The Sewanee Tigers football team represents Sewanee: The University of the South in the sport of

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

. The Tigers compete in

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

as members of the

Southern Athletic Association The Southern Athletic Association (SAA) is a college athletic conference in NCAA Division III that began play in the 2012–13 school year. It was formed in 2011 by seven former members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and indepe ...

. Three Sewanee Tigers are members of the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were v ...

: Henry Seibels,

Henry D. Phillips Henry Disbrow Phillips (January 16, 1882 – June 29, 1955) was an American Episcopal bishop (1938–1955) and college American football player and coach (1900–1909). Sportswriter Fuzzy Woodruff called him "the greatest football player who ever ...

, and Frank Juhan.

History

The Sewanee Tigers were pioneers in American intercollegiate athletics and possessed the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...

's preeminent football program in the 1890s.

Ellwood Wilson Ellwood Wilson was a college football player, considered the "founder of Sewanee Tigers football." He came to Sewanee from New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered ...

is considered the "founder of Sewanee football." Their 1899 football team had perhaps the best season in college football history, winning all 12 of their games, 11 by

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

, and outscoring their opponents 322-10. Five of those wins, all shutouts, came in a six-day period while on a trip by train. Ten of their 12 opponents, including all five of their road trip victims, remain major college football powers to this day. In 2012, the College Football Hall of Fame held a vote of the greatest historic teams of all time, where the 1899 Iron Men beat the 1961 Alabama Crimson Tide as the greatest team of all time. Sewanee was a charter member of the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...

in 1894, and also a charter member of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

upon its formation in 1932, but by this time its athletic program had declined precipitously and Sewanee never won a conference football game in the eight years it was an SEC member. The Tigers were shut out 26 times in their 37 SEC games, and were outscored by a combined total of 1163–84. When vice chancellor Benjamin Ficklin Finney, who had reportedly objected to Sewanee joining the SEC, left his position in 1938, the leading candidate was Alexander Guerry, a former president of the

University of Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...

. According to a university historian, Guerry agreed to come to Sewanee only if the school stopped awarding

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United Stat ...

s. In 1940, two years after Guerry's arrival, Sewanee withdrew from the SEC and subsequently deemphasized varsity athletics. Guerry's stance is sometimes credited as an early step toward the 1973 creation of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

Division III, which prohibits athletic scholarships.

Yea, Sewanee's Right!

"Yea, Sewanee's Right!" is the surviving last line of an old football cheer: "Rip `em up! Tear `em up! Leave `em in the lurch. Down with the heathen. Up with the Church.–Yea, Sewanee's Right!" The heathen may have been the Methodists of Vanderbilt which would date the cheer in the 1890s; the cheer was sometimes also used against Hampden-Sydney. Now used as an alternative motto and often shouted at the end of the Alma Mater. When used with the Alma Mater it is preceded by the transitional formula of an extended pause followed by "Yea, Sewanee's Right!"

Conference history

: 1895–1900, 1902–1924 *

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...

: 1924–1932 *

: 1932–1940 * Independent: 1941, 1946–1961 *

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), founded in 1962, is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas. Difficulties related to travel distan ...

: 1962–2012 *

: 2012–present

Conference championships

Sewanee has won 15 conference championships, nine outright and six shared. † denotes shared championship

All-Time Sewanee Tigers football team

First team

* E

Jenks Gillem Jennings Frederick "Sam" "Jenks" Gillem (c. 1890 – November 11, 1951) was an American football player and coach. Gillem played for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee: The University of the South, and was selected All-Southern in 1910, 1911, and 191 ...

* E

Delmas Gooch Robert Delmas "Del" Gooch (March 10, 1905 – December 1968) was a college football player. Sewanee Gooch was a prominent end for the Sewanee Tigers football teams of Sewanee:The University of the South. At Sewanee he was a member of Sigma ...

* T

Jay Dee Patton Jay Dee Patton (September 16, 1907 – December 24, 1975) was an American college football player, World War II veteran, and printer. Early years Patton was born on September 16, 1907, to Wade Hampton Patton and Agnes née Self. Patton atten ...

* T

Thug Murray Roger Goodman "Thug" Murray (May 8, 1898 – August, 1979) was an American college football player and coach. Naval Academy Murray played on Navy teams which beat Army twice. ''The New York Times'' wrote of Murray's play in the 1920 game, praisin ...

* G

* G Ephraim Kirby-Smith * C Frank Juhan * QB Chigger Browne * HB Aubrey Lanier * HB Henry Seibels * FB Ormond Simkins

Second team

* E Silas Williams * E

Rupert Colmore Rupert McPherson Colmore Jr. (November 2, 1914 – December 27, 1972) was a college football player. A prominent tackle, he is the only All-Southeastern Conference selection in the history of the Sewanee Tigers football program. Philadelphia ...

* T

Lex Stone Andrew Alexis "Lex" Stone (May 19, 1885 – March 22, 1925) was an American football player, a coach of football and basketball, and a politician. Sewanee Stone was a prominent tackle for the Sewanee Tigers of Sewanee:The University of the S ...

* T Frank Faulkinberry * G Laurie Thompson * G

Bob Taylor Dobbins Robert Taylor Dobbins (July 3, 1890 – July 27, 1945) was a college football player and coach. Early years Bob Taylor Dobbins was born on July 3, 1890, in Gallatin, Tennessee to Thomas Miller Dobbins and Leila Glass. Playing career Sewanee ...

* C George Watkins * QB John Scarbrough * HB

Frank Shipp Frank S. Shipp (July 23, 1884 – December 10, 1934) was a college football and baseball player. Sewanee He was a prominent running back for the Sewanee Tigers football team of Sewanee: The University of the South, selected second-team for an ...

* HB

Bill Coughlan William M. Coughlan (1899 – July 5, 1952) was an American college football player and track athlete and coach. He played football and ran track at Sewanee: The University of the South and was inducted into the school's sports hall of fame in 2 ...

* FB Reuben S. Parker

References

{{Sewanee Tigers football navbox American football teams established in 1891 1891 establishments in Tennessee