Spring Hill College
Encyclopedia
Spring Hill College is a private, Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was founded in 1830 on the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, by Most Rev. Michael Portier
Michael Portier
Bishop Michael Portier was a Roman Catholic bishop and the firstBishop of Mobile. He immigrated to the United States in 1817....

, Bishop of Mobile, Alabama. It was the first Catholic college in the South, fifth oldest Catholic college in the United States, and third oldest of the 28 member Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities is a consortium of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities and two theological centers in the United States committed to advancing academic excellence by promoting and coordinating collaborative activities, sharing resources, and advocating and...

. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is one of the six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation...

. In 2010, US News & World Report reported that Spring Hill College ranked 14th among the top colleges in the South offering both bachelor's and master's level degrees

The Spring Hill academic calendar is divided into two semesters
Academic term
An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms...

, a fall semester of 15 weeks beginning at the end of August and ending before Christmas, and a spring semester of 15 weeks beginning in early January and ending in early May. There are May and June mini-sessions, and summer school during June and July.

History

Spring Hill College was founded by the first bishop of Mobile
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile
The Archdiocese of Mobile is a Roman Catholic archdiocese comprising the lower 28 counties of Alabama. It is the metropolitan seat of the Province of Mobile, which includes the suffragan bishopric sees of the Diocese of Biloxi, the Diocese of Jackson, and the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama...

, Michael Portier
Michael Portier
Bishop Michael Portier was a Roman Catholic bishop and the firstBishop of Mobile. He immigrated to the United States in 1817....

. After purchasing a site for the College on a hill near Mobile, Bishop Portier went to France to find teachers and funds for the new college. Portier recruited two priests and four seminarians from France to staff the school. A friend of Portier, Cardinal Joseph Fesch
Joseph Fesch
Joseph Fesch was a French cardinal, closely associated with the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was also one of the most famous art collectors of his period.-Biography:Fesch was born at Ajaccio in Corsica...

, Archbishop of Lyons, was a major benefactor to the fledgling College, donating his philosophical and theological library and various works of art. Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, also donated within three years 38,000 francs, an enormous sum in those days . The bishop himself taught theology to the ecclesiastical students, who numbered six the first year. Upon his return he rented a hotel next to the college grounds and started the first semester on May 1, 1830, with an enrollment of thirty students, making Spring Hill the oldest institution of higher education in Alabama. On July 4 of the same year the bishop laid the cornerstone of the first permanent building. It stood on the site of the present Administration Building and opened for classes in November 1831. Spring Hill thus takes its place among the oldest colleges in the South. It is the third oldest Jesuit college in the United States.

In 1836 the governor of Alabama, Clement C. Clay
Clement Comer Clay
Clement Comer Clay was the eighth Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1835 to 1837.Clay was born in Halifax County, Virginia. His father, William Clay, was an officer in the American Revolutionary War, who moved to Grainger County, Tennessee, after the war. Clay attended public schools and...

, signed a legislative act which chartered the College and gave it "full power to grant or confer such degree or degrees in the arts and sciences, or in any art or science as are usually granted or conferred by other seminaries of learning in the United States." This power was used in the following year, 1837, when four graduates received their degrees. The first two presidents of the College were called away to be bishops, one to Dubuque, Iowa
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the northeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. It includes all the Iowa counties north of Polk, Jasper, Poweshiek, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar, and Clinton counties. ...

 (Bishop Mathias Loras
Mathias Loras
Bishop Mathias Loras was an immigrant French priest to the United States who later became the first bishop of the Dubuque Diocese in what would become the state of Iowa.-Early Life & Ministry:...

), the other to Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...

 (Bishop John Stephen Bazin
John Stephen Bazin
Bishop John Stephen Bazin was the third Roman Catholic Bishop of Vincennes . He was born at Duerne, near Lyon, France, October 15, 1796; died at Vincennes, Indiana, U.S.A., April 23, 1848. He was educated in his native country and ordained in Lyon Cathedral, July 22, 1822...

