Feature | 100 Years of the McKendree Review

by Haley Rey '22 former editor-in-chief of the McKendree Review

and Krysti Connelly executive director for communications and marketing

Since 1921, the McKendree Review has brought the latest information to students and the McKendree community, telling stories while simultaneously recording history. This year, the Review celebrated its 100th anniversary.

The McKendree Review began on November 15, 1921. It began as a means for the journalism students to practice their work, and was published by them from the beginning. The paper, printed and distributed throughout the campus, was usually between four and six pages long, with longer versions attributed to special campus events like Homecoming or important sports events. Before the McKendree Review, the institution published six other newspapers - The Lebanon Journal, the McKendree Repository, Sketchbook, The McKendrean, The McKendree Headlight, and the McKendree Echo - from 1847 to 1916 which eventually were disbanded.

The Review began with editors and other staff aside from the writers. The first staff consisted of Mabel Bower (editor), Mildred Wilton (assistant editor), Violet Glenn (circulation manager), and Fred Faverty (business manager). Milburn P. Akers ’25, former editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, former chairman of the McKendree board of trustees, and great-grandson of McKendree’s first president Peter Akers, was an integral part of the Review’s beginning, acting as editor and manager during his time at school and providing help to the paper’s staff even after he graduated.

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Hortin family from Albion, Ill. had several family members who served as editor-in-chief or staff members for the Review. L.J. Hortin ’28 was the first “Hortin” to serve at the helm of the Review. He went on to work as a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Associated Press, Louisville Courier-Journal, and Paducah Sun-Democrat, before becoming a professor and head of the journalism program at Murray State. Following in L.J.’s footsteps were Paul Hortin ’28, James Hortin ’30, Duane Hortin ’33, and Charles Hortin ’38 as editors; and Edith Hortin ’31, Dale Hortin ’39, and Flossie Hortin ’44 as staff members/writers.

Portions of the story are attributed to two McKendree Review articles written by Haley Rey, former editor-in-chief and published the week of Nov. 15-19, 2021. Full articles can be found at: mckreview.com/2021/11/17/mckendree-review history/ -and-

Historical information was also gathered from the Centennial archives of McKendree and old yearbooks. 9

One aspect of the paper that has changed over the years is who can write and be published. It used to be that only members of the Press Club could write for the Review, and members were selected very carefully. This eased up as time went on, and today—despite our full staff and their titles—anyone is welcome to write for the school newspaper. As always, the Review is “devoted to the interests of McKendree.”

Did you know it used to cost money to read the Review? The subscription price began at $1.50 per year and fluctuated a bit in the years following. Published content was very similar in the beginning to what it is today, but there were more details included in each issue. For example, one issue from the late 1920s included a list of new books in the campus library. Of course, details like this could be included in today’s stories, but the smaller, older version of the school had the means to regularly report on the small things.

For a long time, the paper was printed and published in Lebanon, distributed mostly on campus. However, in its origin, the McKendree Review was a part of the Illinois College Press Association. This year, as we combined with McKendree Radio to become McKendree Media, we once again entered this association!

Since its establishment, the Review has gone through many phases. There used to be about 30 issues per year, with no posts during summer, holiday break, or final exam weeks. In fact, the regular posting schedule remained one issue every two weeks for many years. Posting regularity changed with different staff, too. For example, in 2002, issues were published bi-monthly. Today, articles go up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

In honor of the 100 year anniversary of the McKendree Review, we reached out to some former editors-in-chief and asked them to share their memories. Here are a few of our favorite recollections.

McKendree did not have a journalism program when I was a student. As an English major, I wanted the experience of writing or being in the field, so I served as editor of the McKendree Review in 1965 and the “McKendrean” in 1966. The Review did not have a faculty sponsor, so our student staff, including my husband Dave ’70, who was the photographer, worked with Leon Church ’32, and wife Helen ’34, who owned the “Advertiser.” Helen showed us how she typed our copy on the linotype machine and Leon would print the paper on the newspaper’s press monthly. For students who had no journalism background, I believe our small staff did a good job with the paper. It was a great learning experience for me, and I still look back fondly on the Church’s for everything they taught us.

The McKendree Review almost did not make it to its 100-year anniversary. I was the editor of the Review in the late 1980s. At that time there was a much more contentious relationship between students and the administration. One unusual string of events began when President TenBrink canceled the school play because it included some profanity. Students wore black armbands to sporting events on campus to mourn the passing of the school play. We covered it in the Review and included pictures of students wearing the black armbands. We wrote editorials mocking the president. We started sending copies of the Review to Board of Trustees members. TenBrink was so upset that he ended all funding for the Review – he literally tried to shut down a college newspaper. So we continued the paper on our own, selling subscriptions to alumni and selling ads to local businesses. For about a semester it was a truly independent student voice on campus, unconstrained by a reliance on university funds. It was a glorious and rebellious era for the Review. For some reason, once I was no longer editor of the Review, the University restored the funding.

The McKendree Review defined my life at McKendree College (now University). From the lessons learned to the friends made, our student-run paper gave me incredible memories. Every other week, members of our 40-person staff wandered in and out of the Review offices in Lower Deneen (now called The Lair), preparing the 12-16 page newspaper for print. I would often put in 40-hour weeks to hunt down reporters for their stories, organize the chaos, write, edit, design, and put the paper to bed. I was far from alone. We had a great team. Luckily, we had computers to type our stories, captions, and headlines, but still did page layout by hand on “light boards” made by one of the dads, Mr. McQuade. With Aerosmith, Poison, Van Halen or Rush blasting from the radio and a Hardees Moose cup of Diet Coke to keep us caffeinated, we’d print news copy by the column inch, put it through the temperamental, often jammed waxer, trim it, and place it on pages, often late into the night every other Thursday. It was always stressful getting it across the finish line. At the crack of dawn on Friday, we’d deliver the files to a printer in Clinton County and then pick up the paper on Monday morning (thank you Ann Huelsman) to hand deliver stacks across campus. On Tuesdays, I would receive the red-lined copy from our devoted faculty advisor and journalism professor, Dr. Michele Stacey-Doyle. She gave us constructive criticism along with grammar and style edits. She let us be a truly student-run paper and was our staunchest supporter. I was more of a visual journalist, so when I joined the Review, I knew I wanted to bring a digital element to the stories we were telling. My overall goal was to bring the Review into the digital world. My biggest accomplishment was doing fewer paper copies and instead doing digital content to keep students engaged. We also utilized social media like Facebook to showcase articles. This effort allowed more writers and journalists to take an interest in the Review as well as help build their digital portfolios. I also made sure we had our own camera equipment to allow more journalism efforts to sprout, like photo and broadcast journalism.

Writing has always been a passion of mine. When I found out that McKendree had their own newspaper, I knew I wanted to write some articles for them. Fast-forward a year, I found myself as the editor-in-chief of our beloved McKendree Review - the first ever Italian editor-in-chief, I’d like to add. I loved working for the Review and creating something that McKendree students enjoyed reading. Being a journalist was fun; I sometimes felt like an international super-spy, because as soon as I got out my little pink notebook and a pen, people wanted to answer my questions. When I began working as an editor, the newspaper published articles roughly a few times per month, but my co-writers and I sped it up and soon started publishing articles three times a week. I still have the days imprinted in my brain and sometimes find myself in the evenings before technical “publishing days” wondering if the article for the following day was ready to go. I’d like to think that the newspaper really made some peoples’ days better when they got to read a fun article or found an article of themselves online—it sure did make some of my days!