Chronicles from the HUSTLER

TheBy GAYNELLE DOLLHustler Illustrations by JIM HSIEH Student journalists trade sleep, top grades and summers abroad for the thrill of getting the story. Chronicles FROM THE HUSTLER or more than 40 years now, newspaper read- that is a great combination of three things that enable OCTOBER 5, 1893 Enfield Ford, BA’50 ership by Americans has been in a slow decline. you to work out and build up your chops.” Former director of corporate With cable television and the Internet feed- The Vanderbilt Hustler,which printed its first issue A question which stares us in the face right now, and which cannot be creative services, Time-Warner Inc. ing them a steady diet of up-to-the-minute only five years after the University’s 1873 founding, settled at any other time, is whether or not we are going to have a exists without benefit of ties to any journalism pro- Vanderbilt majors: business FFnews, many Americans no longer make a habit of read- football team. … It is now two weeks since college opened, and there ing a daily paper over morning coffee or after dinner— gram—or, since 1998, any subsidies from the Univer- administration and economics have never yet been enough candidates on the field to make two particularly the 18- to 25-year-olds coveted by advertisers. sity. Hustler staffers take pride in the fact that, unlike Hustler cartoonist, 1946-50 The sad tale of century-old newspapers shutting down student newspapers at most universities, the Hustler is practice elevens. What sort of team can we develop under such their presses has been repeated in cities across the nation. 100 percent financially self-sufficient, paying for print- circumstances? You might as well expect a man to swim with nothing Futurists who have gone so far as to predict the even- ing, rent for the space it occupies in the Sarratt Cen- to swim in. … Shall our friends turn away sick with mortification and tual extinction of newspapers might have second thoughts ter, and small salaries for its advertising and editorial shame over the pitiable exhibition we make of ourselves, or shall we if they had witnessed a scene at Vanderbilt last fall. At staff. the annual Organization Fair, during which students— Students like Emily Abbott, editor of the Hustler dur- make them doubly and trebly our friends by showing them that there Lamar Alexander, BA’62 mostly freshmen—get information about hundreds of ing the spring 2002 semester, and Jennifer Whatley, edi- is the true stuff in us? … Shall we endure the taunts and jeers of our Currently running for U.S. Senate; opportunities to join everything from Ducks Unlim- tor for two semesters prior to Abbott, acknowledge that ancient enemy [Sewanee] without even the poor excuse of the umpire ited to the Vanderbilt Speculative Fiction Society, more working 60 to 70 hours a week on the paper means sleep former Tennessee governor; to blame for our wretched failure? … Are you helping to expose your former U.S. secretary of education than 500 students signed cards indicating their interest deprivation and a lower grade point average—for pay in working on the Vanderbilt Hustler. that averages out to be less than they could make walk- college to ridicule and disgrace, perhaps from purely selfish reasons Vanderbilt major: The majority of those who express interest each year ing across 21st Avenue South and working at Starbucks. —more likely from laziness? Latin American studies soon become overwhelmed by writing papers and prepar- But the rewards are worth it. By becoming involved in Hustler editor, 1961-62 ing for exams and having a life so that visions of getting the most important issues in the life of the University, a Hustler byline quickly fade—but for a surprising num- students who work on the Hustler bring information to ber of students, the Hustler becomes the defining Van- fellow students, speak out in print when they see the paths with people I never would have met otherwise. I derbilt experience, more important than top grades, the University taking, in their view, a wrong turn, and become can call up administrators on campus and catch up on start of a lifelong career. chroniclers of Vanderbilt’s history and zeitgeist. things. It’s nice to walk around campus and know who “I wrote a lot of words for the Hustler, banging out “There’s a certain pride that goes with walking to the deans are, to recognize the important players.” class and seeing someone reading your article,”says The position of Hustler editor has long been and Roy Blount, BA’63 long editorials late at night when I didn’t have to be care- ful and write what someone else wanted me to write,” Abbott.