), and the third, Father Mauvernay, died after a brief term of office. Bishop Portier then found it necessary to transfer the College, first to the French Fathers of Mercy
Fathers of Mercy
The Fathers of Mercy is a Catholic religious order of missionary priests, founded by the Very Rev. Jean-Baptiste Rauzan in early 19th century France.-Foundation:...

, and next to the Society of Jesus and Mary, both of whom lacked teaching and administrative experience. He then persuaded the Fathers of the Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

nais Province of the Society of Jesus
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 to take possession of the College. The new regime was inaugurated with Father Francis Gautrelet, S.J., as president in September 1847. Since that time the institution has continued under Jesuit direction.

Many boys were sent to Spring Hill during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 as they neared the draft
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...

 age. However, there was considerable unrest among students who wanted to be part of the war effort. The college did eventually form two military companies. Some of Spring Hill's Jesuit Fathers became chaplains for the Confederacy. A recruiter tried to conscript all forty of the Jesuit brothers at the college into the Confederate Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...

. However, the College President Gautrelet dispatched an urgent message to the assistant secretary of war in Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

, who granted a temporary reprieve of the brothers' conscription.

During the Reconstruction era the College recruited students from among the sons of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

n and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n leaders. Following student complaints that Spanish was challenging the dominance of English on the campus, the Jesuits organized a Spanish–American league. In 1869 a fire destroyed the main building and required the removal of students and faculty to St. Charles College
St. Charles College
St. Charles College may refer to:* St. Charles College, a Catholic seminary school in Ellicott City, Maryland,* St. Charles College , a now defunct Methodist college in St. Charles, Missouri...

 in Grand Coteau, Louisiana
Grand Coteau, Louisiana
Grand Coteau is a town in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,040 at the 2000 census. Grand Coteau is on Interstate 49 south of Opelousas and is part of the Opelousas–Eunice Micropolitan Statistical Area. The town is a center for local farming...

. Bishop John Quinlan
John Quinlan
Bishop John Quinlan was a Roman Catholic bishop and the second Bishop of Mobile....

 and other benefactors assisted in rebuilding the College, which reopened at Spring Hill before the year's end. As the enrollment increased, Quinlan Hall, St. Joseph's Chapel, the Thomas Byrne Memorial Library, and Mobile Hall were erected. In 1935, the high school, which had been a unit distinct from the College since 1923, was discontinued. In the space vacated by the high school, the Jesuit House of Studies was opened in 1937, and the Scholasticate of the Sacred Heart opened on a site adjoining the College a few years later.

After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, a great influx of veterans taxed the facilities of the College, requiring the erection of a number of temporary buildings on the campus. At the request of Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen
Thomas Joseph Toolen
Thomas Joseph Toolen was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mobile from 1927 to 1969, and was given the personal title of Archbishop in 1954.-Early life and education:...

 of Mobile, the College became co-educational
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...

 in 1952. African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 students were accepted into all departments of the College for the first time in 1954, before desegregation
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...

 was mandated by the United States government. Mrs. Fannie E. Motley
Fannie E. Motley
Fannie Ernestine Motley was raised in Monroeville, Alabama. She enrolled in college shortly after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Years before George Wallace attempted to block integration of the University of Alabama, Motley was ready to become the first black student to graduate...

 was the first black graduate from the institution in 1956. Spring Hill College was a leading institution in Alabama to press for racial equality, which received praise from civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

, who mentions Spring Hill in his 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail or Letter from Birmingham City Jail, also known as The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King, Jr., an American civil rights leader...

," citing the College as one of the first Southern schools to integrate. Spring Hill also received hostility and threats by those opposing integration as exemplified by the KKK incident at the College.

On the night of January 21, 1957, a dozen or more darkened cars eased down the main avenue of the college. Several members of the KKK
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

  attempted to set up a kerosene-soaked cross outside Mobile Hall, a dormitory. The Klan made a tactical blunder, however, in visiting the campus during finals week. Most of the white, male residents were still awake, studying for exams, and several heard the hammering. Once alerted, students streamed from both ends of the building carrying whatever items were handy—golf clubs, tennis rackets, bricks, a softball bat—and put the panicked Klansmen to flight. To save face, the KKK returned the next night and succeeded in burning a cross at the gate of the College before students reacted. The following day, however, a group of students—male and female—hanged a Klansman in effigy at the College gate, with a sign reading, "KKKers ARE CHICKEN."

