Northwest Missouri State University’s Tower yearbook was recognized recently by Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) as one of four Pacemaker Award recipients, crowning it as one of last year’s best college yearbooks in the country.

Tower joined Baylor University’s Baylor Roundup, Kansas State University’s Royal Purple and Southern Methodist University’s Rotunda as the 2021 winners announced at the ACP Spring National College Media Conference March 5 in Long Beach, California.

In addition, Tower was recognized at the conference with ACP’s Best in Show and People’s Choice awards. The Northwest Missourian student newspaper was honored with the Best in Show award for institutions with enrollments between 5,000 and 10,000.

“This just reaffirms to me that we have one of the strongest media programs in the country, and when you are beating schools with two, three or even four times our enrollment and money, it means even more,” said Steven Chappell, the director of student publications at Northwest. “These students work hard to produce quality journalism week after week and year after year. It’s so gratifying to see their hard work rewarded at the national level.”

First published in 1917, the 2021 Tower was the publication’s 100th edition. The yearbook commemorated its centennial edition through historic photos mixed with photos and stories recapping the 2020-2021 academic year and campus life.

Yearbooks produced during 2020-21 competed directly against each other. A team of three nationally recognized judges selected the seven Pacemaker finalists, from which the four winners were chosen.

ACP began presenting the prestigious Pacemaker Award to collegiate newspapers after the organization’s founding in 1921, making it one of the oldest awards for collegiate journalism. In the years since, yearbooks, magazines and websites were added to the competition.

Both the Tower yearbook, now an 11-time Pacemaker recipient, and The Northwest Missourian, a two-time Pacemaker recipient, are members of the ACP Hall of Fame.