American Magazine: November 2016

memories
LET’S TALK
bylines and headlines.
Share your Eagle
stories:
email magazine@
american.edu.
1925
The student-run American Eagle (it would
be another 40 years before the paper
shortened its masthead), published its
inaugural newspaper on November 20.
“Getting out a first issue is no ‘cinch,’ as all
the staff can tell you,” read a front-page
notice, soliciting both readers and writers.
The four-page broadsheet featured hardhitting
pieces about the University Choral
Society and the student body elections,
and a humor column called “The Eagle
Eye,” which advised female dorm-dwellers
that “despite fits of homesickness, copious
weeping may not be indulged in.”
1963
One day after the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, the Eagle
published a special edition commemorating
his life and impact. Under a bold, frontpage
headline that read, simply, “SILENCE,”
the paper reported that “On campus
everything halted. Cars were surrounded
by tense clusters of students listening to
staccato news flashes. Students were still
and stunned.” Eagle staffers delivered the
paper and a condolence letter wrapped
in a black ribbon to a White House guard,
who gave it to Kennedy press secretary
Pierre Salinger.
1964
The paper published the first of what
would become an annual tradition: the
Bald Eagle, an April Fools’ issue packed
with fabulously fabricated features
about campus happenings and world
affairs. In 1964, staffers wrote about a
tuition cut, a new beer-friendly policy,
and AU’s second-place finish in a surfing
tournament. Over the years, April 1
issues have been published under such
pun-derful names as the Ego, Beagle,
and Bagel and in 1986, normally neurotic
editors took the joke a step further,
listing the dateline as March 32.
1975
The Eagle commemorated its 50th
anniversary with a four-page special
section showcasing all 24 incarnations
of its masthead, a sampling of its most
colorful headlines (“Permits outnumber
sparking spaces,” and “Trustees: They
came, they saw, they left”) and a roundup
of the most outlandish classified ads.
Twenty-six years later, the Eagle—boasting
yet another nameplate—celebrated its
diamond anniversary (albeit belatedly) by
launching an online edition. Today, all 91
years of Eagle issues have been digitized
and are available on the library website.
44 AMERICAN MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2016