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Aug. 8, 2007
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
A new grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) will help the University of Maryland preserve one of its most precious pieces of sports memorabilia - a 16mm film of the November 6, 1948 University of Maryland - South Carolina Football game. The film is the only known copy of the game, which Maryland won 19-7.
It is one of the two oldest pieces of athletic film in the University of Maryland Archives."Due to its advanced state of deterioration, this film has not been available to researchers and Terrapin fans for decades," says Audiovisual Archivist Kate Murray. "We're thrilled to receive this grant that will mean so much to Terp fans of all ages."
The NFPF was created by Congress to help save America's film heritage, and its grant process is highly competitive. An off-campus vendor, Triage Motion Picture Services, will work to produce a new, high-quality negative from the original. The film will also be turned into a DVD for access by researchers and Terp fans. On-line users won't be forgotten either. A digital version will be accessible as streaming media through the University of Maryland Libraries' web portal by summer, 2008. A copy will also be provided to the University of South Carolina.
The University of Maryland Archives, of which this film is a part, is one of the primary campus resources for the history of University of Maryland athletics. University Archivist Anne Turkos says there are more than 700 boxes of documents and photographs, nearly 4,000 moving images (film and video), and hundreds of pieces of memorabilia, e.g. uniforms, trophies, stopwatches, posters, old football helmets, and wooden lacrosse sticks."There are many stories to be told hidden in this vast amount of documentation," says Turkos. "We hope that this grant from the NFPF will be the start of a major effort to preserve our campus's distinguished athletic heritage."
release courtesy of the University of Maryland Communications Office
