The Crawfish Boil has been a signature campus event, with a consistently strong turnout, since 1986. The event marks a spring rite of passage on campus, connecting the Cardinal Family to amazing food and a chance to give back.

“The Student Activities Board hosts this event where we bring the alumni, current Cardinals, future Cardinals together and we all get together to celebrate what it means to be at the University of Louisville while also supporting academic endeavors through scholarship funding,” said Ashley Triplett, coordinator of Student Activities Board.

Proceeds from the dinner go to Red Barn scholarships and the Red Barn Alumni Association.

Throughout the past year, COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of campus life from classes to commencement. Accordingly, the Crawfish Boil planning committee had to adapt to new safety protocols and institute a virtual aspect for people to take part in this tradition while keeping health top of mind.

“Normally you would experience having a buffet style, but this year, we are incorporating a dine-in reservation system where people will come in, be able to social distance and to sit down with their party and eat within a 45-minute window. Then we will move on to our next reservation,” Triplett said.

Additionally, the group decide to make the boil free for UofL students. Community tickets are $10.

The dine-in experience will follow social distancing protocols that allows a reservation for up to five individuals. Though dine-in reservations are limited, student carry-out is an option the board made possible this year. A carry-out walk up will be available for free for UofL students only.

The original idea for the Crawfish Boil came from Student Activities Board Adults on Campus committee member Charlotte Hardin, formally Bowen, in 1986. She asked her father, Bill Bowen, a surgeon in Columbia, South Carolina, who raised crawfish, to fly several hundred pounds of crawfish to Louisville. He agreed. Dave Baugh, director of financial systems for the university, cooked the crawfish that year and has been the chef behind the boil every year since.��

Neeli.

Jenny.

Vince.

Then there’s George, a metaphorical giant by comparison.

George Howe is as big as it gets here on the Belknap campus. He has led or been involved in countless milestones and events, has touched the lives of thousands of students and has made all the difference to so many of them. There’s a reason one of our main student hubs is called the George J. Howe Red Barn.      

And now, after a prolific 50-year career at the University of Louisville, Howe is ready to retire. September 1, 2020 marks his last day as Student Affairs’ director of special programs and advancement.

Howe arrived at UofL by way of his hometown of Grove City, Pennsylvania, then New Concord, Ohio, where he earned his bachelor’s degree from Muskingum College in 1965, then Morgantown, West Virginia, where he received his master’s degree in 1969.  

Following his time in Morgantown, he attended a National Association for Campus Activities conference at the University of North Carolina. There, he met UofL’s dean of students, Gary Steedly, who told Howe the university was planning to hire its first director of student activities.

The two hit it off and Howe assumed the new position on July 1, 1970, the same day UofL entered the state system.

“Gary was instrumental in my being hired,” Howe said.

During his interview process, Howe asked to see the Red Barn, which at the time was part of part of Caldwell Tanks Inc.

“I knew in my heart that this building had great potential,” he said.

In all of those years since, Howe has made sure that building has indeed lived up to its potential. In fact, his very first priority on the job was to merge the existing Student Activities Board with the students who were involved with the Red Barn. At that time, the SAB hosted concerts – like the 5^th Dimension – at Freedom Hall and Howe had a different vision, one that brought such events to campus.

The students were agreeable to his vision and merged to become the Union for Student Activities. That group, Howe included, was instrumental in saving and renovating the Red Barn when it was threatened with demolition.

Howe counts the “Save the Red Barn” campaign as one of his biggest accomplishments and remembers the effort – and the people involved – well.  

“Dave Lee, director of facilities management, and Harry Sparks, assistant director of facilities management, were the driving force with saving and renovating the Red Barn with the support of our students, Harold Adams, assistant vice president for student life, Dr. Ed. Hammond, vice president for student affairs, and Dr. James G. Miller, president,” Howe recalls. “Dave and Harry’s office was in what was most recently the Cultural Center. We became instant friends and they loved the Red Barn, and the rest is history.”

A big piece of UofL history, in fact. The “saved” Red Barn as it stands today was formally dedicated on March 30, 1979.

A little over a year later, on May 2, 1980, ABC Sports and the University of Louisville Friday Night Live program hosted a live broadcast from the Red Barn to coincide with the Kentucky Derby. The broadcast included a concert by Dan Fogelberg, where the singer debuted “Run for the Roses.”

While saving the Red Barn is fine and good and iconic if you’re a Louisville Cardinal, if Howe were to pick his top career accomplishment, it would be helping to establish the Red Barn Alumni Association in 1985. That association has created eight endowments and 13 programs within Student Affairs that have provided nearly 1,900 scholarships to UofL students totaling $468,907.70. Add in the RBAA’s contribution of $47,855 for student programs since 1988, and you get a combined total of $516,762.70, Howe proudly shares.

