In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

introduction To Preserve the Unhindered Pursuit of Knowledge The Capstone shortly after becoming president in 1912, George Hutchinson “mike”denny referred to the university as “the Capstone” of public education in the state of alabama. The appellation remains popular to this day. by 1962, alabama alumni and students possessed a passion for football verging on the religious. Even prior to the 1960s, the annual gridiron showdown between alabama’s CrimsonTide and their cross-state rival,the auburn University Tigers, united and divided the state’s citizens. some more moderate (or weak-kneed) fans, then as now, might claim to cheer for both teams until the annual late-november showdown forced their true allegiances. real bama fans claimed to “bleed” crimson and white and flatly declared, “i’m for two teams: alabama and whoever plays auburn.” for a very long time this football clash was in hiatus. after a forty-oneyear gap, caused by a dispute over money, the series resumed in 1948. subsequently , alabama won five of its first six meetings, but in 1954 the Tide’s faltering football fortunes resulted in five straight losses to its bitter rival. When auburn claimed its first national championship in 1957, many Tiger fans believed they had arrived in an orange-and-blue promised land. Even then they could not have known the sun was about to set on auburn’s glory days and would not rise again for nearly three decades. in the autumn of 1962, the University of alabama’s administration and faculty braced for desegregation, an event constituting what historians call a “watershed,” a point demarcating dramatic shifts in the social and cultural landscape. leadership would be critical in meeting this challenge. accordingly , in June 1957, the alabama board of Trustees anticipated this challenge by calling frank anthony rose, president of Transylvania College in lexing- 2 / Introduction ton, Kentucky, to step into what most board members believed was the failed presidency of oliver Cromwell Carmichael, whose leadership proved inept during the turmoil that accompanied the first attempt at racial desegregation in february 1956. Understanding the inseparable bond between gridiron fortunes and the university , even before rose moved into the President’s mansion, he hired Coach Paul W.“bear”bryant away from Texas a&m University. bryant, who played on the 1934 alabama rose bowl national championship team, had a solid reputation for turning around football programs. He did it first at the University of maryland, then at Kentucky, and, since 1954, at Texas a&m where, in just three seasons,bryant transformed the aggies from southwest Conference cellar dwellers into league champions. The inauguration of frank rose in may 1958, followed by the turnaround 5–4–1 autumn football season, marked the start of a decade of progress both for the University of alabama and its Crimson Tide. during the first four years of the rose administration, the university built twenty-five new buildings , including new men and women’s dormitories.These were constructed to accommodate an increase in the student body from around 6,500 in 1958 to over 9,700 when the first wave of the baby-boom generation, youngsters born between the closing months of World War ii and 1964, arrived for the 1964– 65 academic year.1 When the class of 1963 entered the university in september 1959, dwight david Eisenhower resided in the White House.for them,life at the Capstone in the late 1950s and early 1960s was not much changed from what students experienced a generation earlier.There were football weekends, fraternity parties , and candlelight initiations in the houses along sorority row. While rock ’n’ roll had replaced the big-band sound of their parents’ generation, the “gentleman ’s C” approach to higher education was only just feeling the effects of the new urgency in american higher education spurred by the soviet leap into space in october 1957 with the launch of sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the earth. all in all, as the old decade melded into the new, life was good at the University of alabama. The majority of students came from comfortable middle-class homes.some hailed from alabama’s larger cities like birmingham, montgomery, and mobile . others made their way to Tuscaloosa from smaller towns like Tuscumbia, Town Creek, foley, Centreville, or Enterprise. on campus, major fraternities allied with students at the University of alabama school of law to constitute the “machine”that ran campus politics through the student Government as- [3.141.100.120] Project MUSE (2024-04-19...

Share