A Fond Farewell to Saint Xavier's Student Newspaper

For my entire adult life, I’ve known no other line of work than that of a journalist.

Whenever the thought of doing something unrelated comes up, I realize that this is what I do. It’s my passion, I have grown to love to art of storytelling and feel great pride in relating information that is pertinent to others.

That passion was first realized the day I entered a small university on the South Side of Chicago.

I was told by many heading into my first semester at Saint Xavier University in the fall of 2003 that the first thing I should do is join a club or a team. College wouldn’t be at all fun if the experience is limited to studying and going to class.

So, having previously been an editor at my high school newspaper and writing fun tidbits about sports in my spare time, I thought an attempt at joining the school newspaper was worth it.

I remember walking into the office of 'The Xavierite' on my first day at SXU to a greeting of “Hello!” in a voice that was unmistakably British. I asked the man - who I’d later find out to be Rob Quicke, then the director of both the Xavierite and the campus radio station and now a professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey who leads the national College Radio Day movement, if they were looking for any contributing writers.

He asked if I liked sports, to which I responded “absolutely,” and just happened to be sitting next to the sports editor at the time. He introduced us and immediately I found out about a job opening they had for the deputy sports editor position.

One week later, they chose me to fill that position. Originally thinking my role with the paper during the first few weeks would be nothing more than sharpening pencils and heading to the sandwich shop for the senior editors, I was a vital member of the staff. That’s not something that would be possible had I attended a larger school.

Over the next four (and a half) years, my byline appeared in 100 consecutive editions, which at that time we figured to be a record but there was no way of knowing for sure.

On Wednesday, the staff of The Xavierite published their final print edition after 85 years as a weekly newspaper known as the “eyes and ears of Saint Xavier University students.” They announced Wednesday on Facebook and Twitter that they have opted to go online-only beginning in the fall, which is the nature of the game now.

While you can’t blame the current crew - now led by Director of Student Media Peter Kreten, an SXU lifer who attended school there the same years I did - it comes as a bit of sadness to see the print edition’s era come to an end.

Wednesday mornings in college for me were highlighted by the anticipation of seeing my sports pages hit the newsstands. I read the paper cover-to-cover and would spend about an hour at night analyzing it, finding out just how to make it even better next week.

Monday night was our “press night,” but my portion usually took until about 4 a.m. to complete. I spent more time on the sports desk there than preparing for some classes.

While my fellow Xavierite alums from the mid-2000’s have mostly moved on to bigger and better trades, not me. I’m still writing. I’ve been writing ever since and have no plans to stop.

My first published article came in August 2003. It was about how both the Cubs and White Sox were in first place and how rare that was.

Now, on April 27, 2016 - the day of the paper’s final physical delivery - well, how about that.