From internships to student achievements to recognition of The University of Tampa faculty and institution as a whole, the following is a running archive of UT press releases, called News Articles, and feature stories, noted as UT Life.
Posted January 08, 2018 in UT Life
Chubby Checker may have been the one to take The Twist to the top of the charts in September 1960, but did you know the song, written by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, has its origins in Tampa?
“Little Milton, Bobby Bland and I can’t tell you how many other artists have all told me that the kids on Central Avenue (in Tampa) started the Twist. That’s where Hank Ballard saw it,” says Bob Scheir, who hosted Blues with a Groove for many years on Tampa public radio (WMNF).
Ballard’s original version was released through King Records in 1959, and many people who were peers of Ballard, who died in 2003 from lung cancer, confirm the song’s origins.
The little-known origin of The Twist is just one story John Capouya chronicles in his recently released book, Florida Soul: From Ray Charles to KC and the Sunshine Band. The book’s own origins began with an article Capouya wrote for The Tampa Bay Times on the 50th anniversary of Chubby Checker’s Twist and the role Hank Ballard played.
Posted in News
The University of Tampa has been selected as one of 10 schools in the U.S. by the Institute of International Education (IIE) to participate in the binannual Congreso Universidad Cuban International Education Conference.
As part of the program, David Stern, UT’s provost; Marca Bear, associate dean of international programs; Frank Ghannadian, dean of the Sykes College of Business; David Gudelunas, dean of the College of Arts and Letters; Jack Geller, dean of the College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education; and Paul Greenwood, dean of the College of Natural and Health Sciences, will travel to Havana Feb. 11–17.