Setting the Stage: The Early Days of Auburn Football

The book begins just before the Civil War. The Methodist Church of Alabama agreed to sponsor two new colleges in Alabama. One would become what we commonly refer to as Auburn. Most Alabamians saw the winds of war brewing but believed it would only result in a minor skirmish along the northern Virginia border. No one believed that there would be any impact on Alabama. They were wrong. The war quickly escalated into the State of Alabama forcing Auburn to close its doors. While other colleges in Alabama were burned to the ground, the school was spared and even served as a hospital for Confederate soldiers injured in battle. Reopening its doors after the conclusion of the war, Auburn struggled to stay afloat, but its leaders could see light at the end of the tunnel. In the mist of rapidly changing times, Auburn’s leaders overcame the objections of faculty members who demanded more funding, and religious leaders who thought the sport would be too dangerous, to field its first football team. This is the story of those who worked together to establish the sport we know and love today.