COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE

Commemorative Magazine Traces 100 years of The BG News, Bowling Green Campus

Longtime and recently retired BG News business manager and adviser Bob Bortel and an alumnus researcher have updated a publication tracing the history of the Bowling Green State University campus and The BG News over the past 100 years. The publication, Celebrating 100 Years of The BG News — 1920-2020, commemorates the campus newspaper’s centenary anniversary and makes the perfect keepsake.

The publication is available for purchase at the online BG News alumni storefront. Copies are $15, plus shipping. Proceeds will pay for printing costs and the remainder will be donated to The BG New Fund, which benefits student travel, contest entries, and newspaper equipment.

The magazine was originally published in 2005 to celebrate The BG News’ 85th anniversary and has been updated with historical anecdotes from 2006-2020, including details on how the campus reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic during spring semester 2020. The goal was to compile a narrative history of the campus newspaper by blending it with the history of the university.

In 2005, five alumni researchers were assigned two decades, beginning with the 1920s, and reviewed thousands of BG News pages. Besides university archives, other sources of information for the publication were various Key yearbooks; photo archives of University News Services; and the books The History of Bowling Green State University by James Robert Overman, The Falcon Soars by Stuart R. Givens, and Bowling Green State University: A Historical Photo Album by Larry J. Weiss.

Paul Obringer, recently retired creative director in the Office of Student Media, and his talented team of student designers originally created and then redesigned the magazine. The publication includes a laminated-protective cover and is designed as a coffee-table book, Obringer says.