Lauren Loftus 05 Jun 2023 “We’re Off.” So says the very first issue of The Santa Clara newspaper, printed on Feb. 17, 1922. In a bombastic note, the editorial team asserts the paper is a response “to a genuine need to record history in the making.” In the 101 years since, student reporters and editors have wielded their journalistic independence—as promised in that first issue—to serve as “the voice and work of all.” THE SCOOP On October 25, 1926, faulty wiring in the north tower of the Mission Church sparked a fire that swept rapidly across campus. Front page columns of the October 28 paper applauded students who gathered to fight the flames and save relics, crosses, paintings, and statues from burning buildings. One of the bells sent to the Mission Santa Clara from Spain in 1777 was salvaged from the burning chapel by a group of determined students. The Santa Clara reported its office, then located in the Alumni Lodge, had a wall scorched but editors vowed to continue printing. BREAK A LEG In this editorial cartoon, The Santa Clara staff wish luck upon the graduating class of 1950. The fedora- and coat-clad man (of course) looks dapper, diploma in hand, striding through the door into “The Big Wide World.” It would be 11 more years before SCU admitted its first class of women and the paper, in a headline fit for a gossip rag, screamed “TRADITION SHATTERED.” CINDERELLA SWEEPS “They were not supposed to be that good,” declared the front page of The Santa Clara after the Bronco men’s basketball team—ranked lowly No. 15—toppled second-seed University of Arizona in the 1993 NCAA Tournament. The paper included a photo of a swarm of students in Santa Clara jerseys celebrating the 64-61 victory on Market Street just west of campus. LAUREATES In 1995 and 2004, the paper received the coveted Pacemaker prize from the Associated Collegiate Press, the oldest and largest membership organization for college student media in the U.S. Additionally, The Santa Clara has won regional awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the California Collegiate Media Association, and California Newspaper Publishers Association. GUMSHOES Notable past staffers of TSC include former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ’79 and Dee Dee Myers ’83, the first woman ever to serve as White House Press Secretary during the Clinton Administration. Journalist Jeff Brazil ’85 honed his chops at SCU before winning a Pulitzer for an investigation on racially motivated traffic stops at the Orlando Sentinel.
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