OC Journalism alumnus will be honored Oct. 3 during the National Newspaper Week

Oklahoma Christian University Journalism alumnus Steve Lackmeyer was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame this year, becoming the first OC member. Lackmeyer is known in Oklahoma for his extensive reporting at the Oklahoman newspaper and for his knowledge about downtown Oklahoma City. Lackmeyer has written multiple books on the history of Oklahoma City’s resurgence and growth, with the city now ranking as one of the top-20 largest media markets in the U.S. 

OC’s Communication Program will honor Lackmeyer in the Seitsinger Newsroom in the Garvey Center on Oct. 3 during the National Newspaper Week. 

Lackmeyer serves as a senior editor for the Oklahoman. He has written stories on the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the city’s Metopolitan Area Projects, Bricktown and the addition of the National Basketball Association’s Oklahoma City Thunder team. He also volunteers with a task force creating a monument to Oklahoma City’s original civil rights sit-in movement.

Lackmeyer will receive a plaque at OC, which will be identical to the one he received from the Hall of Fame. The new plaque will be displayed in the Seitsinger’s Newsroom, which serves as the workspace for Journalism students in both Talon, OC’s online student newspaper, and Eagle Angle, OC’s television newscast. 

Distinguished Professor of Mass Communication Philip Patterson, who was Lackmeyer’s adviser, directs the Journalism Program and oversees the Talon.

“Steve is a former editor of the Talon, a longtime award-winning reporter for the Oklahoman and the first former Talon editor to receive this honor,” Patterson said. “Invitees to our event include former students at the time Steve was on campus, including staff members who won the first "All-American" designation for the Talon by the Associated Collegiate Press.”

According to Patterson, additional alumni will be honored in the future.

“We plan on replicating the awards of all of our alumni from Journalism contests to such iconic events as being appointed to a state judgeship,” he said. “As we replicate the awards, we will begin to display them on the Alumni Landing. Lackmeyer will be the first, with future additions done at an annual luncheon during National Newspaper Week each fall.”

Patterson hopes the new Alumni Landing will be a way for Talon and Journalism students to see what others before them were able to accomplish.

“We are asking Dan Seitsinger to attend,” Patterson said. “The next Oct. 4 would be the birthday of Kyle, the only OC student killed in action in any war." 

OC’s Seitsinger Newsroom is named in Kyle’s honor. 

The luncheon for Lackmeyer will take place at 11:45 a.m. in the Gaylord Room in the conference center of the Student Center. This is where Lackmeyer will receive his award and where the new replication and Alumni Landing will be announced. 

The Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame honors the men and women who have made outstanding contributions to journalism in Oklahoma, the U.S. and the world. Honorees are selected by a committee of hall of fame members, including its director, and distinguished leaders in journalism.

“These individuals are longtime journalists who have distinguished themselves in many ways both in their communities and outside of them,” Joe Hight said. He serves as director of the Hall of Fame and as the University of Central Oklahoma’s Edith Kinney Gaylord endowed chair of journalism ethics.