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Oral history interview with Marc Ratner conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on January 9, 2025 for the Game On! The Oral History of Sports in Las Vegas Project. In this interview, Ratner recalls arriving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a teenager with his parents and attending John C. Fremont Junior High School and Las Vegas High School. It was in high school that he formed a lifetime friendship with Sig Rogich, which later helped shape his career. Following high school, he graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1966. In Reno, he joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and played baseball and ran track. Following his graduation from UNR, he returned to Las Vegas and in 1980, he joined Rogich at R&R Advertising until Rogich left in 1992 to become United States Ambassador to Iceland. In 1985, he joined the five-member Nevada Athletic Commission, becoming Executive Director in 1993. He recalls Lorenzo Fertitta approaching him in 2005 to join UFC; he resigned and eventually resigning from the Athletic Commission in 2006 to join UFC. Throughout the interview, he recounts presiding over iconic boxing matches over the years, tensions between owners of UFC and various unions, hall of fame inductions, and working as a shot clock operator for the UNLV Rebels. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
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Oral history interview with Kirk Silvernail conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on January 22, 2025 for the UNLV Remembers: an Oral History of the 6 December 2023 Shootings project. In this interview, Assistant Professor-in-Residence, Lee Business School Kirk Silvernail, recalls the events of the day and about other traumas he experienced leading up to December 6, including the unexpected death of his mother in May 2023 as she sought to complete the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain. He recalls December 6--his birthday--beginning with a student presentation, and hearing an odd sound when another student opened the door, alerting them to the shooter. He recalls his colleague and friend, Jerry Chang, and speaks of economics professor Daraboth “Bot” Rith, who was shot multiple times. He describes leading students out the back door of the building to the parking lot, seeing police enter Beam Hall, and hearing a volley of gunshots. After a few hours, his wife picked him up, he went home and played catch with his older son, a friend delivered cookies, and the family quietly celebrated his birthday. A few hours after he fell asleep, he awakened with the realization that he and his students were fellow survivors of a mass shooting. In the aftermath of the shooting, he changed some habits, like always carrying his car keys on his person and never teaching in a room that cannot lock and unlock from the inside. He also changed the day he celebrates his birthday. Digital audio available; no transcript available.
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