THE CARDINAL
1932 Louisville, Kentucky September 17 1987
THE CARDINAL
u~ or L. PLAYERS OFF TO co D START
FOOTit\1.1. CHIUJ. (, L NDER \\ ,\)
1932
he Loui\1 illc a~ rn I •
origins inevitably trace
back to the dedication
and vision of Samuel E. Hymen, wl\o
began working toward a independently­minded
student publication at the Uni­versity
of Louisville ten year before
The Cardinal first appeared in 1932.
Groundwork for the creation of a
student weekly was laid in 1922 when
a group of U of L students, lead by
Hymen, established a Journalism Club.
Alt~ough the primary inte.nt of t~e
orgamzauon wa• to generate mterest m
creating a journalism chair at the Um­ver
ity, the group's debate; and discus­sions
solidified many of the profes­sional
and ~hi cal ~onvictions which
would become the very oul of future
publications.
Hymen was instumental in the cre­ation
of The Cardinals earliest prede­cessor,
The Cardinal ews, which
made its first appearance in the fall of
1926.
Operated rn conjunction with the
Journalism Club, The Cardinal ews
produced 31 weekly issues until it was
discontinued on June 3, 1927. Students
staffed and edited the paper, which
sold for five cents and supported itM:If
through advertising ales.
In an editor.ial on the Sept. 24, 1926
premiere is ue' front page. editor and
general manaser Hymen declared the
ambitious mrssioll- of the Oedgling
publication.
Unbia ed and unbossed, The Cardi­nal
New~ make its bow with the deep­rooted
conviction that it will be a vi­talizing
force in stimulating and facil­litaring
the growth of the University of
Louisvrlle and in identiting the idea'
and work of the oldest municiple uni­veNrty
in the United tales with the
future pro penty, cultural and eco­nomic,
of Louisville and Keq,
tucky .. . And so. we dedicate thrs
weekly newspaper to freedom, a
nlinal
RUN FOR VOUIMIV S!!
MEDIA WITHH LD ~FO
TO PREVENT D lAY
PANIC AFTER AR
1979
greater U of L. a grea ter Louisville and
Kentucky.'
Topic~ reported by Hvmen and his
staff vari u widely. Artrcles addressed
national and international issues as well
a~ the emergence of U of L football
under Coach Tom King and star player
Fred C. Koster and theatrical produc­tions
produced by drama coach Boyd
Martin .
Perhaps the most controversial news
item which occured during the brief
exijltence of The Cardinal News was
the coverage t>f the stormy administra­tion
of U of L pre ident George
Colvin , who served from 1926 until his
death in office in 1928.
Colvin\ policies lead to the resigna­tion
of Louis D. Gottschalk. a U of L
history profe ·sor who later received
recognition at the University of
Chicago as a historian of the French
Revolution .
Gottschalk's departure highlighted a
serie• of disagreements between Presi­dent
Colvin and many faculty mem­bers,
some of whom accused the Presi­dent
of anti-Semitism, favoritism, and
anti-intellectualism .
Hymen and his staff faithfully cov­ered
these episodes. Editoriall.r , The
Cardinal News criticized Colvrn and
hi. backers.
Other events covered by The Cardi­nal
News which would have enduring
impact on the University community
included construction bids for the Ad­ministration
Building, the growing in­terest
of United States Supreme Court
Ju stice Louis D. Brandeis in the Uni­versity's
School of Law, and the initia­tion
of a U of L endowment campaign.
T he U of L News followed The
Cardinal News with its first issue on
Feb. 24, 1928. The new Faculty
Committee on Student Publications ex­ercised
final control over the student
paper, which was distributed free, but
lact..ed the indeP.Cndence of Hymen's
earlier creation. ·
In the first issue, editor William Ray
acknowledged the cooperation of Prest-ll
oui ill l· C •tnliual
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1980
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COLVIN TO Ct lTR.ALl~E l'lJNCTIONS
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1926
dent Colvin in establishing The U of L
News, but al'o expressed appreciation
for the ' advice, aid. and material a.-
i~tancl" of amuel F. H •m;m, who
had been sincere and honest in ht
convictions ."
The U of L News steered clear of the
Colvin controve"y, but when the
President died it ·criticized ' those few
hoodlum fools on the faculty ' who re­portedly
' gathered for a celebration
upon hearing of the death.'
In May, 1929, the editors com­plained
that they had not received the
amount of support hoped for; the paper
was dicountinued in !'930.
The present Cardinal first appeared
in 1932 and has ran continuously since
that time. The new paper operated un­der
a Board of Student Publications,
created by President Raymond A.
Kent , which orginally included three
faculty members and the editor and
business manager of each student pub­lication.
Although The Cardinal was dis­tributed
free of charge, it was finacially
solvent through advertsing sales, at
least for the first several years.
In 1934, the editors even suggested
turning over their excess funds to The
Thoroughbred, the ailing University
yearbook. In 1936, the senior issue of
The Cardinal replaced the annual,
which missed several year of publica­tion
during the 1930's and World War
II.
Forbidding members to advertise in
school publications, the Louisville Re­tail
Merchants Association hurt The
Cardinal during the '30s, but the news­paper,
unlike the yearbook, managed to
continue without rnterruption .
F rom the beginnins. The Cardinal
renee ted student opinrons, although it
may or may not have been representi­tive
. In 1932, for example, the paper
became involved in a controversy sur­rounding
football at the University.
Several letters to the editor signed
' Agnes' criticized those who argued
for a good football program to promote
1986
L
1963
the school, but a reply called the
anonymous writer a lightweight from
the neck up.
In December, 1932, The Cardinal
announce\J new rules for traternity and
sorority dances. posted by Dean Hilda
Threlkeld. Not only did the rules limit
the number of unaccompanied men at
each gathering (four to each woman),
but ali o said "drunkenness or disor­derly
conduct' were ' forbidden at fu­ture
dances.'
The annual Cardinal joke edition be­came
a regular item during the '30s.
On February 10, 1933. the editors an- .
nounced the upcoming comic issue and
encouraged readers not to take offense,
The special issue appeared the next
week , printed in red mk. It contained
descriptions ~f • a universi ty ' as they
might have been written by various
American authors , including Sinclair
Lewis. The paper reported that Lewis
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1968
would write the sentence, ' Elmer
Gantry ~urveyed the ugly red brick
buildrn~;~ which raised their drab
'hapes mto a gray. winter ~k y. '
Later, the Louisville Herald-Post ran
an editorial criticizing nashy student
publications. but did not mention The
Cardinal by name.
The early Cardinal was a vi11orous
student weekly with editorial oprnions
on local. national . and international is­sues.
In 1936, editor Lewis M. Cohen
wrote that during his term he had tried
to arouse ' a lasting social conscious­ness.'
The newspaper was strongly critical
of an American Legion investigation of
radicalism on campus, promoted isola­tionalism,
and argued against prepared­ness
during the '30s.
In 1937 U of L President Raymond
A. Kent censored the paper due to
Continued on Page A4
Cardinal
I"
1987