By Roy Ockert Jr.
Oct. 3, 2016
An unpublished account
I had signed on for a second stint as editor of The Indian yearbook for my senior year, 1966-67, even though I had been appointed co-editor of The Herald. The yearbook paid better since much of the newspaper editing was essentially done in labs for News Editing I and II courses.
We knew that A-State’s second push for university status would take place in the legislative session of 1967 and that it had a much better chance of success. Our challenge for the 1967 Indian was how to deal with it, considering that our deadlines for the cover, end sheets (the heavy paper connecting the cover to the inside pages) and full-color pages would come well before the legislative session began in January.
We certainly didn’t want to produce a 1967 yearbook without fully covering what we considered to be A-State’s biggest story since its founding. That may seem a little overdramatic today because the word “university” is so freely applied to institutions of higher learning, but it was a well-guarded status then, as shown in the University of Arkansas’ aggressive opposition.
The Indian staff leaders, with the guidance and encouragement of Adviser Tom Manning, devised a plan.
We wanted the cover to reflect university status, even though we’d be taking a chance that the Legislature would again reject it so we went with subtle. We contracted with our printer, Walsworth Publishing, a Marceline, Mo., company, to produce a foil stamp for the cover — a popular technique then for school yearbooks. The stamp would feature our cartoon mascot, “Jumpin’ Joe,” with the letters “ASU” on his chest. This was all very incorrect politically, but we didn’t know about such things then.
Walsworth, through its representative, Bill Brown of Jonesboro, agreed not to apply the stamp until sometime in January, giving us time, at least in theory, to change the stamp. In practice, I’m not sure whether we would have because of the cost, and thankfully we never had to face that question.
On the red cover’s spine, which is what you see when it’s in a bookshelf, we took a bigger chance, spelling out “Arkansas State University” in small white letters. I don’t recall that we had a backup plan there.
For the end sheets we did something even more subtle, so much so that some people didn’t even notice after the book came out. My photographers, Marion Meredith and Dale Butler, and I conspired with the residents of the new women’s dormitory, Kays Hall, to spell out ASU in lights one night, which meant getting most of them to keep their lights off until we could get the shot.
Covering the event inside the book was comparatively easy. We didn’t try to use the full-color pages, which had to be sent in December, but designated 12 black-and-white pages among the first 16 to tell the story completely.
Of course, the book came out that spring before university status became official, but our staff was proud to produce the first Arkansas State University yearbook. After all, we graduating seniors also got the early designation on our diplomas.