1.
University of Alabama
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The University of Alabama is a public research university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, and the flagship of the University of Alabama System. Founded in 1820, UA is the oldest and largest of the universities in Alabama. UA offers programs of study in 13 academic divisions leading to bachelors, masters, Education Specialist, the only publicly supported law school in the state is at UA. The school was a center of activity during the American Civil War, the University of Alabama varsity football program, which was inaugurated in 1892, ranks as one of 10 winningest programs in US history. In a 1913 speech then-president George H. Denny extolled the university as the capstone of the school system in the state, lending the university its current nickname. The University of Alabama has consistently ranked as one of the top 50 public universities in the nation by the U. S. News & World Report. In 1818, U. S. Congress authorized the newly created Alabama Territory to set aside a township for the establishment of a seminary of learning. When Alabama was admitted to the Union on December 14,1819, the board chose as the site of the campus a place which was then just outside the city limits of Tuscaloosa, the state capital at the time. The new campus was designed by William Nichols, also the architect of newly completed Alabama State Capitol building, the universitys charter was presented to the first university president in the nave of Christ Episcopal Church. UA opened its doors to students on April 18,1831, an academy-style institution during the Antebellum period, the university emphasized the classics and the social and natural sciences. There were around 100 students per year at UA in the 1830s, consequently, only a fraction of students who enrolled in the early years remained enrolled for long and even fewer graduated. Those who did graduate, however, often had distinguished careers in Alabama, early graduates included Benjamin F. Porter and Alexander Meek. As the state and university matured, a literary culture evolved on campus. UA had one of the largest libraries in the country on the eve of the Civil War with more than 7,000 volumes, campbell, novelist William Gilmore Simms, and Professor Frederick Barnard. The addresses to those societies reveal a vibrant intellectual culture in Tuscaloosa, they illustrate the proslavery ideas that were so central to the university. Discipline and student behavior was an issue at the university almost from the day it opened. Early presidents attempted to enforce strict rules regarding conduct, Students were prohibited from drinking, swearing, making unauthorized visits off-campus, or playing musical instruments outside a one-hour time frame. Yet riots and gunfights were not an uncommon occurrence, to combat the severe discipline problem, president Landon Garland lobbied and received approval from the legislature in 1860 to transform the university into a military school
2.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
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Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama. Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, Tuscaloosa is the regional center of industry, commerce, healthcare, and education for the area of west-central Alabama known as West Alabama. It is the city of the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tuscaloosa is also the home of The University of Alabama, Stillman College, Tuscaloosa has been traditionally known as the Druid City because of the numerous water oaks planted in its downtown streets since the 1840s. The city has become well known nationally for the University of Alabamas success in sports. City leaders adopted the moniker The City of Champions after the Alabama Crimson Tide football team won the BCS National Championship in their 2009,2011, the Tide then went on to win the College Football Playoff in the 2015 season. In 2008, the City of Tuscaloosa hosted the USA Olympic Triathlon trials for the Beijing Games, nearly 12,000 years ago, Native Americans or Paleo-Indians arrived in what today is referred to as the Deep South. Paleo-Indians in the South were hunter-gatherers who pursued the megafauna that became extinct following the end of the Pleistocene age, after thousands of years, the Paleo-Indians developed a rich and complex agricultural society. Archaeologists called these people the Mississippians of the Mississippian culture, they were Mound Builders, descendant Native American tribes include the Creek. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States and he had gained popularity when he defeated the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, following victories in the War of 1812. He long proposed Indian removal to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, Jackson abandoned the policy of his predecessors of treating different Indian groups as separate nations. Instead, he pursued plans to move all Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River. Most Muscogee-speaking peoples were removed to Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears in 1834, some Muscogee in Alabama live near Poarch Creek Reservation in Atmore. The pace of settlement in the Southeast increased greatly after the War of 1812. In 1817, Alabama became a territory, and on December 13,1819, from 1826 to 1846, Tuscaloosa was the capital of Alabama. During this period, in 1831, the University of Alabama was established, the towns population and economy grew rapidly until the departure of the capital to Montgomery caused a rapid decline in population. Establishment of the Bryce State Hospital for the Insane in Tuscaloosa in the 1850s helped restore the citys fortunes, during the Civil War following Alabamas secession from the Union, several thousand men from Tuscaloosa fought in the Confederate armies. During the last weeks of the War, a brigade of Union troops raiding the city burned the campus of the university, the larger town was also damaged in the battle and shared fully in the Souths economic sufferings which followed the defeat
3.