“Working on the Hustler has taught me how to remains one of the most powerful roles available to Van- Humorist, sportswriter, performer, says humorist Roy Blount, BA’63, one of Vanderbilt’s deal with a wide variety of people. It’s taught me to wade derbilt students. Chris Crain, BA’87, now editorial direc- author of 12 books most famous Hustler editors and the author of 12 books. through what’s important and what’s not. And it teach- tor and chief operating officer of Window Media, was Vanderbilt major: English “I think it’s good when you’re young to do a lot of what- es you how to deal with mistakes.” Hustler editor his sophomore year and editor of Ver- ever it is you hope to do in the future. Freedom to write “I’ve definitely learned more working on the Hus- sus his junior year. “I remember [Associate Provost of Hustler editor, 1962-63 what I pleased, an important subject and deadlines— tler than I did in any class,”says Whatley. “I’ve crossed Student Affairs] Johan Madson telling me how Van- 50 Fall 2002 V anderbilt Magazine 51 The Editor as Catalyst derbilt administrators would all swallow hard before OCTOBER 17, 1958 by Lamar Alexander they walked in the office on Tuesdays and Friday morn- lount and Lamar Alexander, BA’62,two south- ings, the days the Hustler came out, because they didn’t erners who attended Vanderbilt when it was Moaning freshman men display an almost unanimous condemnation know what was going to be in there,”says Crain. still an all-white school taking its first wob- toward the recent cancellation of the traditional Homecoming pajama “I was always a thorn in Joe B. Wyatt’s side. He was bly steps toward integration, both served as parade, a disorganized event which has occurred intermittently in fairly new, and I would write about how he wasn’t inter- Beditor during their senior years. Alexander, with the B Vandy history as long as members of the present administration can acting with students enough. I tried a thousand differ- encouragement of then-chancellor Harvie Branscomb, ent ways to get him to do an interview, but he had not who was struggling to convince a reluctant Board of recall. … given an interview to anyone in the Vanderbilt student Trust of the need for integration, wrote a series of edi- Tradition has motivated numerous pajama-clad, song-singing fresh- press,”Crain remembers. torials calling for Vanderbilt to desegregrate—at a time man classes to gather at Rand Hall the morning before the Finally, Crain showed up in Wyatt’s office and refused when the majority of the student body and the Student to leave until he got an interview.“His secretary threat- Senate favored preserving the status quo. Homecoming Game and, with the band and cheerleaders heading the ened to call security. I said fine, I’ll call my photogra- “The majority of Vanderbilt students were from the disturbance, descend upon downtown Nashville … T. Van Magers, BA’66 pher and we’ll do a story about it. Finally, after about South back then,”Alexander remembers. “Desegrega- Last year’s “harmless tour” included capricious capers such as Special agent, Federal Bureau three hours, Eliot Frankel, who was then head of pub- tion was a very unpopular point of view. I wasn’t harassed, kidnapping an LSU cheerleader, emblazoning large and beautiful yellow of Investigation lic affairs, came down and said, ‘You’ll get your inter- but I was considered a troublemaker for raising an issue view—now get out of here,’” Crain says. lettering on large and clean plate glass windows, and coasting up and Vanderbilt major: mathematics a lot of people thought I had no business raising. Peo- On Commencement day, as Crain walked across the ple regarded it as unnecessary, almost impolite.” down Fifth Avenue in grocery carts pilfered permanently from a sur- Hustler sports editor, 1964-66 stage to receive his diploma, he recalls,“Chancellor Wyatt Blount, whose work for the Hustler included a column prised supermarket staff. All of this unscheduled entertainment landed shook my hand and said he wished me very well in recounting his experience going on a sit-in with civil rights several of the less fleet students in the local police station. the future and added that he’d never been happier to activist John Lewis, brushes aside any suggestion that Hus- see someone graduate—which I took as a respectful tler editors had a sense of doing something historic. “At compliment.” that age I figured I’d be doing something historical all my From the Hustler’s early years, when editorials advo- life,”he says with characteristic self-effacement.“It was A Century of Sports Writing cated Vanderbilt’s separation from the Methodist Church, the black kids from Fisk and Atlanta who were making rom the days of Grantland Rice a hundred up until today, when writers speak out against racial graf- history, sitting at lunch counters and riding buses and get- years ago up to the present, the Hustler has fiti and report on the proposed move to a residential col- Terry Eastland, BA’71 ting beat up.

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