Being hit with tear gas in the bottom of Baker Center; suing and being sued by the university; pissing off local ministers, athletics coaches and politicians; rarely if ever showing up for class (don’t even bring up GPAs), and, of course, being the envy (and favorite mocking target) of all of the Scripps kids studying those “other” kinds of journalism.
All told, the life of a Postie is as stressful as it is rewarding.
And Athens will be full of plenty of those old tales (like that time when the printing plant got hit with a tornado, or the night we stopped the presses at 5 a.m. to correct President McDavis’ name in a headline) will be told this weekend as generations of former Post employees descend on campus for a special celebration.
This year, The Post turns 100.
Actually, that’s not exactly true.
Our paper began in 1912 as The Green and White, before being re-named the Ohio University Post in September 1939.
And in the century since our inception, Post pages have told some of the largest stories in OU and national history. When then-OU President Elmer Bryan died in 1934, when Scarlet Fever broke out on campus in 1944 and when the National Guard came to campus and riots prompted a university shutdown in May 1970 — students, faculty and community members turned to The Post for information.
OU students first learned of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the launch of the Gulf War and the spaceshuttle Challenger explosion by turning to Post newsstands.
The Post has a proud tradition of providing local and campus coverage and building staff bonds unmatched by many campus organizations. And the things that have earned some of the most outside criticism remain some of Posties’ strongest points of pride.
As I spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page yesterday, he gleamed as he remembered causing national outrage by including an f-bomb in one of his Post columns. Meanwhile, former Washington Post ombudsman Andy Alexander is never slow to remind me of how an Ohio state senator once attempted to have the paper shut down after we printed the word “penis” in an article, or about that time staff members walked campus collecting $1 donations in a desperate attempt to keep the paper printing.
Decades later, I can’t say much has changed.
We’re now tucked on the third floor of the new Baker Center – rather than our old digs in the basement of old Baker Center and in Pilcher House — but Post editors and reporters are still facing the same dilemmas, making the same mistakes and having the same kind of fun as Posties of years past.
As the Athens streets (and bars … ) fill with Post alumni this weekend, let’s enjoy a few laughs, reminisce and celebrate a century as the best media outlet on campus.
I’ve never been accused of being overly sentimental, but a little nostalgia never hurt anyone. And I’ve certainly never been above a little bragging.
Posties, tonight is our night.