Southeastern Conference
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The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the Southern part of the United States. Its fourteen members include the public universities of ten states. The conference is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, the SEC participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I in sports competitions, for football, it is part of the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division I-A. The SEC was also the first NCAA Division I conference to hold a game for college football and was one of the founding members of the Bowl Championship Series. The current SEC commissioner is Greg Sankey, the conference sponsors team championships in nine mens sports and twelve womens sports. The SEC consists of 14 member institutions located within the borders of 11 contiguous states and these divisional groupings are applied exclusively to football and baseball as well as their scheduling and standings. The other charter members were, The University of the South left the SEC on December 13,1940 and it is currently a member of the Division III Southern Athletic Association. Georgia Institute of Technology left the SEC in 1964, in 1975, it became a founding member of the Metro Conference, one of the predecessors to todays Conference USA. Georgia Tech competed in the Metro Conference in all sports except football, in 1978, Georgia Tech joined another Southern Conference offshoot, the Atlantic Coast Conference, for all sports, where it has remained ever since. Tulane University left the SEC in 1966, along with Georgia Tech, it was a charter member of the Metro Conference. Unlike Tech, however, Tulane remained in the Metro Conference until it merged with the Great Midwest Conference in 1995 to form Conference USA, Tulane remained an independent in football until C-USA began football competition in 1996. Tulane left C-USA in 2014 for the American Athletic Conference, in 1990, the SEC expanded from ten to twelve member universities with the addition of the Arkansas Razorbacks and the South Carolina Gamecocks. The two new members began SEC competition with the 1991–1992 basketball season, at the same time, the SEC organized competition for some sports into two divisions. Initially, the format was used in football, baseball. The divisional format was dropped for mens basketball following the 2011–2012 season, the 1992 and 1993 championship games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, and all championship games from 1994 onward have been held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. On November 6,2011 the SEC commissioner announced that the University of Missouri would also join the SEC on July 1,2012, for football, Texas A&M was scheduled to compete in the Western Division, and Missouri in the Eastern Division. Texas A&M and Missouri both left the Big 12 Conference, the office of Commissioner was created in 1940. Under the leadership of Michael F, the SECU rebranded its mission to better serve as a means through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of Southeastern Conference universities would be promoted and advanced
4.
University of Alabama traditions
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The University of Alabama is a school with many rich and spirited traditions. This article describes several of these traditions, according to a November 25,1926 article in The Crimson White, football was first introduced at the University of Alabama in 1892 by W. G. Little of Livingston, Alabama, who had been a student at Andover, Massachusetts, Alabamas first football game was played in Birmingham on Friday afternoon, November 11,1892, at the old Lakeview Park. Alabama defeated a team composed mostly of high schoolers 56-0 and that Saturday, November 12, Alabama played the Birmingham Athletic Club, losing 5-4 when Ross, of B. A. C. This field goal was a record at the time. In 1896 the Universitys board of trustees passed a rule forbidding athletic teams from traveling off-campus, the following season only one game was played and in 1898 football was abandoned at Alabama. Student opposition to the ruling forced trustees to lift the travel ban, the 1918 season was cancelled on account of World War I but the game was resumed the following year. Alabama first gained recognition for football in 1922 when it defeated the University of Pennsylvania 9-7 in Philadelphia. The following season Wallace Wade became head coach and in 1925 led the Crimson Tide to its first undefeated and untied season and its first trip to Pasadena, on January 1,1926 in the Rose Bowl, Alabama came from behind to upset the University of Washington 20-19. Early newspaper accounts of the Universitys football squad simply referred to them as the varsity or the Crimson White, the first nickname popular with the media was the Thin Red Line, which was used until 1906. The game was played in a sea of red mud which stained the Alabama white jerseys crimson, there are two stories, perhaps both true, about how Alabamas