The Hughes News: Champs Hughes News Editions

Beginning way back in our first season one of the more fun aspects of this league was doing our 'newsletter'. I intended to do one weekly and for some years I accomplished that.

I went through many different methods of producing and distributing them. From the humble beginnings at the old Houston Post where I used Post stationery and wrote the news out by hand to the current use of the Hughes News blog, it's been quite an adventure. I miss producing a physical copy and so I continue the tradition with a 'Championship Edition' after every Hughes Bowl. The winning owner gets a printed copy.

Like the regular newsletters, the Championship Editions have evolved over the years but I've settled into the preferred style over the past five seasons or so. Putting them together continues to be a highlight for me and, I hope, the newly crowned EHFL champ!

Below are editions for every season. Many are original. Some, including all prior to 1989, have been recreated and done in the style of the newsletters of the era. The reigning champ's Hughes Bowl edition will be at the top. Below that the newsletters are in chronological order.

At the very bottom of this page is an example of the webpage we were using before Myfantasyleague evolved from previous stat providers. None of the links are working (it's a screen capture of the old page after all) but it gives you an idea of what the internet was like for our league back then.

Our Reigning Champ!

When we started I did most of the work on The News at the Houston Post using their stationery. These first few issues are 'reproductions' in the style of the era.

In the mid-80s I had created custom EHFL stationary and began using 'press-on' lettering for headlines. In these years I would stay up late and produce the newsletters and stat sheets after the Monday Night Football game. I'd head to the Stop and Go and make 5-cent copies, collate them in the parking lot, and drop them at the post office slot at about 2 a.m.

The issues through 1988 are all reproductions. Some of the originals were lost. In some years while I was working in the airline industry I was way too busy due to it being the Christmas travel season. I was lucky to do anything more than tabulate scores.

This 1989 edition is the oldest of the original Championship Editions that I am able to locate. In 1990 I had access to a Macintosh at my new gig as a teacher. I used that to print out graphics to spice things up. But the newsletters were still homebrews.

In 1991 I purchased my first computer, a Gateway2000 386-16. This '91 edition is the first of the computer-produced Champs News versions.

1993 marked the beginning of the more graphic style that has continued, more or less continuously, to now. I used either MS Publisher or MS Word.

Here are both the 'Back Page' and an 'alt' B&W version that I believe is the one I forwarded to the Chronicle's Ed Spaulding.

Below is the 1999 Hughes Bowl Edition with the back page and an alt version with different graphics that went to the Chronicle.

By 2000 I had decided to do everything online including all the news and stat stuff. But that season I 'fancied up' that online Hughes Bowl News and printed it out for mailing. Included below are all three original pages.

In 2001 I didn't create any printed newsletters. This was a copy of what I posted on our website for the title game.

I soon went back to producing a Champs Edition using MS Publisher/Word. I especially liked this one from 2002. I changed styles from year-to-year, some plain, some more elaborate.

Here is the 2003 HB Edition, front and back.

Here is the second page of the 2004 HB Edition.

I produced everything on our news blog for awhile. This 2007 entry was the post that reported the Giants' win that year. If I did a special edition for mailing I can't locate it.