Still, there are proud moments and there are favorite moments. Howe is proud of the “Save the Red Barn” campaign and the hundreds of thousands of dollars provided to students through the RBAA. His favorite moment, however, is when the Red Barn was renamed and dedicated in his name on Dec. 7, 2007.

“I am eternally grateful to Frank Mianzo (then-assistant to the vice president for student affairs), who was the force behind the renaming,” Howe said.

Of course, the University of Louisville extends well beyond the Red Barn, and Howe is quick to express his appreciation about the institution as a whole – especially its students.

“My favorite feature about UofL is the spirit of serving our wonderful students whom without we would not be here,” he said. “This spirit as a university has enabled us to achieve extraordinary accomplishments.”

President Neeli Bendapudi, he adds, has “further enhanced that spirit.”

Howe reflects on his time at UofL with ease and enthusiasm, careful not to forget a person or a detail from his memory. He acknowledges the tremendous growth of all three campuses during his tenure, noting the Red Barn wasn’t even part of the Belknap Campus in 1969.

And while enrollment has jumped from about 8,000 in 1970 to over 20,000 today, he said the students have largely stayed the same, in a good way.

“Over my 50 years at UofL, I am amazed and gratified at how wonderful our students are most appreciative of our guidance and support to their welfare and growth through their out-of-classroom experience that we are able to provide them,” he said.

And, if asked whether or not he would change anything about his career here, he simply answers, “not a thing.”

Howe’s retirement plans include enjoying time with his wife, Karen, daughters, Heidi and Amy, and grandchildren, Alba, Haley and Drew. His supervisor, Glenn Gittings, has also “made it clear” that Howe is welcome to return to the Red Barn whenever he wants.

“We will enjoy returning to UofL to see all of many wonderful friends,” Howe said.

In the meantime, Howe makes a point to thank those who have provided him with support throughout the past 50 years – an extensive list that includes the entire Student Affairs staff, especially Glenn Gittings, Kenny Quisenberry, Julie Onnembo, Stuart Neff, Teresa Smith, Suzanne Galbreath, Pam Curtis, Allison Commings, Nakia Strickland, Tim Moore, Dale Ramsay, John Smith and Dr. James Michael Mardis.�� He also thanks those from the RBAA, especially Jimmy Snyder, Michel Cohen, Chuck Erik, Chase White, Ginger Brown, Edlisa Embry, Karen Howe, Louise and Louis Bornwasser, Ellen and Dane Burton, Ted Williams, Lois Adams-Rodgers, Rob McGeachin, Paul Noltemeyer, Beth Roberts and Ray “Poogie” Eastridge.��                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The Student Activities Board and Red Barn Alumni Association were scheduled to host the event in the George Howe Red Barn today, April 17. In lieu of celebrating one of the longest-running traditional events on UofL’s campus in person, we’ll take a quick look at the event’s history, courtesy of SAB.��

The first Crawfish Boil at UofL was held in 1986 through the Student Activities Board Adults on Campus committee. Charlotte Hardin, formerly Bowen, was a committee member at that time. Her father, Dr. Bill Bowen, was a surgeon in Columbia, South Carolina, and had a hobby of raising crawfish in plains between Columbia and Charleston. Charlotte first brought the idea of a Crawfish Boil to light.

At her request, Dr. Bowen flew several hundred pounds of live crawfish to Louisville that year, and the first Crawfish Boil was underway. Dave Baugh, UofL’s director of financial systems, agreed to cook the crawfish that year and has been the master chef of the Crawfish Boil for each of its installments since.

Since 1986, the Crawfish Boil has become a staple event at the Red Barn, not only providing an opportunity for people to get together on a spring day, but also to raise money for student scholarships. All proceeds from the event go back toward Red Barn scholarships and the RBAA.��

Every year, George Howe steps in to help SAB and the RBAA plan this tremendous event, and without his help, it would not be possible to maintain the level of quality this event garners. Until next year, Cards! 

Like The Thinker and the alumni clock tower, the Red Barn is an iconic landmark enabling signature moments on the Belknap Campus, from the annual Crawfish Boil to job fairs to book sales to the debut of Dan Fogelberg’s Derby-themed song, “Run for the Roses.”

Campus will officially mark the building’s 50^th anniversary with a celebration on Oct. 25 from 6-9 p.m.

There is certainly plenty to celebrate. Consider the history created in that single building, which used to be a metal fabrication and welding shop for the Caldwell Tank Company, by the way. The Caldwell property was acquired by the university through urban renewal in 1969 and the structure was scheduled for eventual destruction.