football squad became associated with the elephant, both dating to the coaching tenure of Wallace Wade. The earliest account attributes the Rosenbergers Birmingham Trunk Company for the elephant association, owner J. D. Rosenberger, whose son was a student at the University, outfitted the undefeated 1926 team with good luck luggage tags for the trip to the 1927 Rose Bowl. The companys trademark, displayed on the tags, was a red elephant standing on a trunk, when the football team arrived in Pasadena, the reporters greeting them, including syndicated columnist Grantland Rice, associated their large size with the elephants on their luggage. When the 1930 team returned to the Rose Bowl, the company furnished leather suitcases, paid for by the Alumni Association, some excited fan in the stands bellowed, Hold your horses, the elephants are coming, and out stamped this Alabama varsity. It was the first time that I had seen it and the size of the entire eleven nearly knocked me cold, yet, despite the unofficial status as the Crimson Tides mascot, the elephant was very much part of the schools football traditions by the 1940s. It was in that decade that an elephant mascot named Alamite was a regular sight on game days in Tuscaloosa. For several years it was traditional for the pachyderm to lead the homecoming parade, sports writers continued to refer to Alabama as the Red Elephants afterward, referring to their crimson jerseys. The 1930 team shut out eight of ten opponents, allowing a total of only 13 points all season, the Red Elephants rolled up 217 points that season, including a 24-0 victory over Washington State in the Rose Bowl
5.
Alabama Crimson Tide football
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The Alabama Crimson Tide football program represents the University of Alabama in the sport of American football. The team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the team is currently coached by Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide is among the most storied and decorated football programs in NCAA history, since beginning play in 1892, the program claims 16 national championships, including 11 wire-service national titles in the poll-era, and five other titles before the poll-era. From 1958 to 1982, the team was led by Hall of Fame coach Paul Bear Bryant, despite numerous national and conference championships, it was not until 2009 that an Alabama player received a Heisman Trophy, when running back Mark Ingram became the universitys first winner. In 2015, Derrick Henry became the universitys second Heisman winner, Alabama has 878 official victories in NCAA Division I, has won 30 conference championships and has made an NCAA-record 64 postseason bowl appearances. Other NCAA records include 23 winning streaks of 10 games or more and 19 seasons with a 10–0 start, the program has 34 seasons with 10 wins or more, and has 37 bowl victories, both NCAA records. Alabama has completed 10 undefeated seasons,9 of which were perfect seasons, the Crimson Tide leads the SEC West Division with 12 division titles and 11 appearances in the SEC Championship Game. Alabama holds a record against every current and former SEC school. The Associated Press ranks Alabama 4th in all-time final AP Poll appearances, Alabama plays its home games at Bryant–Denny Stadium, located on the campus in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. With a capacity of 101,821, Bryant-Denny is the 8th largest non-racing stadium in the world, Alabama has had 28 head coaches since organized football began in 1892. Adopting the nickname Crimson Tide after the 1907 season, the team has played more than 1,100 games in their 114 seasons, in that time,12 coaches have led the Crimson Tide in postseason bowl games, Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Harold D. Red Drew, Bear Bryant, Ray Perkins, Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione, Mike Shula, Joe Kines, and Nick Saban. Eight of those coaches also won championships, Wade, Thomas, Drew, Bryant, Curry, Stallings, DuBose. During their tenures, Wade, Thomas, Bryant, Stallings, of the 27 different head coaches who have led the Crimson Tide, Wade, Thomas, Bryant, and Stallings have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The current head coach is Nick Saban, who was hired in January 2007, National championships in NCAA FBS college football are debated as the NCAA does not officially award the championship. Despite not naming an official National Champion, the NCAA provides lists of championships awarded by organizations it recognizes, beginning in 1936, the Associated Press began the best-known and most widely circulated poll of sportswriters and broadcasters. Before 1936, national champions were determined by research and retroactive ratings. The criteria for being included in this historical list of poll selectors is that the poll be national in scope, either through distribution in newspaper, television, since World War II, Alabama only claims national championships awarded by the final AP Poll or the final Coaches Poll
6.
Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball
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The Alabama Crimson Tide mens basketball team represents the University of Alabama in NCAA Division I mens basketball. The program has a history of being among the best of the Southeastern Conference, in the conference it trails only long-time basketball powerhouse Kentucky in basketball wins and SEC tournament titles, and is third behind Kentucky and LSU in SEC regular season conference titles. Alabama was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA Tournament national champion for the 1929–30 season by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll, the team is currently led by head coach Avery Johnson. The mens basketball program has spent most of its history in the shadow of Alabamas football team, under former coach Mark Gottfried, the team achieved a No.1 national ranking briefly in 2003, and competed for a NCAA Regional Tournament Championship in 2004. The program was notable as a conference basketball contender in the 1980s and early 1990s under the direction of coach Wimp Sanderson. Alabama has eight NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances, in the 2003–04 season, the team defeated #1-seeded Stanford in the NCAA Tournament, and reached the Elite Eight round where they lost to the eventual national champion, Connecticut. Other coaches include John Dee, Floyd Burdette, and Charles A. Bernier, rupp recommended C. M. Newton, a former backup player at Kentucky who had been at Transylvania University for 12 years. In twelve seasons at Alabama, Newton led the Tide to a record of 211–123, the Crimson Tide won three straight SEC titles under Newton, the only program besides Kentucky to accomplish this feat. Newton also guided Alabama to four NIT and two NCAA Mens Division I Championship tournament berths, prompting the school to name a recruiting suite in his honor in 2006. Just as he did at Transylvania, Newton recruited Alabamas first black player, Wendell Hudson, in 1969, Newton resigned as head coach after the 1980–81 season to become assistant commissioner of the SEC. He was succeeded by his top assistant, Wimp Sanderson and he had been at Alabama since 1960 as a graduate assistant to Newtons predecessor, Hayden Riley, he was named a full-fledged assistant in 1961. In 12 years as head coach his teams averaged 21.8 wins a year, with a 267–119 record and they played in one NIT and eight NCAA tournaments making the Sweet 16 five times. Sanderson is the coach in Alabama history to win 200 or more games in his first 10 years. He was the SEC Coach of the Year in 1987,1989 and 1990, Sanderson was best known for wearing garish plaid sports jackets on the sidelines. At one point, Coleman Coliseum was known as the Plaid Palace, as an assistant, he had the opportunity to coach such All-SEC performers as Robert Horry, James Hollywood Robinson and Latrell Sprewell. When Sanderson left Alabama following the 1992 season, Hobbs was named head coach, in his first season, the Tide finished 16–13 and advanced to the NIT. In 1994 and 1995, Alabama recorded 20-win seasons and advanced to the NCAA Tournament behind the play of future NBA All-Star Antonio McDyess, in 1996, Hobbs led UA to a 19–13 mark and a berth in the NIT Final Four. He resigned his post following the 1998 season after compiling a 110–76 career record, Mark Gottfried served as the Crimson Tides head coach from the 1998–99 season until midway through the 2008–09 season
7.
Alabama Crimson Tide women's basketball
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The Alabama Crimson Tide womens basketball program represents the University of Alabama in the sport of womens basketball. The team competes in the Southeastern Conference and National Collegiate Athletic Association and they are coached by third year head coach Kristy Curry, who replaced Wendell Hudson in 2013. The Crimson Tide has appeared in 10 NCAA Womens Basketball Tournaments, in 10 NCAA tournament appearances, Alabama has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen six times and the Elite Eight and the Final Four once, in 1994. Notable seasons include 1980–81, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, the University of Alabama also has a Womens Wheelchair Basketball Program that began in 2003. The University of Alabama was the 2008 National Runner-up, and won the 2009 National Championship, and the 2010 National Championship Official website
8.
Alabama Crimson Tide women's volleyball
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The University of Alabama first fielded a womens volleyball team in the fall of 1974. Since then the Crimson Tide has been to the AIAW & NCAA Tournament 7 times, after being the head coach for 15 years Judy Green retired after the 2010 season. Alabama then hired Ed Allen to take over the program as they transitioned back into Foster Auditorium, in 2013, three years into Allens tenure, the Crimson Tide returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007
9.
