The Southern Gentleman at NC State

An editorial from the student Technician, this piece addresses concerns over student use of profanity, and its role in the making of a gentleman

Southern college students faced a changing, industrializing society, but they held themselves and were held by others to certain standards, conceptualized in “gentlemanly” and “muscular Christian” ideals seen in the Anderson-Sermon controversy.  The southern gentleman’s code of conduct was based in concepts of honor and mastery, which could be transposed onto twentieth-century university life through academic integrity, intellectual mastery and success, and athletic prowess.  Historian Craig Friend asserts that “competition became the means by which honor and power were demonstrated” in the South at this time, and the football field was one of the penultimate arenas in which young southern men could exhibit their own manhood—illustrated through their strength, mastery, and sportsmanship.  American Protestants began to spread the idea of “muscular Christianity” in the 1890s, and this masculine ideal asserted “a Christian commitment to health and manliness” and encouraged men to exercise their bodies in order to build their morals and Christian character.  Thus Christina-infused ideals of honorable manhood were likely at work at NC State College in the 1930s in a sport that was “facilitated” by “a richly textured tradition of southern honor.”

Evidenced by student opinions in The Technician—the student newspaper that served as a “valuable organ for student opinion”—men at NC State in the 1930s were quite concerned about their morals, character development, and image as gentlemen.  The 1936 Anderson-Sermon controversy—which scrutinized the purpose of higher education and athletics, the role of football on college campuses, and the morals of the student-athletes—thus illustrates the prevailing beliefs among NC State College students, administrators, and some alumni that college football should be an educational experience that develops Christian gentlemen as it instills in students positive, Christian-based morals and character. 

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