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HISTORY
Skiff hits milestone with 100-year anniversary

High on courage but low on money, Ed S. McKinney founded the Skiff “to sail through the financial weather” and get his degree from TCU.

Yeah, we know, it’s a silly story.

But what’s not silly is our commitment to high quality journalism. McKinney’s pioneering spirit lives on, 100 years later.

The Skiff has chronicled the university’s growth and expansion, and is one of the oldest institutions on campus. When the university packed its bags and moved after fires decimated the Waco campus, the Skiff rowed to Fort Worth, too.

We are a living history book of sorts for the university. We’ve covered homecomings, SGA meetings and Howdy Weeks. We’ve also covered instances of heroism, tragedy and comedy.

One such heroic instance was in 1962, when students picketed downtown movie theaters for refusing to desegregate. Such activism is unheard of at TCU today.

We’ve covered the tragedies — too many, really. We experienced the same emotions the campus, and nation, went through last year covering Sept. 11. But most of us on that staff felt an obligation to chronicle history, no matter how distraught we were.

And, of course, we’ve covered those weird, strange things we couldn’t possibly make up.

One occasion was in 1950 when the Student Congress was so irritated at a Skiff editorial that they passed a resolution saying the governmental body should approve all opinion pieces that run in the paper.

We admit we’ve started a fight or two. Perhaps some were not justified.

But a great many were.

Hopefully, we’ll record history — and pick fights — for another 100 years.