Once every other month, teachers, students and staff walk through the doors and pick up a copy of The Warrior. With a living legacy and an over 100-year tradition, The Warrior has encountered many changes since its inception. In addition, many student editors and reporters have passed through the publication en route to a variety of impressive careers.

The newspaper at Lane was not always called The Warrior. For roughly sixty years, the newspaper varied from being released every day to a few times a week as the Lane Tech Daily. The Lane Tech Daily was a 6×10 publication in contrast to the current Warrior’s 11×17 tabloid size.

Class of 1956 alumnus and former Lane Tech Daily Sports Editor Roy Olson said the creation of the paper was handled a little different than it currently is.

“We didn’t have a journalism class at all — there were just people who wanted to volunteer and who wanted to participate,” Olson said.

The structure in the 50’s was completely student-directed in regards to deciding how the paper should look. The layout and article decisions were handled almost exclusively by the editors. Today, The Warrior is run by Journalism 1-3 students and adviser and teacher Mr. Strom.

Through the decades, working for the publication has seemed to influence the lives of many students. Olson, for example, went on to work for the Chicago American newspaper after leaving Lane.

“It stirred me into a career,” Olson said. “I had no idea I would become a newspaper writer or public relations person if it hadn’t been for Lane Tech.”

Of course the school wasn’t co-ed at the time, which would also mean that the newspaper had an entirely male staff. The school changed in September 1971, at the same time the paper changed to The Warrior from the Lane Tech Daily. This opened the door for opportunities for ambitious female reporters and editors, such as Maurel Samonte. Samonte was a reporter and news editor before graduating in 1986. Her motive for taking the journalism course was similar to many others before her.

“When I was there, I always had a knack for anything investigative, and I loved writing at the time,” Samonte said. At that point in her life she had also planned on using the skills from working on the paper in her career.

“I thought I was going to go into some form of print journalism at the time, so going and taking the class was a natural pathway to that,” Samonte said. She is now successfully working in the real estate business, handling luxury and even landmark status properties. She said that the skills she acquired from working on The Warrior are still useful in the field of business.

The Warrior’s continued effect on staff members is also evident with Marshall Harris, who served as editor-in-chief from 1993-1994. He later decided to return and become director of The Warrior from 2001-2005. He said his contributions as a student “were pretty limited,” but when he returned as a teacher he strove to bring political activism to The Warrior, and used journalism to provoke thought.

“I really tried to infuse the program with that idea,” Harris said. “That journalism can be more than just telling stories.”

While the change to The Warrior from the Daily meant that the paper was no longer released on a day to day basis, it continued to follow certain traditions. According to Harris the paper went on to be printed at Lane until the printing presses were removed along with the woodshop and auto shop classes. The Warrior then had to begin printing off site, since the school decided to create a more college prep based curriculum.

“The printing was no longer done at school, so we could kind of expand what we did in terms of making The Warrior look good,” Harris said.

Regardless of the reason that various alumni chose to join the newspaper staff, most could remember at least one story that made their decision a good one.

“I always loved the April first edition because you had to make it sound super real, but it was supposed to be a joke to the student body,” Samonte said.

The issue she is referring to is the April Fools satire edition. The Warrior continues to follow this tradition, along with many others.

Physically the paper has undergone several changes to layout. During the time of the Daily, the banner for the paper included the iconic clock tower instead of the recent W-shaped feather logo. At the time it did still feature images of Native Americans as logos. Up until the current school year those images had remained. However editors decided to remove the logos after a series of editors’ meetings and a vote.

Aside from logos, under the oversight of Mr. Strom, he wanted to focus on learning journalism and creating better stories in class. This emphasis on teaching reporting and writing led to fewer advertisements from local businesses; however Strom said it is his goal to place more ads in the future, if time would allow.

It is safe to say there will continue to be plenty of subtle changes to The Warrior for as long as it exists; at the same time most of the traditions will live on through the staff and the legacy will grow.