John Philip Sousa Foundation
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The John Philip Sousa Foundation is a non-profit foundation dedicated to the promotion of band music internationally. The foundation administers a number of projects and awards supporting high quality band performance, conducting, the foundation is named for John Philip Sousa, a prominent composer of American band music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of the awards are funded through an endowment from Louis and Virginia Sudler. Founded in 1981, the Sousa National High School Honors Band is a made up of roughly 100 high school junior and senior musicians. The band performs biennially in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is conducted by former United States Marine Band conductor Col. John R. Bourgeois, no school may win the award twice under the same director. The official description of a band is, The band must have achieved and maintained a high standard of excellence in the concert area over a period of several years. The band program must offer its participants a complete and balanced program of activities including concert, solo, ensemble. The band should have performed at regional, state, national and these can include but are not limited to state music conventions, regional or national MENC meetings, and state or national band association conventions. The director must have been incumbent in his/her position for at least seven years, a number of the students in the band should have participated in district and all-state honor bands or similar all-area groups. The following are the recipients of the Sudler Flag since its inception in 1983,1983 - Alice High School Band, Alice, Texas 1983 - L. D. J. Lee High School Band, Midland, Texas 1992 - J. W. T. Hays High School Band, Buda, Texas 1998 - Westlake High School Band, Austin, Texas 1999 - Irmo High School Band, Irmo, South Carolina 2000 - Leon High School Band, Tallahassee, Florida 2000 - J. J. Berkner High School Band, Richardson, Texas 2005 - J. W. T, Sudler Flag laureate bands are automatically included on the Historic Roll of Honor. The official description of a band is, The band must have achieved and maintained a high standard of literature in the concert area over a period of several years. The band should have performed at regional, state, national and these can include but are not limited to state music conventions, regional or national MENC meetings, and state or national band association conventions. The director must have been incumbent in his/her position for at least seven years, a number of the students in the band should have participated in district and all-state honor bands or similar all-area groups. The total program of music should exemplify what is considered a sound viable, no school may be honored with the award twice. The trophy measures exactly 22½ inches from the base to the tip of the drum majors mace, the following are the recipients of the Sudler Trophy since its inception in 1982, The Sudler Shield recognizes outstanding high school marching bands. Godwin High School, Richmond, Virginia 1989 - Manzano High School, Albuquerque, the following are the winners of the competition since its inception in 1983, The John Philip Sousa Foundation John Philip Sousa Foundation Sudler Trophy Pamphlet from 2002
10.
Military band
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A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments, the conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music. Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of marching band in the world. Military bands also play a part in funeral ceremonies. There are two types of traditions in military bands. The first is military field music and this type of music includes bugles, bagpipes, or fifes and almost always drums. This type of music was used to control troops on the battlefield as well as for entertainment, following the development of instruments such as the keyed trumpet or the saxhorn family of brass instruments, a second tradition of the brass and woodwind military band was formed. 11th century book Divânu Lügatit-Türk mentions prototype of Mehtaran, as a nevbet, 17th century traveler Evliya Çelebi noted that the Ottoman Empire had 40 guilds of musicians in 1670s Istanbul. Ottoman military bands influenced European equivalents, each regiment in the British Army maintained its own military band. Until 1749 bandsmen were civilians hired at the expense of the colonel commanding a regiment, instruments during the 18th century included fifes, drums, the oboe, French horn, clarinet and bassoon. Drummers summoned men from their farms and ranches to muster for duty, in the chaotic environment of the battlefield, musical instruments were the only means of commanding the men to advance, stand or retire. In the mid 19th century each smaller unit had their own fifer and drummer, when units massed for battle a band of musicians was formed for the whole. The American military band traditions date from the British era, from the American Revolutionary War onward military bands marched in the same manner as their French counterparts. During the American Civil War most Union regiments had both types of groups within the unit and these performed in a concert setting for entertainment, as well as continued to perform drill and martial events. Field music is popular with many organizations such as police, fire. Indeed, Russia has a tradition of military bands and so many military marches have been composed by various composers through the years. The military bands also provide musical support in civil and military events, in a wide range of groups. Some can even continue the old Russian military band traditions by donning the old imperial military uniforms of the Russian Empire, todays French Armed Forces bands are also of the headquarters element from the regimental or brigade level onward and can also provide musical elements for civil and military events
