Our History
The Press Club of Dallas was founded in 1948 and has proudly served the journalism and communications community in North Texas and beyond.
The Press Club of Dallas can trace its roots back to the late 1940s as a group of poker-playing production and print shop workers from The Dallas Morning News and The Dallas Times-Herald.
The poker games – with their lucrative stakes and free-flowing liquor – eventually attracted the attention of reporters, many of whom had hours to kill between the close of business and the time that their respective newspapers were put to bed. As more and more reporters joined the group, the discussions turned increasingly to beginning a Press Club that would not only provide camaraderie and a place to socialize, but also a venue to promote journalistic ideals and ethics.
In 1951, the Press Club of Dallas received its charter from the State of Texas, and soon set up a bustling dining room and bar at the Baker Hotel.
That location, which encompassed the hotel’s entire second floor, set the club up for a boom in membership growth that included reporters, editors, photographers, and production professionals from both of the city’s major newspapers, as well as radio reporters and reporters from Dallas’ fledgling television stations.
During the 1950s, the club instituted many of its signature events, including the Katie Awards, the annual Gridiron Show, political debates, press conferences, book signings and professional development workshops.
The Press Club of Dallas was in a unique situation in 1963 when the assassination of President John F. Kennedy brought the eye of national news to Dallas. Many of the club’s members reported first-hand on the assassination and the ensuing events, including the arrest and murder of Lee Harvey Oswald and later the arrest of Jack Ruby.
Dallas reporters were up to the challenge, and, thanks to their work, new industry standards for reporting major news events – especially via television – were created here.
The club had a brief stint at the downtown Metropolitan Building before moving in the 1970s to Union Station. During that time, the club opened its doors to public relations professionals.
Following its years at Union Station, the Press Club had dining rooms at the Stoneleigh Hotel and the Southland Hotel. By the early 1990s, however, the cost of maintaining a dining room had grown astronomically, and the club opted to downsize its facilities. The club took offices on McKinney Avenue and Ross Avenue and North Central Expressway before moving into its current location in the Women’s Museum in Fair Park at 3800 Parry Avenue.
The Press Club of Dallas has a tradition of service to its members and the community through its longstanding programs including its Foundation Scholarship Program, annual Katie Awards, Roast and Gridiron Shows.
The Press Club of Dallas also offers networking and professional development opportunities through monthly “In the Know” luncheon series, writers and editors workshops, forums on news-making topics and new legislation affecting journalism, happy hour social events, book signings and press conferences. The club also is working toward a long-term goal of establishing a proposed “Texas Journalism Hall of Fame.”
Since the 1950s, the Press Club of Dallas has played host to such journalism pioneers as Walter Cronkite, Hugh Sidey, Bob Schieffer and Ann Compton. Our own local membership includes some of the most revered members of Texas journalism– from people who shaped our industry during the days following the Kennedy assassination and in the early days of television broadcasting to those who competed for headlines when Dallas was still a two daily newspaper city.
Members of the Press Club of Dallas shall adhere to the highest standards of journalism ethics, striving for accuracy and fairness in their individual medium, avoiding conflicts of interest or the appearance of such and preserving the credibility of a profession whose goal is to present the public with the material it needs to make informed, enlightened decisions. Any acts of plagiarism, theft of intellectual property, actions that make one beholden to a particular cause or failure to adhere to professional standards of journalism could lead to cancellation of membership.
The Press Club of Dallas is a corporation that supports the nonprofit organization known as the Press Club Foundation whose sole purpose is to raise money for journalism scholarships through three major fundraisers: the Katie Awards, the Gridiron Show and the Annual Press Club Roast. The Foundation is responsible for maintaining a scholarship fund and choosing recipients of scholarships.
