Special Collections continues our archival project Archives Gold: 50 Objects for UMBC's 50th, a special series showcasing 50 different objects that tell the story of UMBC. This week we present UMBC's first yearbook, Skipjack, from 1968.
Skipjack, 1968. UPUB S2-001, University Archives, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD)
In 1967, a group of ten sophomores and freshmen came together to create the first UMBC yearbook, entitled Skipjack. The students wanted to provide a unique outline to this first yearbook; instead of organizing it traditionally by events, organizations, and people, the yearbook staff decided to offer a chronological compilation of the beginning history of UMBC. Some of this history included early photos of UMBC under construction, a dedication to UMBC's first chancellor Albin O. Kuhn, photos from the "Opening Day" of classes, the birth of The Retriever newspaper, UMBC's first student government, Spring Week, and the Retriever mascot. After its first publication, Skipjack would only be published two more times, in 1969 and 1970. A few more yearbooks would be created throughout the years, The Golden Retriever in the late 70s and mid 80s and The Spotlight published 1988-1989, but the tradition of a yearbook would unfortunately never stick at UMBC.
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