Alumni staffers look back at Skiff with fondness, amusement
The Skiff caught up with some of its more distinguished alumni and asked them to reflect on their time at TCU.
Brandon Ortiz
Editor in Chief

Editor’s note: In its 100-year history, the Skiff has employed hundreds of students, many of whom went on to be highly successful in journalism or other fields. While we acknowledge the accomplishments of a few, we recognize the department has seen many of its graduates go on to lead successful careers.

Bob Schieffer didn’t want to be a doctor, regardless of mom’s wishes.

But his experiment as a pre-med student didn’t pan out.

“People ask me what drove me to journalism, and I always answer comparative anatomy,” Schieffer said. “I didn’t agree with it, and it didn’t agree with me.”

Schieffer, a graduate of the class of 1959, didn’t turn out too bad as a journalist. Today he is the host of “Face the Nation,” a Sunday morning news program that attracts Washington pundits and politicians alike.

In Schieffer’s day, the Skiff was still a small weekly paper with a staff of no more than a dozen people.

“It was great practice, and it was a lot of fun,” Schieffer said.

When Dan Jenkins (’59) worked at the Skiff, it was located in Goode Hall, an athletic dormitory that was one of the newspaper’s many homes.

He said the bunch in charge then didn’t take things too seriously. Among the Skiff’s exploits was endorsing a white collie dog for student body president.

“I’d hate to go back and look at it,” Jenkins said. “I didn’t try very hard. I look at the Skiff now, and I am impressed. They work hard.”

Jenkins eventually went on to become considered a great American sports novelist. His 1974 masterpiece, “Dead Solid Perfect,” is thought to be a classic.

The Skiff was in abandoned World War II Army barracks when Gary Cartwright (’57) joined the staff.

“The newsroom was probably as big as my closet is now,” he said.

Cartwright, now a senior editor at Texas Monthly magazine, wrote for the Skiff as part of a class that wrote more fiction than fact.

“It ran inside,” Cartwright said. “It had to be some dry story nobody read about, the budget or Chancellor Sadler getting a dog for the front page.”

John Lumpkin (’95) presided over an editorial board that was often at odds with the student body.

“Our editorial page was one of the most liberal institutions on campus outside of Andy Fort’s office,” said Lumpkin, who now covers the CIA for the Associated Press.

But the board also stepped up crime coverage and covered a campus flasher.

Ken Bunting (’70) was part of the editorial board that rallied against plans to build Frog Fountain, saying the funds would be better used for minority scholarships. Bunting, the journalism department’s first black student, has come around to liking the fountain — he thinks it is beautiful.

Bunting said he looks back at his time at TCU fondly.

“It is hard to reduce it to words,” said Bunting, who is now the executive editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “I owe a lot to TCU. I don’t think I would have been successful as I would have been without the grounding from the school.”