However, according to “The University of Louisville,” by Dwayne D. Cox and William J. Morison, its 5,000 square feet of floor space proved enticing to a group of enterprising students. Led by Louis Bornwasser (’70), a group of students requested funding from then-President Woodrow M. Strickler to turn the “drafty, leaky building into a passable concert hall, dance hall and movie theatre.”

Prior to this renovation, there weren’t many spaces on campus dedicated to student activities, and Bornwasser saw an opportunity. Strickler must have too, as the students’ funding request to renovate and maintain the building was granted from the university. The “Save the Red Barn” campaign added a new stage, new lighting and sound equipment, a new roof and an addition to house the Student Activities office, with George Howe tapped to lead the department.

Before long, the Red Barn began providing an outlet for student events. Comedian and social activist Dick Gregory spoke there, while benefit performances were held for environmental campaigns in a politically charged time.

According to the book, in April 1970, attorney William Kunstler was scheduled to speak. A year prior, he gained notoriety with his courtroom defense of “The Chicago Seven,” leaders of demonstrations held at the 1968 Democratic national convention. One day before Kunstler’s appearance, the city fire marshal made an unexpected visit, found the building to be one exit short of acceptable, and prohibited use of the building.

However, a maintenance crew worked around the clock to frame a new doorway, breaking through three layers of brick in the process. University administrators may not have been enamored of Kunstler, the book notes, but they liked censorship even less. During his address to a full house, a bomb threat forced the evacuation of the building. After a search found nothing amiss, 1,100 students filed back in.

Perhaps the biggest Red Barn moment came during the building’s traditional “Derby Eve” party in 1980, in which ABC television broadcast “Friday Night Live from the Kentucky Derby” at the facility. Singer Dan Fogelberg premiered his hit song “Run for the Roses” – which continues to be a perennial staple of the Kentucky Derby – and the program featured interviews with UofL’s 1980 NCAA championship team.

During that event, actor and horseman Jack Klugman was wedged into the audience, which left a bad impression. At one point he reacted to the noise, the crowds and the heat by looking into the camera and declaring, “If my horse wins the Derby, I’m going to buy this garage and then I’m going to burn it to the ground.”

Showing their affinity for the building their predecessors saved, UofL students roundly booed Klugman and named the Red Barn’s bathrooms after him and his horse.

This affinity continues today.

For Howe, who now leads special programming at the Red Barn, and for whom the building was named after in 2008, the building may have a strong 50-year legacy, but it’s just getting started.

“When I think about what’s next, I always think of that song by The Carpenters called, ‘We’ve Only Just Begun,’” he said. “There’s something magical about this building, that to this day when I walk in, I feel the transformation. It’s so positive and it’s so uplifting. Call it karma. Call it whatever you want, but it’s here to stay.”

As part of the Oct. 25 celebration, Stuart Neff (’81), coordinator for special projects for the Student Activities Board, will be recognized as the recipient of the 2019 RBAA Mary Fay Rumford Unsung Hero Award. Also, a commemorative porcelain Red Barn plate with the original Red Barn watercolor by Gene Hatfield (1989) will be given to the first 30 attendees contributing a minimum of $100 as part of the Red Barn 50^th anniversary celebration. Money will directly benefit UofL students.

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In 2009, University of Louisville’s Student Activities Board voiced its interest in bringing arts entertainment to campus. Though members didn’t experience any push back from top administrators, achieving their goal was a challenge nonetheless because of lack of funding and resources.

Coincidentally, however, Billy Hardison, who worked for the Public Radio Partnership, wanted to grow WFPK Radio’s student audience at the time. Understanding the value of showcasing local talent and giving it a home on a college campus immediately paved the way for a relationship that blossomed into the WFPK Live Lunch series.

Friday’s event marks the 29th Live Lunch, which takes place at the Red Barn on the Belknap campus and begins at 11 a.m. Brent Cobb, a country singer-songwriter that has a Grammy-nominated album, is the featured artist, and the SAB is providing food, including burgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs for all those in attendance.

With the help of WFPK, the event is marketed, set up, staffed and run by students of SAB and the organization’s concert committee.

“We want UofL students, whether they are from Louisville or California, to be aware of this and all of the incredible things the city has to offer,” said Gillian Casey, ULEAD Scholar and SAB’s director of programming.��

The first Live Lunch event was held at the Red Barn on Sept. 18, 2009. For the first few years, SAB hosted between three to four Live Lunches a year. In the current scheduling, there is one during the fall and one in the spring.

The connection reinforces both the city’s and University of Louisville’s affinity for the arts, which is growing at a rapid rate.

