"Old Blue" Gave Tours at the University of Kentucky in British Style

Passengers Boarding "Old Blue" at the University of Kentucky, ca. 1976. Photo: UKY

In the UK - the United Kingdom that is - the red double decker bus is ubiquitous. In a city the size of London's it has long been twice as efficient to carry two sets of passengers stacked on top of one another as part of transit planning.

On our side of the pond, we've long eschewed the monarchy (though you'd have been hard pressed to know it yesterday with the birth of the new prince) as well as the double-decker bus and the cabby.

The 1953 model double-decker, however, found popularity in a different UK years ago. The University of Kentucky, that is.

And "Old Blue" is the answer to last week's #ThrowbackThursday.

Owned by the Alumni Association, the double-decker with signage guiding passengers to the Picadilly Circus actually transported campus visitors around campus and alumni to home football games.

Of course, when the bus was acquired in 1974 it was stripped of its traditional red hue and replaced with a blue befitting the University of Kentucky. Her maiden voyage through campus was on September 16, 1974.

Whatever happened to Old Blue? Well, an article by Don White reveals the tale but suffice it to say she has been mothballed for the time being in Lawrenceburg.

The winner from last week's #TBT was none other than the University of Kentucky herself: