by Grant Ledgister | Apr 16, 2020 | COVID-19, News Slider, Sports
Telling Lipscomb athletes that sports for the semester had ended hurt Athletic Director Philip Hutcheson as much as it hurt the athletes. “It was totally heartbreaking knowing what that meant for all of our spring sport athletes,” Hutcheson said. “When I went and told the baseball team about it, I felt like I was talking to 35 guys who had all torn their ACLs at the same time and their careers were over.” From quarantines and stay-at-home orders to school closing and everything in between, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has changed daily life for people across the world. For collegiate athletes and administrators, the virus has flipped their seasons upside down. In an announcement made in early March, the NCAA canceled the seasons of all spring and winter sports. This included the popular March Madness national basketball tournament. “Obviously there are many worse things going on in the world right now than not being able to play a sport,” Hutcheson said. “But for all of these students it’s very important and something they’ve worked towards for a long time. They realize that it’s not just games they’re going to miss, it’s time with their teammates and coaches.” To make up for the inability to play, the NCAA made the decision to give athletes playing spring sports an extra year of eligibility. Some athletes, however, may not be able to take advantage of this. “We know already that about half of the seniors will not be coming back,” Hutcheson said. “The rest of them – some financial decisions have to be made. Most spring sport athletes, if not all of them,...
by Grant Ledgister | Mar 3, 2020 | News Slider
Joe Biden pulled off what national news analysts are calling “the comeback of all time” or words of that sort after the former vice president swept through the South – Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina and Arkansas – as well as took Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oklahoma and is projected to take Maine when the counting’s done in the Super Tuesday primaries, according to reports from the Associate Press, ABC News, CNN and other national news agencies. Coming after his huge victory in South Carolina last weekend, Biden has moved slightly ahead of his No. 1 rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders. Sanders underperformed – his goal was to sock the nomination away by sweeping the contests Tuesday – and he is projected to take California (the most delegate-rich state), while he did win in his home state of Vermont, as well as in Utah and Colorado. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the race Wednesday and threw his support — and his billions — behind Biden’s effort to beat Donald Trump in November. Trump, of course, was the Republican primaries choice on Tuesday. Here is our Lumination Network story leading into Tuesday’s contests: March 3 is Super Tuesday. On Super Tuesday, 15 states (including Tennessee) will hold their primaries, going a long way in deciding who will reach 1,991 delegates and be the party’s nominee for president. While he does have a challenger in former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, it is all but guaranteed President Trump will be the party’s nominee. With Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer having dropped out over the weekend, only...
by Grant Ledgister | Mar 1, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Bisons upset the Liberty Flames 77-71 Saturday afternoon in Allen Arena — in a day that honored the team’s seniors. The win locks the Bisons into the third seed in the ASUN Championship Tournament, earning a home game. “We’ve really had an unselfish bunch all year,” Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff said. “Now we’re finally seeing some fruit.” Lipscomb, despite starting the season 3-6, finishes the season at 14-15 (9-7 ASUN). “We were really dead in the water about three weeks ago,” Acuff said. “Our guys really stepped up and kept going and doing the right thing. They’re high character kids.” Against Liberty, it was all Lipscomb. The Bisons jumped out to a 21-3 lead with just seven and a half minutes played in the first half. Two minutes later, the lead was up to 29-6. Three-pointers were especially important to the Bisons in the first half. Lipscomb made 10 of the 11 free throws attempted in the first 20 minutes. “Our guys really played well,” Acuff said. “You’re just not going to hit 10 of 11 very often, but I was proud of our guys.” The Flames were able to drop the Bisons lead down to five points on several occasions in the second half, including one final attempt to steal the game that dropped the lead to 76-71 with just over a minute to play in regulation. Each time, Lipscomb was able to put a run of scoring together to keep the game out of Liberty’s reach. The Bisons had four players in double figures, including senior Andrew Fleming (20 points) and center Ahsan Asadullah (18)....
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 29, 2020 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Friday night, Lipscomb hosted animator Bruce W. Smith, who won an Academy Award for the animated short “Hair Love” and created the Disney Channel series The Proud Family. Smith spoke about his background, his time as an animator (including why he creates media featuring black stories) and gave some information on the upcoming reboot of The Proud Family on Disney+. Smith grew up in Los Angeles and fell in love with animating from a young age. Drawing was contrary to the culture of the area, and that fueled him to create more. “I was a kid who just loved to draw and had to eventually find an outlet for it,” said Smith. “I grew up in L.A. in gang culture, and you had to assimilate and fit in. You have to learn.” Smith credits his mom for inspiring him to continue to draw despite the community around him. He used her likeness and personality as inspiration for the character Suga Mama in The Proud Family. This desire to create only grew when he started animating professionally, but this time he knew what stories he wanted to tell. He noticed that black representation in animation was few and far between. “I realize that our animation business is probably made up of three to five percent African Americans,” said Smith. “Therefore, you won’t get a lot of African American content on the screen from an African American standpoint because the people aren’t there at the table to put us in primary parts of films.” Smith directed “Bebe’s Kids”, one of the first animated films to feature African Americans in a prominent...
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 24, 2020 | BREAKING NEWS, News Slider
Throughout Lipscomb’s second annual Day of Giving on Thursday, 3,520 students, alumni, and parents from all 50 states and several countries gave a total of $826,900. This quickly surpassed the goal the university had set of 2,020 donators, which unlocked a $100,000 match from an anonymous donor “for the students.” Even though the donors were mainly parents and alumni, some students thought the expectation to give was on them. “I feel like the Day of Giving would be more effective if it was a message to the parents — that the school knows is paying fully for tuition,” said sophomore LilliAnn Sutherlin. “If you ask the students as a whole you will be asking people who do not have a full-time job and some of them are struggling to pay tuition. To ask students to give money is to ask an infant to pay the bills. However, parents who are paying full tuition for their child are likely to have a job that allows them to have money to give with the incentive to make their child’s campus a better place with their donations.” At the headquarters of the event, Stephanie Carroll, the Assistant Vice President for Annual Giving and leader of the Day of Giving, did clarify the role students had in the drive. “The biggest thing that students can be doing is writing thank you notes,” said Carroll. “We want every donor to receive a personal thank you note from a student. These donors give so that it will have an impact on the students’ lives.” For example, to bring attention to the fundraiser, giveaways were held...