Following Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

's widespread destruction along the central Gulf Coast
Gulf Coast of the United States
The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South, South Coast, or 3rd Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States...

 in 2005, Spring Hill accepted 117 students, the majority of them from Loyola University
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...

 in New Orleans, a brother Jesuit institution, for the remainder of the year.

Student body

More than 1400 students study at Spring Hill College each year of which over 70% are from outside Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

.
Student statistics is 38% are male and 62% are female. 90% of the freshman class and 75% of the total student body live on campus.
The student-faculty ratio is 13:1, and the average class size is 17.
Of faculty members, 87% hold doctorates or the highest degrees in their fields.
More than one-third of graduating students continue their education at graduate or professional school.

Curriculum

Spring Hill College academics offer undergraduate students Bachelor's degrees through a variety of majors
Academic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....

. The available departments include the Division of Business, the Communications/Arts Division, International Studies, Interdivisional Studies, Language and Literature Division, Nursing, Philosophy and Theology, Sciences Division, Social Sciences Division, Teacher Education Division, and lastly, the Pre-Professional Programs. Each of these divisions offers a variety of concentrations that students can choose majors and minors from.

Areas of concentration in graduate programs include Master of Business Administration, Teacher Education, Master of Liberal Arts, Master of Science in Nursing, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Pastoral Studies, and Master of Arts in Theology. Certificate programs are offered in theology and ministry, with off–campus classes offered in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

; Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

; and Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...

. An online master's degree program for a Master of Science in Nursing is offered that combines online and offline nursing experience. There is also a program for students through the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad
Cooperative Center for Study Abroad
The Cooperative Center for Study Abroad is a higher education consortium, based at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee in the United States...

 consortium that provides study abroad
Study abroad
Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing educational opportunities in a country other than one's own. This can include primary, secondary and post-secondary students...

 programs and internships in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

.

For a number of years the Department of Theology has sponsored the Summer Institute of Christian Spirituality. It features spirituality classes by regular faculty as well as internationally-known writers and an annual retreat.

Campus

The Spring Hill College campus is located in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

. The college has remained on the same campus that Bishop Portier purchased in 1830. It has a number of structures that are on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

. They include the Sodality Chapel
Sodality Chapel
The Sodality Chapel is a historic Roman Catholic chapel building on the campus of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was built in 1850 in a simple Greek Revival style. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a part of the 19th Century Spring...

 (built 1850); the Spring Hill College Quadrangle, comprising the Administration Building (1869), St. Joseph's Chapel (1910), and four other structures; and Stewartfield (1849).

Other notable features of the campus are the Avenue of the Oaks, where graduation traditionally occurs, and an 18 hole golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...

. A renovation of the historic Administration Building was completed in 2008. It was renamed "The Gregory F. Lucey, S.J. Administration Center", after Spring Hill College's 38th President.

Clubs and Organizations

There are over fifty student-run clubs and organizations at Spring Hill College. There are community service clubs, ministry organizations, athletic and academic clubs.
Academic Athletic Ministry/Service Other
Alpha Sigma Nu
Alpha Sigma Nu
Alpha Sigma Nu was founded at Marquette University in 1915 by John Danihy, S.J., Dean of Journalism. In his travels and reading, Father Danihy had encountered and admired honor societies...

 Club (Jesuit Honor Society)
Rugby Club Knights of Columbus Delta Alpha Chi
Theta Alpha Kappa
Theta Alpha Kappa
Theta Alpha Kappa is the national honor society for Religious Studies and Theology. It was founded in 1976 at Manhattan College in Riverdale , New York for the purpose of recognizing the academic achievements of religion and theology students...

 Club (Honor Society of Religious Studies and Theology)
Men's Volleyball Club Knights of Columbus Ladies Auxiliary Anime Club
Sigma Tau Delta
Sigma Tau Delta
Sigma Tau Delta is an international collegiate honor society for students of English. It presently has over 800 active chapters located in Europe, the Caribbean, the United States, and 1 chapter in the Middle East , with more than 1,000 faculty sponsors...

