Volume 123 · No. 7
Thursday, February 23, 2017
EST. 1887
lsunow.com
@lsureveille
thedailyreveille
dailyreveille
dailyreveille LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
OBITUARY
TRAILBLAZER
Hinton helped set foundation for black football players at LSU BY JOSHUA THORNTON | @JoshuaThornton_ Lora Hinton’s journey to Tiger Stadium involved politicians, a few semesters on the sideline and, much to his dismay, some unfamiliar seafood options. In the fall of 1971 the dining halls would deem Fridays “fish day” and, of course, the most popular serving of fish was crawfish. As Hinton watched students peel, eat and suck the heads off “mud bugs,” he was in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? People actually eat these things?” Hinton said. “We see them in the ditches where I’m from ... I couldn’t handle the menu.” For the Chesapeake, Virginia native, learning about unfamiliar foods was only the start. The fall of 1971 began Hinton’s trailblazing path, when he and Mikell Williams became the first black football players to receive scholarships to play for LSU. For Hinton, the allure of playing at LSU was bigger than staying on the east coast near his small hometown.
THE DAILY REVEILLE ARCHIVES
see HINTON, page 6
BREAKING ANOTHER BARRIER Attending LSU wasn’t Hinton’s first time serving as a pioneer at a school. He broke down a barrier at Great Bridge High School, in Virginia, as the school’s first black student. “It prepared me,” he said. “No doubt.” Hinton later found his way on the football field at Great Bridge, where he became an All-American. His film wound up in the
Director Buttry of Student remembered Media dies for work, at 62 dedication
BY STAFF REPORTS @lsureveille
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Director of LSU Student Media and Manship School of Mass Communication instructor Steve Buttry died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. He was 62. The news was released via a final blog post that Buttry wrote himself. Buttry served as a University staff member after a 45year career in journalism. His resume includes earlier jobs at The Shen a ndo a h Sentinel, The BUTTRY Des Moines Register, The Des Moines Tribune, The Minot Daily News and the Omaha World-Herald. Buttry was a reporter and editor before moving to teaching and newsroom training later in his career, he said in the post. He became known as a digital journalism advocate while leading newsrooms transitioning to a digital-first media model. Buttry was first diagnosed with cancer in 1999, and then again in 2014. He was diagnosed for the third time in 2016, this time with pancreatic cancer that was unrelated to the previous two cases. Buttry came to the Manship School in 2014 as the Lamar Family Visiting Scholar. He accepted the position as Student Media
I sat across a conference table from Steve Buttry just two and a half weeks ago. We were joined by an adviser and a few other student editors. It was a Sunday morning, and I was in desperate need of the kind of ethical advice that can only come from decades of newsroom experience. To me, it seemed like the world was unraveling. But Steve was as calm as ever. To him, there was simply a new opportunity to learn from the shortcomings of the past and to seek out the kind of innovative solutions that journalism’s complex and evolving nature calls for. That all seems like ages ago now in the wake of Steve’s death. We’re already onto the next week’s paper, the next digital obstacle, the next ethical dilemma. Things never really slow down in the basement of Hodges Hall, and that has a lot to do with Steve, whose job as LSU Student Media director was to be an advocate of change. With him, no debate was ever off limits. No problem too difficult to tackle. No goal too distant. No time too inconvenient for a meeting. Little looks or works the same as it did when I started with The Daily Reveille almost three years ago. And while many
see BUTTRY, page 6
see LETTER, page 6
ROSE VELAZQUEZ @Rosee_Vee
ART
Glassell Gallery ‘Mudluscious’ exhibition features alumni work Exhibition celebrates joy of spring BY KATIE GAGLIANO @katie_gagliano A “mudluscious and puddlewonderful” exhibition is bringing an air of whimsy and new life to the LSU School of Art Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery. “Mudluscious: A Celebration of LSU School of Art Ceramics” highlights the work of 18 University graduates and local artists, said Glassell Gallery director Malia Krolak. Krolak and exhi-
bition curator Christopher Scott Brumfield, a University alumnus and featured artist in the show, began developing the show concept in spring 2016. The exhibition is a celebration of the University’s ceramics tradition and the graduates who have sustained successful careers as artists and educators in the field, she said. The artists took the exhibition’s theme, “Mudluscious,” inspired by the E.E. Cummings poem “[in Just-],” and created a diverse array of functional and sculptural
The art of many local ceramic artists is on display as part of the Mudluscious exhibition Feb. 19 at the University’s Glassell Gallery in downtown Baton Rouge.
see MUDLUSCIOUS, page 6
The Daily Reveille
photos by JORDAN MARCELL /