44 YEARS AGO THIS JUNE, WHEN THE HERALD WAS A REAL NEWSPAPER...

By Juan Montoya

It was a balmy Monday evening in Brownsville that June 26, 1978, almost 44 years ago. 

Fellow Brownsville Herald reporter Davis Crowder and yours truly were coming out of the old Palm Lounge (now the Hunky Dory) on Elizabeth Street and noticed a black cloud of smoke rising from the Matamoros side of the river and wondered what was burning on the "other side." 

Crowder was a silver-spoon kid from a rich suburb in Dallas. I had just graduated from J school at the U of Michigan the past May and our newshound instinct told us something was amiss over in Mata. We took it upon ourselves – even though it was after working hours – and without checking with our editor Bill Salter, to drive over and see what was shaking.

It turned out to be one of the biggest stories – if not the biggest – of the year.

Students had burned down city hall and stormed the CERESO (state jail) where one of their fellow students had been beaten to death by a cop. The city was under martial law for days. Crowder and I came back to the paper and had dark-room operator and photographer Ron Schade develop his pictures while I wrote the story and had it ready when the news staff came to work the following morning. By then, AP and UPI had swarmed to Brownsville and I guided them through Matamoros so they could write their stories. 

What took us hours to type and perfect on an IBM Selectric took AP's Ken Herman and UPI's Mack Sisk minutes on a manual typewriter. We looked on in wonder – and awe and respect – as they filed their stories from the Herald newsroom. Quick and without any typos on a manual. Priceless.

Our coverage – the first by any American newspaper or wire services – won us the 1978 first place award for spot reporting for newspaper under 25,000 circulation in the State of Texas for the now-defunct United Press International (UPI) wire service.

Salter, who was not above tooting his own horn, gave us a free hand in our writing and photo coverage. We took the hint and went for the gold. The result? Brownsville Herald readers got a first-hand account of what was happening next door, something we will probably never see again, given "the troubles" now in northern Tamaulipas.

Crowder ended up being an editor at the El Paso Times and I went to graduate school at the U of Wisconsin after a stint at the Corpus Christi Caller and – before grad school – the San Antonio Light. Salter ended up divorcing Becky and becoming editor of the Panama City, Fla. Freedom Newspaper.

When the Brownsville Herald was a real newspaper...