Beginning in 1942, the UT Alumni Association mailed newsletters called “Hill-O-Grams” to all UT alumni in the armed services for whom the association had an address. In 1944 the newsletters were being mailed to more than seven thousand service persons. The newsletters carried news of the Hill and news of alumni service activities. Early in the fall of 1942, an issue contained the “Dyer-gram” of the Alabama football game, contributed by the Knoxville News-Sentinel, in which the feature appeared. This graphic account of football action was the work of UT Alumnus Bill Dyer, a News-Sentinel cartoonist.
The newsletters were continued after World War II, with the principal recipients being contributors to the association’s Alumni Fund. The newsletters were discontinued in 1962 and replaced by publication of the quarterly newsletter Torchbearer, written and produced by the public relations office.