Looking to make your mark in Aggieland? Get started with our free Giving Guide to explore how you can make an impact on the areas of Texas A&M University you love most.

Read All About It! The Evolution of Aggieland’s Student Newspapers

From front page headlines to career-launching articles, we’re unfolding the history of The Battalion and student journalism at Texas A&M University.

By Kinley Foster ’25

August 5, 2026


Before TV stations, cell phones or the internet, if an Aggie wanted to know where the new professors hailed from, how the sports teams fared or who the pretty new girl in town was visiting, it was the campus paper that held the answers. Written by students for students, Texas A&M’s newspapers have proven valuable in more ways than one, from launching careers to preserving the university’s history, and so, though times have changed, the student press ranks among Aggieland’s enduring traditions. Read on to get the scoop on all things Aggie newspapers!

The earliest newspaper produced by the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas was The Texas Collegian, a periodical that published its first issue in December 1878 and lasted nearly two years. It was followed by The College Journal, published monthly from 1889-93, then The Battalion, which grew into Texas A&M’s longest-running student newspaper.
 

The Batt staff of 1908 is "hard at work" in this perhaps not-so-serious photo.

Texas A&M’s inaugural student organizations, the Stephen F. Austin and Calliopean Literary Societies, oversaw the publication of these original newspapers until the Students’ Association took over The Battalion in 1906. Cultivating the literary taste of the college’s students was a primary focus of the early papers which published prose, essays and original poetry alongside humor columns and campus news.

The Battalion’s first editor-in-chief, Ernest Bruce, Class of 1894, would go on to become a district judge and Texas state attorney and legislator. “The Editor-in-Chief shall do everything in his power to make these pages lively, interesting and instructive,” he wrote in the publication’s debut volume, printed October 1893. “We deem it our duty to see that the cadets will yet have a paper to be proud of.”

Women served on The Battalion staff from almost the very start. Ethel Hutson, the first woman to enroll in Texas A&M courses, helped edit a special June “yearbook” edition of the paper and was later recognized as an honorary member of the Class of 1895. Two other women followed her lead: Esther and Frances Davis, stepdaughters of Professor James Nagle, contributed to the paper as society reporters in 1909.

The Battalion transitioned to weekly publications for the first time in 1904. More frequent publication simultaneously marked the shift from literary magazine-styled issues to a traditional newspaper format.

Ol’ Sarge made his first appearance in a comic strip in one of The Battalion’s monthly humor issues. The illustration drawn by Pete Tumlinson ’42 features a character named Magarkin, a tough, strong-jawed prisoner who was reportedly “too tough for Alcatraz,” so the judge ruled to send him to Texas A&M.
 

The Batt has been at the forefront of breaking news:

  • Texas A&M celebrated a sweeping football victory against The University of Texas at Kyle Field in fall 1915. “It was a great day when Texas A&M came back as only Farmers can and defeated the much-praised Longhorns 13 to 0,” wrote The Battalion. “Not only did our team fight hard, but every cadet did his best to win. The rooting was the best and sincerest ever heard in any college,” continued another columnist. 

  • When American forces joined World War I, The Battalion broke the news to the campus community. Nearly every family in the surrounding area had a personal stake in the Great War, as cadets would be called upon to serve their country. For the first time in the history of the college, no graduation exercises were held; most graduating seniors had already left to join the war effort. A temporary break in The Battalion’s publication occurred the following year when Texas A&M functioned as a federal army training base.
     

From big Aggie wins to events on the world stage, The Battalion's headlines have covered it all.
In this commemorative issue, The Battalion reprinted several stories that originally ran during World War I reporting on notable moments.
A Battalion photographer and columnist helped cover the Apollo 12 moon landing, giving Aggies an inside look into the experience.
The Battalion helped cement Big Event as an Aggie tradition in 1983.
When the Bonfire stack collapsed in 1999, The Battalion helped keep students, families and Aggies across the nation informed about the rescue attempts.
  • A new tradition was born when students gathered for the second ever Big Event. (You know what they say about doing something twice in Aggieland...). After a small group of students initiated the community service day in 1982, Student Government Association members encouraged organizations across campus to get involved. The Battalion spread the word, and over 4,000 students showed up to support the effort, painting a middle school gymnasium, doing yard work, collecting canned goods and sponsoring talent shows for residents at the Brazos County Geriatric Center.
     
  • The Batt was the primary news source covering the Aggie Bonfire collapse in 1999, which killed 12 students and injured 27. Though that day’s issue had already been sent to print when news of the tragedy broke, staff stopped the presses and rewrote the front-page story to cover the news of just a few hours before. In the weeks that followed, journalists across the nation praised the student writers, editors and photographers for their diligence in capturing a crucial moment in Aggieland history.
     

Aggie Edison Makes Front Page News

If it hadn’t been for The Battalion, Forrest Mims ’66 probably wouldn’t be a scientist today.

A political science major but scientist at heart, Mims tinkered with electronics in his free time in college. Inspired by his blind great-grandfather, he created a device that would emit a tone whenever infrared LEDs detected nearby objects. He was thrilled when his design worked. “This development was much more exciting than anything being taught in my government classes, so I told fellow government major Lani Presswood about the project,” Mims wrote in his memoir, “Maverick Scientist.” Presswood ’66 just so happened to be a reporter for The Battalion.

