The Michigan State Spartans had a great run through March Madness, making the Elite Eight. Coach Tom Izzo may want his team to watch the playback of Sunday’s game against the U-Conn Huskies for a little self-analysis. MSU has a lot of tapes like that and other sporting events, some of which pre-date World War II. However, those old film and video clips are falling apart over time. Now, MSU is asking the public for donations to digitize those records for posterity. MSU has a real treasure trove of literally thousands of films and videos depicting Spartan life for decades: sports events, music concerts, and a lot of educational outreach projects. However, they are in danger of being lost because they’re old and brittle.
Current State’s Kevin Lavery spoke with Portia Vescio about the tapes. Vescio is the assistant director of University Archives and Historical Collections at MSU. She says some of the most interesting parts of the collection are oral histories, and some of them are quite old.