 Club (English Honor Society)
SHC Cheerleaders TAG3 Badger Book Club
Pi Sigma Alpha
Pi sigma alpha
Pi Sigma Alpha , the National Political Science Honor Society, is the only honor society for college and university students of political science in the United States. Its purpose is to recognize and promote high academic achievement in the field of political science...

 Club (Political Science Honor Society)
Ultimate Frisbee Club SHAPe Community
Math Club Habitat for Humanity
Philosophy Club
English Club
Delta Mu Delta
Delta Mu Delta
Delta Mu Delta is an international honor society that recognizes academic excellence in Baccalaureate, Master's, and Doctorate degree business administration programs at Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs -accredited schools...

 (Business Honor Society)
History Club

Greek life

There are six national Greek organizations on campus.

Fraternities:

Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon is a college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899 at Illinois Wesleyan University with chapters in the United States, and Canada, and affiliation with a German fraternity system known as the Corps of the Weinheimer Senioren Convent...



Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men's secret general fraternities in North America, having initiated more than 280,000 members and held chapters at more than 300 universities. It is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference and was founded by Warren A. Cole, while he was a...



Delta Chi
Delta Chi
Delta Chi or D-Chi is an international Greek letter college social fraternity formed on October 13, 1890,at Cornell University, initially as a professional fraternity for law students. On April 29, 1922, Delta Chi became a general membership social fraternity, eliminating the requirement for men...

.

Sororities:

Phi Mu
Phi Mu
Phi Mu is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States. It was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. The organization was founded as the Philomathean Society on January 4, 1852, and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same year...



Delta Delta Delta
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Delta Delta , also known as Tri Delta, is an international sorority founded on November 27, 1888, the eve of Thanksgiving Day. With over 200,000 initiates, Tri Delta is one of the world's largest NPC sororities.-History:...



Delta Gamma
Delta Gamma
Delta Gamma is one of the oldest and largest women's fraternities in the United States and Canada, with its Executive Offices based in Columbus, Ohio.-History:...



The Greek organizations participate in a "deferred recruitment" process, meaning that the formal recruiting activities occur at the beginning of the spring semester, as opposed to the more largely followed practice of recruitment at the beginning of the fall semester.

Intramural sports

Spring Hill College has a student-run intramural program.
The following sports are offered:
  • Sand volleyball (4-on-4 Co-Rec, up to 8 on team)
  • Basketball
    Basketball
    Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

     (5-on-5)
  • Soccer (6-on-6, including the goalie, up to 10 on team)

Athletics

Spring Hill College competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...

 and the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference
Gulf Coast Athletic Conference
The Gulf Coast Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA's Division I. Member institutions are located in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, USA....

 as the Spring Hill College Badgers. Men and women Spring Hill College Badgers field teams in baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, cross-country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, soccer, softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

. The Spring Hill football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team played its first game in 1900, but was disbanded in 1941.

Spring Hill College has maintained a baseball team since its first intercollegiate play in 1889. Currently, the Spring Hill College baseball team plays its home games at Stan Galle Field ("The Pit"), the oldest continually used college baseball field in the country. A number of former major league players have used the field including such legends as Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 and Hank Aaron. Notable baseball alumni include Blake Stein
Blake Stein
William Blake Stein is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals from -....

 (former pitcher for the Kansas City Royals) and Jim Hendry
Jim Hendry
Jim Hendry is da greatest white guitar player there ever was. both herman li and thomas dookul and brandon co-oper agree...

 (general manager of the Chicago Cubs).

Controversy

Spring Hill was involved in controversy when on July 27, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

 spoke at Spring Hill about life in the Soviet Union, just months before assassinating President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

.

Alumni

  • Paul Morphy
    Paul Morphy
    Paul Charles Morphy was an American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was a chess prodigy...

