TUESDAY.' FEBRUARY. 22. :1953 StutWitis Of First Collegian Sixty-eight years ago in' April, a boisterous crowd of Penn State Student 3 cheered is the Bellefonte Central pulled into StrUble's Stitt:ln . :and trainman handed a package to a self-conscious young man. h.t The , Young Man was , a staff member of the Free Lance, predecessor of the Daily Collegian, and lhe package contained the first 'edition of 'the, h4;i117 founded Penn State . pubhcation. Students iccompaoked the young journalist in an mahgural march down College avenue to the gate way on Allen street, where, an even larger body of atudents4ait ed to give the new monthly a col legiate welcome. . . Thus, the first official student newspaper-literary magazine was born. Its first issue, printed.in two columns, was the size 'of Time magazine, with a blue board:cover. William Fisher , class , <4 l -1887 was , . _ , the first.edite. Travels . Rocky Road ' • The Free' , Lance lived. for 17 years, but traveled a rocky , road: The editors •tried to" keep their readers- informed • as to - .tlie: hap penings =in tlie College commun ity, with suitable editoTiid com ment and .critiOitati where 'they 'they felt necessary. However, the editors found meeting the nionthly . deadline was almost impossible. One editor said, "The March issue came out on April 21,' and contained .news of Feb. 2." The Free Lance struggled fi nancially and . was printed in Bellefonte, State College, Wil liamsport, and Lancaster during its short life span. Students' appetite for "stale" campus news becanie slack, and eight years later the Free Lance became a pocket-size literariomag azine. The =last issue was pub- P: I am NOT too young ! I may not. be 100 years old, but I've been around this campus for a couple of years and I know what's goin' on. Who am I? Well, my real name's the Penn State Book Exchange . • . but you can call me BX like. most people do. • , Well anyhow .. . like I sad, I've been around here 'and I've met lots of students who go to Penn:State. I've been watching, too • . . and I noticed all of the improvement around campus in the last few years. I try . to keet3 all of the students supplied with school needs . and I'm gonna Make some improveMents too. See . . . I'm moving into my new hoMe. in the Hetzel Union Building. Come on over and Visit me. ' But, gee whiz •. . what I'm really tryin' to say is that I think Penn State is great!! And even though I'm just a kid, I want to wish Penn State University a HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY!! PENN STATE BOOK EXCHANGE "The studenteowned, student-operated school supply store." Cheer Arrival Free Lance, Predecessor lished in April, 1904, nine years later. • The next fall, with almost the same staff as the Free Lance, a Pert weekly newspaper, the State Collegian, was formed. It was a four page paper, i thee columns . wide. From the' beginning the paper adopted a liberal, editorial policy and operated without cen sorship from College administra tion. This "hands off" policy did not mean the staff emerged un scolded •for some of its editorial stands. • Six years later the paper ex panded to five columns, tabloid size, ,the' same as today's Daily' Collegian, and changed its mast head to the Penn. State Collegian. World War I eaused the only in terruption of the Collegian in its history. The presses were stilled for three months because of acute shortages of ink and paper. After the, war, the Collegian ran eight columns and published twice a week. At this tune the editors be gan commenting on national news. They editorialized in favor of coal strikes, and for a semi-wet county on the liquor question. In the '3o's. the staffs became leaders in student campaigns, which included advocating aboli tion of compulsory chapel, reor ganization of the football and ath letic policies, and centralization of student government. During these years the offices were moved from- MIIIIMI THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVANIA ' their cramped quarters downtown to the third floor of Old Main. Daily Collegian Emeigas The final transformation of the Collegian took place ten years later when it became the Daily Collegian published five times a week. The paper again became tabloid size, five columns in width with either four or eight page is sues. The Collegian offices were moved to the basement of Car negie Hall, where they now are located. This step necessitated a board of directors consisting of nine administrative members. World War II gave Collegian its most recent set-back. With the di minishing student body, it was forced to drop its subscription plan, and students were •assessed a fee for the paper. War shortages of material and manpower cut the issues to a weekly basis, • but the Collegian p a i n f u 11 y recovered from two to four or five issues per week. A daily summary of news now gives the student at the breakfast table a glance at national affairs. c o 1855 .G N • R A T • A T 1955 N Evan R. Rosser co. 120 W. 4th St.. Williamsport Pa. The short news flashes were start ed in 1942 to keep the student informed about the war. The "free tress" at Penn State seems to have been established by Dean Arthur R. Warnock and the late President Ralph D. Hetzel. President Hetzel expressed his viewpoint to a new Collegian edi tor. "I do not want to get into the business of editing a student news paper," he said, "and that is what I would be doing if I should tell Traditional Customs Bout Provides Boxers 11111111 When old timers from college get together they have a tendency to talk endlessly about their respective Alma Maters. Stories by the thousands have been handed down, some true, some not but, nevertheless, enjoyable. By permission from one of these teller of tales the following story is usbered forth about this campus in the days when— • It seems, to get out from under the hazing. of the Upperciciss the freshman men would meet the ' sophomore men on College Avenue and engage in a battle of sorts. - Leo Houck, who was at that time head boxing coach, 'used to obtain a grandstand seat at. these affairs. Upon spotting a freshman or sophomore with superior defensive ability, Leo would send one of his assistants to' bring this boy or boys to him and offer him a tryout for the team. Although my informant refused to disclose how he fared in these battles he did say it was yew rewarding to be a winner! ' Storch Motor Co. you what you could or could not print. No member of the College administration will censor your copy in advance of publication. And no member of the admin istration will help you get out of any jams you may get into oy reason of what you publish." ' The Collegian proved its caliber in December, 1947, by winning ,the All-American honor rating for su periority in publishing and editing of a collegiate newspaper. 224 E. COLLEGE AVE. PAGE THREE
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers