Athletic Communications office makes headway on digitization project
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman athletic communications office has completed the first step in a long journey to archiving the athletic department’s historical records.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman athletic communications office has completed the first step in a long journey to archiving the athletic department's historical records.
Final statistics have been put into current statistical software as far back as 1965 (in the case of men's basketball) and back to the start of the option era (1980) for Carson-Newman football. Baseball, women's basketball, softball, men's soccer, women's soccer and volleyball have also had their statistics digitized as far back as 1990.
"Much like anything this was a team effort," Carson-Newman Director of Athletic Communications Adam Cavalier said. "So much of this is owed to the thoughtfulness, diligence and attention to detail of Sydney Spadafora (a women's soccer player and work study). Her zeal, zest and thirst for knowledge throughout this process was highly motivating and a big reason why we got as far as we did this summer."
In addition to the digitization of final statistics, Spadafora also scanned every media guide in the athletic department's possession. For instance, fans and alum can now view things like 1961 Carson-Newman Football Press Guide, featuring then co-captain, C-N student body president and ministerial student Fran Buhler; or the 1965 Spring Sports Folio, featuring the first team at Carson-Newman to win a national championship in the 1965 baseball team; or the Kansas City Lights Carson-Newman men's basketball media guide from the Eagles run to the NAIA tournament.
All the digitized media guides can be found at cneagles.com in the archives section of each sport.
The efforts have unveiled several individuals who hit statistical milestones. For instance, the men's basketball program has gone from 26 known and confirmed 1,000-point scorers to 39.
Included in that is Carson-Newman associate AD Eddie Carter, who joins Mike Ogan and Tommy Everette as members of the 1,000-point and 1,000-rebound club for a career. Carter scored 1,255 points in his career from 1974-78. The greatest scorer previously unaccounted for in men's basketball is David Mills, who scored 1,471 career points from 1972-76.
The records also reach into other sports, current Gibbs head softball coach and Carson-Newman Hall of Famer Carol Zachary (now Mitchell), tallied 92 hits during the 1989 season, retroactively tying Kelli Hensley for the single-season school record that Hensley set during the 2014 season.
"This project is far from over," Cavalier said. "We're still missing several years' worth of guides from all sports. Our goal is for fans and alums to easily access any information on Carson-Newman athletics past and present. The eventual goal is to have actual web rosters, schedules and results for the 1969 football team, just like you do the 2019 Carson-Newman football team. That is the next bite of the elephant, and we'll eat that pachyderm one bite at a time."
The digitization project is still missing media guides. If you happen to have a year missing from the archives, please ship to:
Carson-Newman Digitization Project
C/O Adam Cavalier
2130 South Branner Ave
Jefferson City, TN 37760