     1855 - aged 18 at graduation. Considered to have been the strongest chess master
    Chess master
    A chess master is a chess player of such skill that he/she can usually beat chess experts, who themselves typically prevail against most amateurs. Among chess players, the term is often abbreviated to master, the meaning being clear from context....

     of his time, as well as the first recorded chess prodigy
    Chess prodigy
    Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat Masters and even Grandmasters, often at a very young age. Chess is one of the few sports where children can compete with adults on equal ground; it is thus one of the few skills in which true child prodigies exist...

     in history. In 1957, a centennial monument dedicated to Morphy's 1857 victory in the First American Chess Conference was erected behind Mobile Hall. It was presented by the Log Cabin National Chess Affiliation (now defunct).
  • Samuel D. McEnery
    Samuel D. McEnery
    Samuel Douglas McEnery served as the 30th Governor of Louisiana from 1881 until 1888, and as a United States Senator from 1897 until 1910....

    , Governor of Louisiana; Louisiana Supreme Court
    Louisiana Supreme Court
    The Supreme Court of Louisiana is the highest court and court of last resort in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The modern Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, meets in the French Quarter of New Orleans....

    ; United States Senator from Louisiana.
  • Miller Reese Hutchison
    Miller Reese Hutchison
    Miller Reese Hutchison was an American electrical engineer and inventor. He developed some of the first portable electric devices, such as a vehicle horn and a hearing aid.-Early life:...

     1895. Noted inventor of the first electric hearing aid and worked at the Edison Laboratory.
  • Stephen Mallory
    Stephen Mallory
    Stephen Russell Mallory served in the United States Senate as, Senator from Florida from 1850 to the secession of his home state and the outbreak of the American Civil War. For much of that period, he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs...

    , Secretary of the Navy for the Confederate States of America
    Confederate States of America
    The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

    .
  • Dominic Mauncy, 3rd Bishop of Mobile.
  • Arthur C. Watson
    Arthur C. Watson
    Arthur Chopin Watson was an attorney, state legislator, civic leader, philanthropist, and chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party from 1968–1976. He was afflicted with polio in infancy and lost the use of both legs, and his mother died when he was only seven...

     was a Natchitoches, Louisiana
    Natchitoches, Louisiana
    Natchitoches is a city in and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches was first incorporated on February...

    , lawyer, civic leader, politician, and philanthropist who succeeded despite the loss of the use of both legs from polio. He graduated from Spring Hill College in 1930
  • Joe Langan 1951 - Alabama
    Alabama
    Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

     state senator
    United States House of Representatives
    The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

     and mayor of Mobile, Alabama
    Mobile, Alabama
    Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

    , and is credited with having maintained the peace during the racial turmoil of the 1960s, when many other major cities in the Southeast were attracting national attention because of their racism
    Racism
    Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

    .
  • Jeremiah Denton
    Jeremiah Denton
    Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. is a retired United States Navy rear admiral, naval aviator and a former Republican U.S. senator, for the state of Alabama...

     Admiral, USN. One of the American POWs during the Vietnam War
    Vietnam War
    The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

      He is perhaps best known for a TV interview he gave during his time as a prisoner of war, in which he blinked the word "torture" in morse code
    Morse code
    Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...

     during what was supposed to be a North-Vietnamese propaganda piece on the "humane" treatment of detainees.
  • Alexis Herman
    Alexis Herman
    Alexis Margaret Herman was the 23rd U.S. Secretary of Labor, serving under President Bill Clinton. Prior to her appointment, she was Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.-Background:The daughter of politician Alex Herman and schoolteacher Gloria...

    , U.S. Secretary of Labor.
  • John T. Schuessler
    John T. Schuessler
    John T. Schuessler is the former Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Wendy's International, Inc. He started with the company in 1976 and retired in 2006.- Employment History :* Wendy's International...

     Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Wendy's International, Inc..
  • Patricia Krenwinkel
    Patricia Krenwinkel
    Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel is an American convicted killer and a former member of Charles Manson's murderous commune, known as "the Family". During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as "Big Patty", "Yellow", and "Mary Ann Scott", but to The Family she was most...

     was a student at the college for less than a semester. She eventually dropped out and joined "The Family", the followers of the murderer Charles Manson
    Charles Manson
    Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

    .
  • Nick Bollettieri
    Nick Bollettieri
    Nicholas James Bollettieri is an American tennis coach who is credited with developing many world-class champions, including Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Mary Pierce. Recently, he has worked with 2006 U.S. Open champion Maria Sharapova, Jelena Janković, Nicole Vaidišová and Sabine...

