bred baseballer, transplant him in the desert soil of Libya and what do you come up with? In the case of young Ralph Mabry, former Dublin High School sports star, Wheelus Air Force Base at Tripoli, Libya, came up with a championship service ball team.”

1937
(75 years ago)
-“The Virginia Tech cadet band is working on a new song for the Washington and Lee game. It’s entitled ‘W. & L. Blues.’ “
-“Giles county school officials are going to take immediate legal steps to see that the compulsory school attendance laws are complied with…”
-“Playing in a sea of mud, age-old traditional enemies, Radford and Pulaski high school, fought a scoreless tie here [Pulaski] this afternoon.”
-“The chill call of the Gobbler ran through the bitterly cold October sky here this afternoon and split asunder the title hopes of Washington and Lee’s Generals, 19 to 7, as a V. P. I. homecoming crowd of 5,000 lifted its voices in wild applause for the first Virginia Tech victory in its last five games of the present season.”
-“With the general election only a few day away politics here [Giles county] is in a lethargic condition, neither major party having yet manifested any activity.”
-“Pulaski, always tardy in the past, will be among the first southwest Virginia towns to string its Christmas lights in the business section this year.”

1912
(100 years ago)
-“On a muddy field V. P. I. defeated Western Maryland by a score of 44 to 0 Saturday. The Techs played a ragged game on offense and made a number of bone-headed plays…”
-“Through the enterprise of J. E. B. Smith, an orchestra has been organized from the pupils of the [Christiansburg] high school, and arrangements have been made to have any pupil in the school, who owns an instrument, instructed gratuitously.”
-“All the ladies of Christiansburg interested in music were invited to the high school this afternoon for the purpose of organizing a music club.”
-“S. C. Snider has installed a saw mill outfit on the Gilmore plantation and will saw out lumber to fill several large contracts.”
-“R. T. Price and C.E. Jones, our [Whitethorne] progressive merchants, are purchasing their winter stock of goods from Roanoke.”
-“Miss Alice V. Hale has returned to her home here [Blacksburg] from Burmah, India, where she has been engaged in missions work for some time.”
-“Hon. Richard E. Byrd will speak in the court house here [Pulaski] next Tuesday night, on the issues of the campaign.”

-Compiled by Roanoke Times librarian Belinda Harris

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