Pool postcard: Western Kentucky State Teachers College, Bowling Green, Kentucky

The back of the card reads: "Western's Swimming Pool is one of the most beautiful and modern of the entire South. Its natural setting, its competent force of instructors, and the strict health supervisionthat it undergoes have made of it one of the most prized and popular assets of the institution."

I bought this card, even though it's not a public pool, because the place name "Bowling Green" has always intrigued me.

Wikipedia says: "The choice of the name Bowling Green has not been attributed to any single source by historians. Some say at the first county commissioners' meeting in early 1798, the pioneers decided that the new town would be "called and known" by the name of Bolin Green." This name was after the Bowling Green in New York City, where patriots had pulled down a statue of King George III and used the lead to make bullets during the American Revolution. Others say the Virginian settlers may have been honoring Bowling Green, Virginia. Still others say, Robert Moore kept a "ball alley game" on his residence which guests called bowling on the green. Early records indicate that the city name was also spelled Bowlingreen and Bolin Green.

In 1967 the Everly Brothers made Number 40 on Billboard ot 100 with their song "Bowling Green", about the city.

History of the college

The college was known as the Western Kentucky State Teachers College between 1930 and 1948. The postcard was postmarked Feb 22, 1943.

1875 - founding of the privately owned Glasgow Normal School in Glasgow, Kentucky.
1884 - moved to Bowling Green, became the Southern Normal School and Business College.
1906 - the student body and building were transferred to the Western Kentucky State Normal School, when it was created by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly.
1911 - moved to its present location in 1911

1922 - the school was authorized by the state to grant four-year degrees and was renamed as Western Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College.

1927 - merged with Ogden College, which occupied an adjacent campus.

1930 - name changed in 1930 to Western Kentucky State Teachers College.

1948 - another name change when the school became simply Western Kentucky State College.

1963 - WKSC merged with the Bowling Green College of Commerce, formerly the Bowling Green Business University.1
1966 - Western Kentucky State College became Western Kentucky University.

These days there's a pool called the Bill Powell natatorium, with 10 lanes, spingboard diving boards, a shallow area for lounging, water basket ball & aquafit courses and a outdoor sundeck area.