Student Views

Dean of Students Edward Lamar Cloyd wondered whether there would be more spirit on the football team if it included more players from North Carolina. 

In testimony before the Faculty Council, after a discussion of school spirit, an administrator asked student leader Hall Morrison if he believed that “there would be a great deal more [spirit] in foot-ball particularly if the boys playing on the team were honest-to-goodness North Carolina boys with names like ‘Jones’ and ‘Smith?’” This question straightforwardly sums up many of the concerns that faculty, administrators, and alumni had about who could represent NC State. They associated players with strange sounding names with the North – they were neither Southerners nor North Carolinians. They assumed that these players would have less spirit and enthusiasm, and therefore conduct themselves in a manner that would inspire less pride among anyone associated with the school.

Morrison simply did not seem to buy into these concerns, stating that “I certainly don’t think that makes any difference at all… it is the type of boy and not the name, whether it ends in “sky” or not, doesn’t make any difference.” Perhaps a strong sense of Southern pride or dislike of Northerners was not as prevalent with students, who were at least one generation farther removed from the Civil War than administrators and alumni. The fact that Morrison was personally acquainted with Northerners at NC State might have also been a factor in his reluctance to speak negatively about them.