Lyon College News Bureau
2001
Lyon graduate Josh Baugh said he was never interested in a career in newspapers
until he took his first journalism class at Lyon College.That interest led him to graduate school and a job at a medium-size daily newspaper in Texas. And two weeks ago, he took over the position of higher education reporter for the College Station/Bryan, Texas Eagle, covering anything related to Texas A&M University except sports.
“Everyone thinks since I played baseball at Lyon that I’m just a sports guy, but I don’t have anything to do with sports here,” Baugh said. “I cover the main campus of A&M, its 12 campuses across the state and all its various agricultural agencies too. If it has to do with Texas A&M and it’s not sports, I cover it.”
Baugh, an English major with a concentration in journalism at Lyon, took his first job as a professional journalist at the Denton, Texas, Record-Chronicle, a daily newspaper with a circulation of about 17,000.
While working there, he worked on a master’s degree in journalism at the University of North Texas. In 2003, he earned the degree, and that led to his hiring as the higher education reporter at the Eagle. That newspaper has a daily circulation of about 30,000, Baugh said.
“My journalism classes at Lyon showed me that I wanted a career in this field,” he said. “Lyon is why I’m here now.”
Originally from San Antonio, Baugh came to Lyon after attending Tulane University for one year. Head baseball coach Kirk Kelley recruited him and convinced him that Lyon was where he belonged.
“He’s (Coach Kelley) so good at what he does,” Baugh said, “that he could literally go anywhere he wanted to.”
Kelley has totaled close to 400 wins in the 14 years he’s been at Lyon College. He’s worked as a Major League scout for the Baltimore Orioles, and is currently a scout for the San Diego Padres organization.
Another major influence on Baugh at Lyon College was Dr. Terrell Tebbetts, professor of English and noted authority on the works of many great authors, especially that of William Faulkner. His essays and critiques have been published in several highly respected journals and anthologies.
Tebbetts has been with the Lyon faculty for 35 years, and serves in many capacities, including as faculty co-sponsor for Alpha Chi and Kappa Sigma and as Chair of the Language and Literature Division.
“He’s really an amazing teacher,” Baugh said. “He’s like the teacher in Dead Poet’s Society. Even if you don’t like the subject he’s teaching, he makes it fun.”
Baugh said he took Dr. Tebbetts’ class on romantic poetry, a subject he had little to no desire to even study.
“I don’t like poetry, and romantic poetry is even worse,” he said. “But Dr. Tebbetts made it fun. I actually ended up liking the subject, and the class, too.”
Without Kirk Kelley bringing him to Lyon College, and without the influence of Dr. Tebbetts in regards to writing as a career choice, Baugh said he doesn’t know what path his life would have taken.
“Lyon was a good choice for me,” he said. “Right now, I’m doing what I love, and doing it at a paper that I respect and enjoy working for. And I’m here because of Lyon College.”