After taking photographs of a blindfolded Mims with his handheld electronic travel aid in action, The Battalion featured his story on the front page. It was read by the university’s vice president for research, Dr. Andrew Suttle, who became intrigued by Mims’ science projects. Suttle introduced Mims to a military science advisor, and the budding scientist’s network soon grew, leading to a job for the Weapons Lab after serving in Vietnam. During his off-duty hours, he experimented with new ways to control the flight of a rocket and designed a transistorized light flasher to locate the rockets at night. Mims and his colleague, Ed Roberts, formed MITS, Inc. to sell the invention, a company that later drew Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates.

In the years that followed, the Aggie used instruments he developed for Scientific American magazine to track the ozone layer and identified an error in NASA’s ozone satellite readings. He and his project earned a Rolex Award for Enterprise, the only one received by a Texan. Since then, NASA has sent him twice to Brazil, to forest fires in the Western U.S. and hired him to develop instruments to measure emissions from the historic Tonga volcano. Most recently, the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society published Mim’s paper on 30 years of atmospheric measurements. “None of this would have occurred without the 1966 article, and for that, my family and I are most grateful to our favorite newspaper, The Battalion,” Mims shared.

You may recognize the names of these notable contributors:

  • Debby Krenek ’78 credits The Battalion for her successful journalism career working for major news outlets like the New York Daily News and Newsday, where she currently serves as publisher. “At The Battalion, we worked tirelessly day and night to bring forward the stories that Texas A&M students needed to know,” Krenek recalled at the publication’s 125th anniversary gala. “Many of us bonded over working long hours, sometimes as late as two o’clock in the morning, putting the paper to bed.”
     
  • A columnist and member of the editorial board at the Sacramento Bee, Cathie Anderson ’86 has had a long journalism career that’s included roles at the Austin American-Statesman, the Dallas Morning News and Detroit News. But it all started with her time at The Batt, where she served as its first Black editor-in-chief. Today, a plaque honoring her legacy hangs in The Batt’s student newsroom.
     
  • Longtime NFL sportswriter Charean Williams ’86 got her start covering Texas A&M athletics. “I remember the excitement when I joined The Battalion staff in the fall of 1983 and got to cover my first game,” Williams said. “It was a great learning ground for us to make mistakes. We got to experience a little of everything, which you need in journalism.”
     
  • Four-time Grammy-award-winning Lyle Lovett ’79 also wrote for The Battalion. Even though he found success along another career path, the musician looks back fondly on his time as a journalism student at Texas A&M.
     

Several locations have housed The Battalion over the years. Prior to 1931, students printed the paper at a shop in Bryan. With the transition to the Administration Building basement, The Battalion gained its first official office and on-campus printing facility. Later, The Battalion operated out of Goodwin Hall, then the basement of the Reed-McDonald Building for over 30 years. The location became as much a newsroom as it was a second home for The Batt staff.

Besides The Battalion, a student paper called The Daily Bulletin had a brief stint in the first half of the 20th century. Published by the college publicity department, it also ran under the name The Reveille before it was discontinued in 1938.

The Batt’s younger brother, The Little Battalion, was produced by freshmen at the Riverside Annex from 1947-51. Now RELLIS Campus, the Annex housed the influx of World War II veterans eager to start or finish their degrees after the GI Bill passed.

The Batt today is published in both print and digital form and covers everything from campus news and traditions to sports, politics and entertainment.

Over 50 students from a variety of backgrounds and academic majors make up today's newspaper staff, which operates out of the Memorial Student Center. The paper publishes weekly, distributing 4,500 copies across campus and the community, while the online edition, with news coverage updated daily, receives more than 900,000 visits each year.

The Battalion was awarded 77 honors – at seven national competitions and one state competition – during the 2025-26 academic year. Students’ hard work paid off with numerous Aggies placing in top spots for their talent and dedication in the realms of journalism, photography and design.

Texas A&M’s journalism program was revived in 2023. Students today can choose between a B.S. and B.A. in journalism and gain valuable experience both inside and outside the classroom in preparation for their careers.

One thing’s for sure: The Battalion and student journalists at Texas A&M are poised and ready to write the story of the university’s next 150 years.
 

More From the Pages of History

Remember When Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter Visited Aggieland?

The former presidents met on campus 40 years ago, courtesy of the Memorial Student Center Wiley Lecture Series.

Walking Through History: Looking Back on the Military Walk Restoration

Military Walk was fading into obscurity at the turn of the 21st century — until former university president Dr. Robert Gates took a weekend stroll around campus.

We're Betting You Don't Know About These Incredible Singing Cadet Performances

In their 133rd touring season, the Singing Cadets have spent generations carrying the Spirit of Aggieland far beyond campus through song.

Tagged with:
Contact

  • Stacy Halley

  • Interim Chief Development Officer
  • College of Arts & Sciences

Make Your Impact

Support future issues of The Battalion with a donation to The Battalion Excellence Fund.

Give Now