Blast from the Past

I told you a few weeks ago about Summeries, the newsletter that the very first University of South Alabama students printed in summer 1964.

In this – most likely the very last installment of “Blast From the Past” authored by me – we’ll see how that trailblazing newsletter morphed into The Vanguard.

In October ’64, a couple of months after Summeries came out, the first “official” student newspaper was printed.

This publication wasn’t much different than its predecessor because it was basically just text typed in two columns with absolutely no graphics or pictures.

However, they did make some changes; most notably, they expanded from four to six pages, and they added a humor editor.

The front page had only “University of South Alabama” at the top for a title, but this was addressed in a “letter to the students”: “The staff of this paper takes pleasure in presenting to you the first, though unnamed, edition of what we hope will become an important part of your school. … On the SGA election ballots, there will be a list of suggested names, not used by other schools, for the newspaper.”

So, apparently, the name they agreed upon that was “not used by other schools” was the Confederate because that was the name of the November ’64 edition of USA’s student newspaper.

Looking back from today, we might guess that name was not used by other schools because of its racist overtones, but we have to remember that this was 1964.

Consider that the unnamed edition a month earlier contained an interview with Alabama Gov. George Wallace in which he said, “We’re building schools for Negro and white all over the state, and I think it’s in the best interest of both to have separate schools.”

Needless to say, those times were a lot different than the times we know in 2010.

And I’m sure if someone is lucky enough to read this article another 46 years from now, our time will be just as foreign to them.

The lone issue of the Confederate contained no explanation for its name, but luckily, the name didn’t stick.

In March ’65 they changed the name to the Vanguard. Once again, there was no explanation for the name, but the aesthetics were significantly improved.

The stories were laid out much more like a traditional newspaper, and the layout contained pictures, graphics, quality-looking advertisements, and headlines with varied fonts.

The first Vanguard even contained a poem about a problem today’s students can relate to:

“No spot for my car can I beg, steal, or borrow,

Save one at the horseshoe much to my sorrow,

So officer, pray,

No ticket today,

My scooter’s arriving tomorrow.”

So if you’re holding out hope that USA is going to solve the parking problem on campus, I wouldn’t feel too optimistic since they haven’t fixed it in the first 46 years of the University’s existence.

You know, why start now?