The community celebrated Lindsey Wilson University Week following an official declaration by Mayor Pamela Hoots as last week’s homecoming festivities got underway on campus.
Legacies, both large and small, of Lindsey Wilson University were celebrated and on display during the homecoming weekend.
The weekend officially got underway on Thursday with a special alumni chapel service in the John B. Begley Chapel led by the Rev. Jordan Knipp Hunter, pastor of Leitchfield United Methodist Church. The festivities culminated on Saturday at Parnell Family Stadium with the crowning of the homecoming queen and king and their court during halftime of the LWU-Bethel (Tennessee) University football game.
At all of the events, the Lindsey Wilson legacy was celebrated and extolled in a variety of ways, with a focus on university traditions that embody the spirit and love of the Lindsey Wilson mission.
As Lindsey Wilson Director of Alumni Relations Allison Cross reminded guests at the annual Alumni Awards Breakfast, “Regardless of when you were here, you are all part of the same story.”
“Part of our legacy is our heart,” Cross said at the breakfast on Saturday in the Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center. “Loving and caring for others is synonymous with Lindsey Wilson. It’s about making a difference that continues long after we are gone.”
Lindsey Wilson National Alumni Association President Tanner Strein of Lexington said that a Lindsey Wilson legacy that stood out to him when he first walked on campus as a freshman in fall 2009 was the school’s ability to leverage opportunities.
“Lindsey Wilson sees opportunities that others often don’t, we take advantage of them, and we continue to grow,” he said.
Strein, who was a member of Lindsey Wilson’s first football team in 75 years when it took the field in fall 2010, was selected to toss the coin for the LWU-Bethel football game. It was the second time he had performed the duty – and, he noted, for the second time, the Blue Raiders won the toss.
“When I think about our football program, I think about how much of it was built from the ground up,” he said following the coin toss. “There were so many people who were part of creating that legacy – student trainers, the coaches, the players and the administration. It’s just like every other legacy we’ve created here – it’s been a community effort to make it happen.”
Three alumni, retired professor honored
At the Alumni Awards Breakfast, the Lindsey Wilson National Alumni Association honored three alumni and named a retired professor an honorary alumnus.
One of those honored alumni, Carissa Jury, said she learned while a Lindsey Wilson student that “lifting up others is the most meaningful thing we can do in our lives.”
Jury received the Outstanding Young Alumna Award.
“When I think back to my time here at Lindsey Wilson, I realized this place gave me so much more than an education – it gave me opportunities, friendship, love, purpose, memories that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” said Jury, who is an emergency room nurse in Louisville, who is also involved in the city’s civic life and promotes education among the city’s youth.
Lindsey Wilson trustee Daniel Burlacu of Prosper, Texas, recalled how the plethora of opportunities to get involved with campus life have helped shape his life beyond Lindsey Wilson.
“Throughout my years at Lindsey I had a chance to get involved in so many things,” said Burlacu, who received the Distinguished Alumnus Award and is the head of Google Workspace for Enterprise and Strategic Accounts in the United States. “It opened so many doors, not only here but all the years after I graduated. It’s been such a blessing.”
The late Dalton Miller was presented with the Distinguished Service Award posthumously for his service as mayor and civic leader of Stanford. An Adair County native and Army veteran, Miller died earlier this year of colon cancer. His widow, Treina, accepted the award.
Lindsey Wilson Executive Vice President Dean Adams said that during a visit he paid to Miller about two weeks before he died, Miller wanted an update about his alma mater.
“As I was leaving, he said to me, ‘Would you make sure that (Lindsey Wilson President William T.) Dr. Luckey and his wife, Elise, know what Lindsey Wilson University has meant to me?’” Adams said.
Tim McAlpine, who was an English professor from 1998-2021, received the Honorary Alumnus Award for his more than two decades of service.
McAlpine, who sent a video message because he was traveling in Japan with his wife, Suzy, called the honor “an unexpected blessing because as you teach every day it’s a wonderful thing to know that by God’s grace I must have done some good.”
“It’s a blessing to know that some remember you, and remember you positively,” he said.
Two more legacy moments
At the LWU-Bethel football game, three more Lindsey Wilson legacies were born at Parnell Family Stadium.
The No. 9-ranked Blue Raiders won the game 42-10 to improve to 8-2 overall and 3-1 Mid-South Conference.
In the game, senior running back Davontaye Saunders of Eminence, broke the program’s all-time scoring record, which now stands at 336 points; he also broke the single single-season touchdown record, which stands at 22 following his two touchdown runs in the game.
Lindsey Wilson closes out the regular season this Saturday at the University of the Cumberlands.
And during halftime, the McIntyre family of Louisville became instant Lindsey Wilson legacies. Siblings Jordan and Jada McIntyre were crowned Homecoming king and queen, respectively. It was the first time siblings were crowned king and queen together.
Both are jumpers on the LWU track and field team -- Jordan competes in the high jump, and Jada competes in the triple jump and long jump. Both siblings are also psychophysiology majors
The first runner-up king and queen were Cole Burch of Philpot, who represented football; and Devyn Collins of Crestwood, who represented the LWU chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
The second runner-up king and queen were Cade Ramsey of Russell Springs, who represented the Lindsey Wilson Singers; and Hadleigh Parrish of Russell Springs, who represented Mosaic, a campus ministries group.
By Duane Bonifer
LWU Communications
