A new publication hit the halls of Eastern Illinois Normal School 110 years ago.
The first edition of the Daily Eastern News, then called the Normal School News was published on Nov. 5, 1915. The founders created the paper to give press to the football team and to get some money, according to the first business manager Ernest Bails in the Nov. 10, 1965, edition.
Subscriptions were 50 cents a month back in the day. The first paper was only four pages with four columns along with local ads and personals. It was printed in the Prather Print Shop, located in the basement of the Coles County Courthouse.
The paper was privately owned at the time until it went bankrupt in 1921 when ownership was taken by the university.
The Panther’s name has its origins in the paper. In the Oct. 14, 1930, addition of the Teacher’s College News, ran a contest to name the football team. At the time the team was referred to as the Blue and Grays.
The contest was judged by the head coach Charles Lantz, team captain Eugene Kintz and sportswriter and player Irvin Singler.
The next addition on Oct. 21 announced the results. According to the announcement article, common themes of names were based off Native Americans and the blue colors of team, but Panthers was selected by the three judges.
The motto of the Daily Eastern News “Tell the Truth and Don’t Be Afraid” was first said by Livingston C. Lord, president of EIU from 1898 to 1933.
According to the Daily Eastern News Centennial Commemorative Chronicle, the motto started being used in the in the 1930s and went out of use in 1975.
It was brought back in 1990 in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the paper, according to a Daily Eastern News article from Nov. 4, 2005.
The Eastern News ran into conflict with the administration in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
According to “The Emerging University – A History of Eastern Illinois University 1949-1974” then editor Bruce Schaeffer was asked to resign by the Publications Board due to what they called inaccurate reporting. They were supported by the president of EIU Quincy Doudna.
Francis Palmer, the publications advisor, said that the desire for removal was due to what he called Schaeffer’s anti-administration reporting.
With the two sides not coming to an agreement, the publication of the Eastern News was suspended on Jan. 31, 1959, and stayed that way until the summer.
Schaeffer was fired and Palmer resigned, and the paper started back up with a new advisor Kenneth Hesler.
Five years later the paper ran into another roadblock. Then editor Jon Woods had been doing an investigation into the building programs at EIU and claimed there were irregularities within the programs.
Hesler consulted legal advice and determined that the story was libelous and didn’t allow it to be published.
He wanted Woods to be fired by the Publication Board, but they refused.
This caused Hesler to resign and for Doudna to fire Woods that same day and suspend the paper until a new editor Constance Schneider took over.
There were two investigations into the building programs at Eastern in 1966 done by the state and a committee appointed by the governor. They found that there was no illegal action.
The DEN has gone through many different formats over its history.
Starting as a four-page paper, it stayed in that style until 1926 due to the paper giving the high school its own page. Increasing the number of pages to six in 1930, the printing duties went from Prather Printing to the Charleston Daily Courier. With the paper’s more professional equipment, the pages were able to double to eight then to 10 in 1933.
Through the size changes, the paper remained weekly. This changed in 1965 to two times a week.
In 1973, the paper turned into a daily paper that lasted until 2021, when it adopted its weekly format.
Aug. 31, 1998, marked the date of the creation of the Daily Eastern News website.
The News ended its daily print in 2021, opting to become a weekly.
Jason Coulombe can be reached at 581-2812 or at jmcoulombe@eiu.edu.
