| Transcript |
"This is a hot one," Mike Ferguson, spring managing editor, confides as he looks over news stories with Editor, Jane Rutherford.
An excited group of journalism students watched the demolition crew rip up the last patches of concrete foundation. The old
tin roofed Cougar office had bowed its head to the wreckers.
When work on the campus swimming pool began this past
spring, school officials had ruled that the old Cougar office,
behind the Den, would have to be torn down to make room for
the pool.
New quarters, in the ultra modern building near the University
Press, which the paper now occupies were okayed. Ed Furley,
University professor of Architecture, did the designing.
There was no Cougar this past summer. But the journalism
students on campus waited eagerly for the new building's completion. They'd have their hey day putting out the paper in the
new office, they thought.
Older journalism students listened thoughtfully. To many of
them, the '53-'54 school year was top for unusual happenings.
They recalled:
How John Pate and Mary Ann Hayes had covered the story
when C. F. McElhinney became Acting President of the University. Jane Rutherford was the first woman to serve two terms as
Cougar editor, during the fall and spring of '54.
The Rutherford Cougar had sported black headlines wher. the
student body had voted to change the Student Council's setup.
At Fiesta time, the paper had whooped it up with pictures of
pretty campus cow belles.
News that a new Cougar office would be built came during
the last days of the Spring Semester. It was a 1954 miracle,
everyone agreed.
But some Cougar staffers couldn't help wondering what it
would be like putting out the paper in the old office—right on
the edge of the campus pool.
Managing Editor, Mike Ferguson, discusses tricks
of the trade with Eleanor Stone, author of
"It's Our Country, Too," Cougar column.
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"And if they don't print our story, we'll start
our own paper," Peggy Pittman, Society Editor,
suggests. Dennis Schroder, Cougar staff writer
and Betty Russell, who took over as Society
Editor during the Spring Semester, nod mock
agreement.
"A paper for a pretty smile," Gene Brown,
Circulation Manager, demands of Liz Courdray,
Fine Arts Editor.
Cougar
Gene Games,
sees everything,
photo editor, conf-de,
"And I say it was 1947," John Balione, center, sports writer, maintains
as the staff crosses pens in a lively debate.
"Good as gold," Mary Anne Hayes, editor of the '54 Fiesta Gazette,
agrees as she reaches for a surprise award at the annual Press Association
banquet. John Pate, managing editor of the Gazette, makes the award,
really a gilded wastebasket.
Managing editors John Pate and Mike Ferguson accept keys for tours of
duty during the fall and spring semesters, respectively. Jane Rutherford,
two term editor of the campus weekly, makes the awards.
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