One of Hugh Hefner's more memorable contributions to the University of Illinois was a feature called "Coed of the Month" in a campus humor magazine.
Now he's topped himself by endowing journalism scholarships at his alma mater.The "Playboy" founder gave $500,000 to the university's department of journalism to establish the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Scholar fellowships for graduate students in journalism. One Hefner scholar will be named every year beginning in the fall of 1998.
"For me, journalism isn't just one more profession. Of all the creative arts, it is the one that goes to the heart of democracy," Hefner said Thursday.