The Daily Helmsman and its predecessor, The Tiger Rag, have had many editors over the years, but the most unexpected editor was the FBI.
Jim and Sherrye Willis, a married couple who were both editors at The Tiger Rag, remember vividly May 4, 1966, two days following an anti-Vietnam War demonstration on the campus of the University of Memphis, then Memphis State University.
A campus anti-war group, which for some time had been publishing a mimeographed underground newspaper called Logos, had staged a non-violent protest on May 2. The group, often referred to by its newspaper's name, did not have a lot of support among University students, and, as they distributed their newspaper, a scuffle broke out between the Logos group and students in support of the war.
Jim, Sherrye and the rest of the newspaper staff came into work on May 4, expecting to write about the Logos scuffle, which came to be called the Logos Riot. To their shock, however, they came to school and found a special edition of the school newspaper had already been published — an edition that they did not know was being worked on.
It was a four-page tabloid special edition. It looked like the weekly Tiger Rag always had, but the administrators had controlled the content. There was a fairly straightforward lead story, but the rest of the newspaper clearly framed anti-war demonstrators as puppets of the Communist Party. An unsigned editorial described constitutional free speech as a prescription for chaos. "What sort of orderly society could be run in this manner?" the editorial asked.
Jim Willis said after it was published, The University's administrators' edict was, "Ok, we've handled the story, nothing more." After asking his friend who was editor at the time, Jim learned that it was not just the administration taking charge, "it was the FBI who was calling the shots on all the content," Jim said.
Jim also saw some other interesting events unfold after the Logos riots. While an undergraduate, he worked part time in the photo services department in the basement of the administration building, and he happened to stop in one day when one of his friends was printing hundreds of pictures from the Logos Riot. According to his friend, he was ordered to make an 8x10 print of every negative taken during the campus riot to turn over to the FBI.
Jim Willis, who has enjoyed a long and illustrious career in journalism since that time, found his career almost by accident. He had a friend on staff at the student newspaper who was crunched for time, so Jim agreed to lend him a hand.
It was there at the office of The Tiger Rag, where he would develop a fervor for asking questions and developing a sense of responsibility in his work. It was also where he would meet his future wife, Sherrye Johnson, who later was also his editor.
"I couldn't believe that newspaper journalism was so much fun, so I switched my major, worked for the newspaper and met Sherrye," he said.
Willis went on to find numerous, fulfilling career opportunities in journalism. However, it was his decision to help a friend out that led him down a path that would change his life.
Willis had a nontraditional college experience. He was on the self-proclaimed, "10-year plan" as an undergraduate. He said he was easily distracted by extracurricular activities. He was also drafted for four years during the Vietnam War.
When it came to the classroom, one professor came to mind immediately for both Willises — journalism professor L. Dupre Long. He was "unnecessarily difficult," according to Sherrye. Professor Long was particular about the details, including when it came down to the type of copy-editing pencils his students would use. In retrospect, Jim and Sherrye agree that Long taught them the importance of detail and also how to be tenacious in finding out information.
"He helped a lot of us understand that you have to go after these things," Sherrye said.
After graduation, Sherrye worked for The Memphis Press-Scimitar, Commercial Appeal and Valdosta Daily Times in Georgia before working as public relations director for Goodwill Industries and other public relations jobs.
After his college days, Jim said he could hardly believe his luck in finding a profession that was so much fun. He went to work for the Memphis Press-Scimitar and became editor and president of the Birmingham Post-Herald, before finishing his career at the Commercial Appeal, where he was associate publisher.
"I was so naïve when I finished school that I couldn't believe they'd pay you to do something that was so much fun" he said. "I figured that if I got to the point where it was no fun, then I'd find a real job, and, fortunately, I never had to find a real job."
