Conclusion

1935 football program from the NC State and Duke game.

The faculty, staff, and student concern about a rise in profane language, alcohol use, and impropriety toward women—sometimes associated with the football team—exemplifies the standards these young men were held to and the importance of positive character development during their college years.  As leaders and role models, football coaches such as Heartley Anderson were likewise held to a similar, if not more stringent, ideal of gentlemanly moral behavior.  As North Carolina universities prepared the next generation of leaders, their aim to provide “the education of a ‘gentleman’ and a Christian,” and create responsible and moral citizens shaped not only academics but athletics as well.  Concern about the ways in which football coaches and players conducted themselves and how they ought to behave permeated the 1936 Anderson-Sermon controversy.  The persistence of these concerns among faculty, students, and community members thus highlights the role that college and college football was thought to play in the education and character development of college students in the 1930s.    

Visit other Exhibits in the Under Review: The Anderson-Sermon Controversy and Football's Role on the College Campus.