A Proud History of Southern Universities Quiz

Founded by a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II of England, the college in Williamsburg, Virginia, was established in 1693. That date makes it the second oldest college in America, behind Harvard University. The school has a remarkable list of "firsts". The nation's first "Greek letter society", Phi Beta Kappa, began there. The first law school in America was there. Also, in 1694, William & Mary became the very first American college to receive an official royal coat of arms from the College of Arms in London. Because the school's campus hadn't actually been built yet when the coat of arms was designed, the buildings illustrated on the shield are entirely fictional and do not match the real campus.

There have been many famous alumni from the College of William and Mary. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler completed their undergraduate studies there while George Washington received his surveyor's license and served as their first American chancellor. Jon Stewart, a TV host and comedian, as well as Pittsburgh football coach Mike Tomlin also name it as their alma mater.

The College of Charleston is in Charleston, South Carolina, and was founded in 1770 by some of that state's most prominent colonial figures. The college had its actual chartering heavily delayed by the Revolutionary War. Three of the founders were also statesmen who signed the Declaration of Independence and were later held as prisoners of war during the Revolution. After the war, they returned to Charleston to finish the charter. The college enforces a strict, visually striking graduation dress code that dates back generations. Instead of the standard black caps and gowns used almost everywhere else, women wear long white evening dresses and carry a bouquet of red roses, while men wear formal white linen summer tuxedos.

The campus itself is draped in Spanish moss and surrounds a square college green with evergreen oaks, known as The Cistern. This name is derived from a 19th-century oval cistern built there to hold the campus's water supply. The college is also highly rumored by locals to be one of the most haunted campuses in the South due to its deep ties to the city's antebellum history.

The architect who designed the Washington Monument named Robert Mills, South Carolina Governor Burnet R. Maybank, and actress Allison Munn are among some of the famous alumni.

The University of Georgia (my alma mater) was founded in 1785 in Athens, Georgia, and was the first university to receive a state charter. The university was started by Abraham Baldwin, who wrote that charter, and Georgia Governor Lyman Hall (a former signer of the Declaration of Independence), who convinced the state legislature to set aside the land for the school in 1784. The first class, a group of ten proud young men, graduated in 1804. One of the university's oldest campus traditions revolves around "The Arch", which is an iron gateway erected in the 1850s. Tradition dictates that freshmen are not allowed to walk under it; those who do are said to be cursed to never graduate.

Famous alumni of the school (discounting myself LOL) include Ryan Seacrest (media mogul and TV host), Alton Brown (a TV host and culinary historian), Stuart Woods (best selling mystery novelist), and Herschel Walker (Heisman Trophy winner). In addition, the school is known for its beloved live bulldog mascot named Uga. The college is one of the only universities with a dedicated mausoleum located inside its football arena which serves as the resting place for the deceased Uga mascots over the decades.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (in Chapel Hill, NC) was established in 1789 but actually opened its doors to students in 1795, making it the only public university in the USA to graduate students in the 18th century. William Richardson Davie wrote the act that established the University and it was he and fellow trustees who laid the cornerstone of the first building called Old East. Right at the heart of campus stands the Old Well, a small rotunda housing a water fountain. University tradition dictates that any freshman who takes a drink from the fountain on the first morning of autumn classes will achieve a perfect 4.0 GPA that semester. The resulting line stretches down the block every year starting around at dawn.

Many people wonder how the school got its nickname of the Tarheels. The term dates back to North Carolina's early history, when the state was a leading producer of supplies for the naval industry. Workers who distilled turpentine from the sticky sap of pine trees to produce tar and pitch often went barefoot during hot summer months and undoubtedly collected tar on their heels.

Some well know alumni of the university include President James Polk, basketball superstar Michael Jordan, and the famous actor Andy Griffith.

After an act of the South Carolina General Assembly, the University of South Carolina was founded in 1801 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Is that enough use of the words South Carolina?) It was originally established as South Carolina College. That U-shaped original campus is comprised of several buildings and is called "The Horseshoe". During the Civil War, the entire student body volunteered for the Confederate Army, forcing the college to shut down. The campus survived the burning of Columbia in 1865 because it had been converted into a massive hospital serving both Union and Confederate soldiers. It was also the only Southern state university to fully integrate and grant degrees to black students during the Reconstruction era before being forcibly closed and re-segregated in 1877.

The school has a proud history of various sporting teams. As an example, in 1922 the school established a varsity swimming and diving team. Amazingly, they competed at a Division I level for 17 full years BEFORE the university built an on-campus pool. The team had to borrow local YMCA lanes and city pools just to practice.

