Read Society member Andrew Bell's new book: Origins of Southern College Football
Many of us are missing live sports these days, but what better way to bridge the gap than with the new book from Society member Andrew Bell: The Origins of Southern College Football: How an Ivy League Game Became a Dixie Tradition.
From the publisher:
College football is a massive enterprise in the United States, and southern teams dominate poll rankings and sports headlines while generating billions in revenue for public schools and private companies. Southern football fans worship their teams, often rearranging their personal lives in order to accommodate season schedules. The Origins of Southern College Football sheds new light on the South’s obsession with football and explores the sport’s beginnings below the Mason-Dixon Line in the decades after the Civil War.
Military defeat followed by a long period of cultural unrest compelled many southerners to look to northern ideas and customs for guidance in rebuilding their beleaguered society. Ivy League universities, considered bastions of enlightenment and symbols of the modernizing spirit of the age, provided a particular source of inspiration for southerners in the form of organized or “scientific” football that featured standardized rules and scoring. Transported to the South by men educated at northern universities, scientific football reinforced cultural values that had existed in the region for centuries, among them a tolerance for violence, respect for martial displays, and support for traditional gender roles. The game also held the promise of a “New South” that its supporters hoped would transform the region into an industrial powerhouse. Students and townspeople alike embraced the new sport, which served as a source of pride for a region that lagged woefully behind its northern counterpart in terms of social equity and economic prowess.
The Origins of Southern College Football is an entertaining history of the South’s most popular sport cast against a broader narrative of the United States during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, two momentous periods of change that gave rise to the game we recognize today.
About the author:
Andrew McIlwaine Bell earned a PhD in history from George Washington University and works at the University of Virginia.
2020 Nominating Committee Report
The following is reported by the 2020 Nominating Committee:
The current roster of expiring officer terms was reviewed, recommendations were solicited membership wide and potential candidates were discussed. Contact was made with all recommended candidates to verify their willingness to serve. Committee members continued to correspond via email and phone to share information and prospective candidates’ responses. A full committee vote was completed on October 3, 2019 and a final slate for the 2020-2022 term was confirmed as follows for publication no later than October 15:
2020 Officer Nominees
- President Thomas Matthew Wright
- Vice President George W. Dixon
- Secretary Michael J. Jackonis, Jr.
- Treasurer Gregory L. Haymon
2020 Board of Managers
- Dr. Earl Wallace Donaldson, Jr.
- Johnathan MacKenzie Gordon
- Bryan Caleb Graham
2020 Board of Trustees
- Wayne Vernon McHargue, Jr.
- John Bussey Meek
2019 Alexandria Christmas Walk
Enjoy marching units filled with the magnificent tartans of Scottish Clans, the stirring sound of Scottish bagpipes and drums, Scottish dancers, reenactment groups, Scottie dogs, dignitaries, classic cars, Santa Claus, and much more. The parade begins at St. Asaph and Wolfe Streets and concludes at Market Square with a massed band concert. The parade will take place rain or shine.
All Members of the Society are invited to join us (kilts encouraged) for the festivities, beginning with a wreath-laying and culminating in the parade.
This year’s parade will take place at 11am on December 7th.