There are few people who can say that they are working their dream job, and even fewer people that can declare that their ideal career started at UB.
Jay Schreiber, managing sports editor of The New York Times, can stake the claim. In fact, he was a writer for the sports and news desks at The Spectrum.
"I joined The Spectrum in 1968, my freshman year here at UB," Schreiber said. "I was always pretty into sports so I figured that's what I'd get into, and sure enough I was assigned to report on the UB golf team."
Schreiber covered the golf team for the majority of his freshman year, which continued into the fall of his sophomore year. Then on one fateful day in 1969, he assisted a writer in covering a protest that was being held in the quadrangle on the Main Street Campus (roughly the area between Diefendorf and Clark Halls).
"The time period we were living in was entrenched in rebellion, protests and a lot of anti-war sentiment," Schreiber said. "Vietnam was the cause of many a social uprising at UB during my years as an undergraduate."
"This particular day, I was assigned to cover a protest on campus objecting to new legislations on draft deferments," he said. "The event was supposed to have a turnout of 50 to 100 people, yet roughly four or five hundred protestors lined up to rally against the cause. The National Guard was brought in and scores of protesters were arrested, and from that event on I became a news reporter."
After that breakthrough, Schreiber was given the leeway necessary to pursue the stories he felt would be most appealing to the student population. He reviewed pro-wrestling events and reported on restaurants and caf?(c)s throughout the city, as well as writing stories on interviews with up-and-coming musicians from the Buffalo area. Schreiber also reported and gave interviews to a number of politicians of the era, most notably former Alabama Governor George Wallace.
"Wallace was known as one of if not the leading voice of racism in the country at the time," he said. "He was very adamant about keeping segregation intact, and he visited and spoke at UB in 1970 when he was campaigning for his failed presidential run."
Schreiber wrote for The Spectrum until his senior year at UB, as the chaos in the world around him began to overwhelm him.
"I look back on the stories I was doing and have vague memories of putting in lackluster efforts. I feel now that I was asking one-fifth of what I should have been asking, as the content of my work was beginning to get more and more watered down, so I wound up leaving The Spectrum towards the end of my days as an upperclassman."
After returning home to Queens from his senior year at UB, Schreiber tried to find entry-level jobs at the major newspapers of New York City. After many failed attempts, he realized that this method of breaking into the journalism industry was not going to work.
"It dawned on me one day that there were thousands of newspapers across the country in need of writers, and a hundred in the tri-state area alone. I realized this is where I should be getting started."
Schreiber eventually got a break with The Daily Advance of Dover, N.J. After a year, he transferred to the nearby Daily Record, where he worked for six years primarily as an editor.
With connections in the industry built up from nearly eight years of writing in smaller market publications, Schreiber was able to land a position at the New York Daily News.
"When you are an editor, it is very hard to land a job at a major newspaper without someone else vouching for you. There are no by-lines for editors so very rarely do major newspapers approach you about a position. I was lucky enough to get my name mentioned at the Daily News."
Schreiber was an editor in the sports department and had a large role in the headline department as well. He worked at the Daily News until 1991 when the staff of the paper went on strike against its owner, The Chicago Tribune Company.
"We actually wound up winning the strike, and the Chicago Tribune Company eventually sold the Daily News, enabling the staff to receive the demands that we felt we were entitled to. I, unfortunately, was unable to reap any of the benefits the strike brought about because soon after I was presented with an offer from The New York Times."
Schreiber thoroughly enjoyed his tenure at The Daily News, but the offer from The Times was something too good to pass up.
"Even while I was at The Daily News, I considered The Times to be the best newspaper in the country, if not the world. I was brought up on The Times, and had an appreciation for the paper since a very young age. I was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, and I jumped at it."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
