Interview with Daniel Crutcher, April 19, 1996

Interview Summary

Daniel Crutcher attended a Jesuit boarding school in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin before he enrolled at the University of Kentucky in 1970. He changed his major several times from Journalism to English, transferred to the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1973, where he majored in Journalism, then transferred back to U.K. in 1974. Crutcher talks about the Kentucky Kernel, U.K.'s student newspaper, and describes the staff as well as some of the routine, where he was made editorial editor almost immediately. He recalls that U.K.'s political agenda at the time was far less intense as opposed to the campus at Madison, which he described as a "political hotbed". Crutcher talks at great length about the "splintered political climate" during the Vietnam War, and describes it as "a cynical, frustrating time". He also remembers a pervasive undercurrent of racial tension on campus, and points to U.K.'s history, especially the basketball rivalry between U.K. and the University of Louisville, which he describes as racially motivated. He talks about a tenant house he and several students rented near the Iroquois Hunt Club in Clark County, Kentucky, from Fauntleroy Pursley. Crutcher recalls they moved there to experience the "back-to-the-land movement", where some came to become involved in environmental issues, and others came to party.

Crutcher refers to U.K.'s version of an underground newspaper called the "Bluetail Fly". He mentions several Kentucky regional writers who wrote for this paper such as Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Guy Mendez, James Baker Hall, and Gurney Norman. Crutcher's first free-lance piece was about Midway, Kentucky. He met his wife Julie Beckett in Bowling Green, Kentucky; they moved to Munfordsville, Kentucky to work with the Horse Cave Theater, now called the Kentucky Repertory Theater, got married, and later moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where they worked for the Actor's Guild of Louisville. Crutcher began free-lance writing for the Louisville Courier-Journal and worked for the paper until the Binghams sold it. He resigned in 1986 to pursue a free-lance career. Fred Cowan called Crutcher and asked him to handle the press relations for Cowan's campaign for Attorney General. Crutcher talks about these responsibilities, particularly the opposition research he did regarding Todd Hollenback, who was running against Cowan. In 1991, Crutcher again worked for Cowan doing opposition research, primarily regarding Paul Patton, when Cowan ran for Lieutenant Governor.

Interview LC Subject

Crutcher, Daniel Crutcher, Daniel--Interviews University of Kentucky University of Kentucky--History

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