10/17/2016:
North Dakota State University's student newspaper has been publishing almost as long as North Dakota has been a state. The Spectrum began in the spring of 1896, and because of its articles, we're able to know about the school's early women's basketball team, how the Zip to Zap got started, and track all those Bison and Aggie wins.
On this date in 1941, the weekly paper featured a busy front page with several stories. Sixteen juniors and seniors of then-North Dakota Agricultural College had been named to a national military fraternity; a pharmaceutical sorority observed National Pharmacy Week; and Future Farmers of America delegates had returned from a Kansas City convention. The front page also held a feature on the school's 90-year-old blacksmith who was honored at a banquet by the Little Country Theatre.
Of course, sports made the front page, too, with a 25-0 win in football over South Dakota State, leading the Bison into their second straight North Central Conference title game. Quarterback Bob Matthews and guard Don Laraway were featured in stories about their victories … and injuries.
After Pearl Harbor was attacked in December the nature of the content saw some changes. By early January, The Spectrum was reporting on the first two Army commissions on campus and a Red Cross program for in-home nursing. It also featured Uncle Sam cartoons.
Come spring semester, The Spectrum reported lower enrollment than the year prior. 213 fewer students in early 1942 left a total of 1,414. The Spectrum quoted the school's registrar, who attributed the drop to the war.
Dakota Datebook by Jack Dura
Sources
The Spectrum. 1941, Oct. 17. Web. Retrieved from "http://library.ndsu.edu/tools/dspace/load/?file=/repository/bitstream/handle/10365/19896/nds-1941-10-17-0.pdf?sequence=1" http://library.ndsu.edu/tools/dspace/load/?file=/repository/bitstream/handle/10365/19896/nds-1941-10-17-0.pdf?sequence=1
The Spectrum, 1942, Jan. 9. Web. Retrieved from "http://library.ndsu.edu/tools/dspace/load/?file=/repository/bitstream/handle/10365/19889/nds-1942-01-09-0.pdf?sequence=1" http://library.ndsu.edu/tools/dspace/load/?file=/repository/bitstream/handle/10365/19889/nds-1942-01-09-0.pdf?sequence=1