In 2015, Time Magazine recognized Louisville as one of America’s top 10 music scenes. In 2017, Paste Magazine identified Louisville as one of the best and fastest growing theatre scenes in the country.

That’s quite a milestone considering the facility was once on the brink of destruction.��For decades, the building served as a metal fabrication and welding shop for the Caldwell Tank Company. In 1969, UofL purchased the property and scheduled the structure for demolition.

However, according to “The University of Louisville,” by Dwayne D. Cox and William J. Morison, the 5,000-square-foot space appealed to a small group of students who begged administrators for some money to use the building as a concert hall and movie theater. The students were encouraged by a few UofL officials, including George Howe, head of student activities, and Harold Adams, housing director.

A few years later, President James Miller (1973-1980) approved a $500,000 renovation of the building, in response to a “Save the Red Barn” campaign. The renovation, completed in 1979, included a new stage, new lighting and sound equipment, a new roof and the addition of the student activities office.

Since, the Red Barn has hosted a number of events and speakers, including ABC’s “Friday Night Live from the Kentucky Derby” in 1980, when singer Dan Fogleberg premiered his song “Run for the Roses.” The song peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100.��

The survival of the Red Barn years after its proposed destruction seems to have conjured up a fierce loyalty from the Cardinal faithful. During the Friday Night Live from the Kentucky Derby event, actor Jack Klugman declared, “If my horse wins the Derby, I’m going to buy this garage and then I’m going to burn it to the ground.”

According to “The University of Louisville,” “the students booed him roundly and commemorated the event by dedicating the Red Barn’s bathrooms to ‘Jack’ and his horse ‘Jaklin.’”

In 1992, the Red Barn Alumni Association established a scholarship in the name of Florence Strickler, the wife of UofL president Woodrow Strickler (1968-1972). Florence supported the original group of students who fought to save the facility and was affectionately known as the “First Lady of the Red Barn,” according to “University of Louisville Belknap Campus,” written by Tom Owen and Sherri Pawson.

In 2007, the building was officially dedicated as the George J. Howe Red Barn.��

Today, the Red Barn continues to host programs of a diverse nature, including concerts, movies, cookouts, meetings, and various other social and administrative events.

With the assistance of the Red Barn Alumni Association, the Red Barn is also home to four endowed programs to benefit UofL students: the Harold Adams Memorial Scholarship Fund, the Red Barn Alumni Association (RBAA) Florence M. Strickler Endowment, the Torchbearer Endowment, and the Louis W. & Louise Weisser Bornwasser Student Emergency Fund. These combined endowments and other Red Barn gifts have provided a total of more than $400,000 in scholarships and aid for UofL students since 1988.

The Red Barn is one of the buildings on the Belknap campus that is part of the National Register of Historic Places.

and will include special recognition of the 2018 RBAA Mary Fay Rumford Unsung Hero Award.��

Photo courtesy of .��

Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 14 and the live broadcast starts at noon. UofL students and employees can attend free of charge, but they need valid UofL IDs for entry.

The University of Louisville Students Activities Board and the Red Barn Alumni Association sponsor the show.

SAB will have a free lunch for attendees.��A limited number of seats are reserved for pre-registered Louisville Public Media members. Remaining seats are first come, first served.

The Villebillies formed in 2000 as a group of loosely-related musicians and MCs to collaborate. The group’s music is a mix of rap, hooks and harmonies. Their new album, “Holy Water” will be released on Oct. 14.

Since 2009, SAB has partnered with the radio station to host a few “Live Lunch” broadcasts at the Red Barn each year.��“Live Lunch” is a weekly concert produced by WFPK. The program features local acts or groups that are in town for performances later the evening of the broadcast.��

The event is Saturday, June 25 at The Crossings, 205 Letts Road, Brooks, Kentucky. Check-in is at 7 a.m. and the shotgun start is at 8 a.m.

Cost is $60 per person and includes 18 holes of golf, golf cart, award ceremony and cookout which includes hamburgers, hot dogs and assorted drinks.��The first 80 paid participants will be accepted.

Please note that the golf course requires the use of soft spikes and all food and beverage must be purchased through The Crossings Golf Club.

All net profit to benefit UofL students through the RBAA.

The winning team qualify to play in the held at Pinehurst #2 and #4 and will receive an expense paid trip to compete in the Acura College Alumni Team Championship Oct. 27-30. The trip will include accommodations at the Carolina Hotel, all meals and two rounds of golf on the world famous Pinehurst #2 and #4 courses. Transportation to Pinehurst is the responsibility of the winning team.

For additional information contact Kenny Quisenberry, 852-0313, or George Howe, 852-7467.

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