Some memorable alumni of the university include Lee Atwater (political strategist and former chair of the Republican National Committee), Darius Rucker (Grammy Award-winning musician), and Dan Reeves (professional football player and coach).

The University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, was founded in 1819 and was designed by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, for years, had been studying architecture and had interests in advanced education. He envisioned an "Academical Village" where students and faculty lived and learned together around a grand library (The Rotunda) rather than a church. In its early days (after Jefferson's death), UVA was notoriously wild. Jefferson's strict enforcement of student self-governance backfired, leading to student riots, rampant gambling, and even the fatal shooting of the university's law professor on campus in 1840, which eventually forced the school to introduce a strict Honor Code.

While walking through the West Range of the campus, you might notice the walls to be uniquely wavy. Jefferson designed it this way not only artistically but for an engineering standpoint. A wavy wall requires only a single brick's thickness to stand stable without toppling over, saving thousands of bricks compared to a standard straight wall that requires a double layer.

Well known attendees of the school include Edgar Allan Poe (well known author), President Woodrow Wilson (who attended the Law School there), Robert Kennedy (U.S. Attorney General and Senator), and Tina Fey (an actress and comedian).

The University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama was founded in 1820 and opened its doors in 1831 with only four professors and just over 50 students. The school was heavily shaped by the upcoming Civil War. In 1860, it was converted into a military academy to train Confederate officers, which made it a primary target for Union forces. On April 4, 1865, Union troops marched onto campus and burned virtually the entire university to the ground. Only four original structures survived the fires, including the Roundhouse (a small guard house) and the President's Mansion, which the university president's wife famously defended from the soldiers.

Their mascot is an elephant yet their athletic name is the "Crimson Tide". This came about during a brutal, muddy football game in 1907 against their rival Auburn. The field had turned into a sea of red Alabama clay, staining the white jerseys a deep red. A sports editor looking down from the press box wrote that the players looked like a "Crimson Tide" rushing over the field, and the name stuck.

Some famous attendees include Harper Lee (author), Joe Namath (NFL superstar quarterback), and Timothy Leary (psychologist and counterculture icon).

Tulane University, in New Orleans, Louisiana, was founded in 1834 by seven doctors as the Medical College of Louisiana to combat the devastating epidemics of yellow fever and cholera sweeping through that city. It became a comprehensive, private university in 1884 thanks to a massive endowment from wealthy merchant Paul Tulane (hence the name). In 1886 the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College was established, becoming the nation's first coordinate women's college within a university.

Because Tulane began as a medical school fighting diseases it has continued to have an extraordinarily rare specialization in tropical medicine. The university plays host to an infamous, highly competitive annual medical trivia contest known as the "Bug Bowl", where medical residents and global infectious disease specialists gather to test their knowledge on the world's most obscure parasites and rare tropical ailments.

Well known attendees and alumni of the school include Newt Gingrich (former Speaker of the House), Jerry Springer (TV host), and actor Paul Michael Glaser.

Duke University was founded in 1838 as a small, one-room schoolhouse in Randolph County, North Carolina. It moved to Durham, North Carolina, in 1892 thanks to land and financial backing from the local tobacco magnates, Washington Duke and Julian Carr. In 1924, Washington's son, James B. Duke, established a massive $40 million trust fund that transformed the small college into a major research institution, prompting the school to change its name to honor the family.

The school is proud of its feel of ancient history, especially around its architecture. The iconic Gothic look was intentionally chosen to give the new campus an "instant" sense of that history. Duke Forest, opened in 1931, is a massive, 7,000-acre outdoor classroom and laboratory that the school owns. Scientists and students use this giant patch of woods for hands-on research to study trees, wildlife, and the environment.

Famous attendees of Duke include President Nixon (who studied law there), Melinda Gates (philanthropist and former tech executive), and Ken Jeong (comedian, actor, and former physician).

Vanderbilt University was founded in 1873 in Nashville, Tennessee during the Reconstruction era of the country. It was funded by a $1 million gift from New York shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt; which, interestingly, was the only major philanthropic gift "The Commodore" ever made in his entire life. He donated the money at the request of a cousin's husband who wanted a university in the South that would "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country". Despite providing the money to build the school, Cornelius Vanderbilt never actually visited the campus in Tennessee.

The entire campus is designated as an official National Arboretum. It continually features hundreds of distinct species of trees, meaning there are actually often more individual trees on campus than there are undergraduate students enrolled. Among them is the "Bicentennial Oak," a massive tree that is confirmed to have been alive in 1776 - thus predating both the university and the United States itself.

Famous attendees include Al Gore (45th U.S. Vice President and Nobel Laureate), James Patterson (best selling author), and Dierks Bentley (country music star).