     1953 tennis coach.
  • Blake Stein
    Blake Stein
    William Blake Stein is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals from -....

     2005. baseball
    Baseball
    Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

     pitcher
    Pitcher
    In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...

     for the Pittsburgh Pirates
    Pittsburgh Pirates
    The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...

     in the National League
    National League
    The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

    .
  • Jim Hendry
    Jim Hendry
    Jim Hendry is da greatest white guitar player there ever was. both herman li and thomas dookul and brandon co-oper agree...

    , Vice President/General Manager of the Chicago Cubs
    Chicago Cubs
    The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...

    . Former baseball player at Spring Hill.
  • Colman McCarthy
    Colman McCarthy
    Colman McCarthy , an American journalist, teacher, lecturer, pacifist, an anarchist and long-time peace activist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. From 1969 to 1997, he wrote columns for The Washington Post. His topics ranged from politics, religion, health, and sports to...

    , leading peace educator, founder of the Center for Teaching Peace, and former columnist at The Washington Post
    The Washington Post
    The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

    .
  • Todd Schuler
    Todd Schuler
    Todd L. Schuler is an American politician from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party.-Background:Schuler was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 20, 1977. His father, Leoanard G. "Bud" Schuler, is a business agent fot Plumbers and Steamfitters U.A., Local 486. His mother, K...

    , 1999, Maryland State Delegate (D).
  • T. Semmes Walmsley
    T. Semmes Walmsley
    Thomas Semmes Walmsley was Mayor of New Orleans from July 1929 to June 1936. He is best known for his intense rivalry with Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long.- Early life and career :...

    , mayor of New Orleans.
  • Dana Veth
    Dana Veth
    Dana Matthew Veth is a former Bahamian footballer, who currently works as Assistant coach of Spring Hill Badgers.-Early life:Veth was born in the Bahamas but has dual American-Bahamian citizenship...

    , professional Bahamian soccer player

Faculty

  • Edward Troye
    Edward Troye
    Edward Troye , was a painter of American Thoroughbred horses.-Travels:...

    , a mid-19th century artist
    Artist
    An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

    . He taught French
    French language
    French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

     and drawing
    Drawing
    Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...

     at the college from 1849 to 1855.

Presidents of the college

  1. Bishop Michael Portier
    Michael Portier
    Bishop Michael Portier was a Roman Catholic bishop and the firstBishop of Mobile. He immigrated to the United States in 1817....

    , D.D., first bishop of Mobile, founded Spring Hill College on May 1, 1830.
  2. Bishop Mathias Loras
    Mathias Loras
    Bishop Mathias Loras was an immigrant French priest to the United States who later became the first bishop of the Dubuque Diocese in what would become the state of Iowa.-Early Life & Ministry:...

    , D.D. 1830-1832
  3. Bishop John Stephen Bazin
    John Stephen Bazin
    Bishop John Stephen Bazin was the third Roman Catholic Bishop of Vincennes . He was born at Duerne, near Lyon, France, October 15, 1796; died at Vincennes, Indiana, U.S.A., April 23, 1848. He was educated in his native country and ordained in Lyon Cathedral, July 22, 1822...

    , D.D. 1832-1836
  4. Peter Mauvernay 1836-1839
  5. Bishop John Stephen Bazin, D.D. 1839-1840
  6. Dominic F. Bach, S.P.M. 1840-1842
  7. Bishop John Stephen Bazin, D.D. 1842-1844
  8. J. P. Bellier, C.J.M. 1844-1845
  9. A. Desgaultieres 1845
  10. Claude Rampoon 1845-1846
  11. Bishop John Stephen Bazin, D.D. 1846-1847
  12. Thomas Rapier 1847
  13. Francis S. Gautrelet, S.J. 1847-1859
  14. Anthony Jourdant, S.J. 1859-1862
  15. Francis S. Gautrelet, S.J. 1863-1865
  16. Aloysius Curioz, S.J. 1865-1868
  17. John Montillot, S.J. 1868-1875
  18. Dominic Beaudequin, S.J. 1875-1880
  19. John Downey, S.J. 1880-1883
  20. David McKiniry, S.J. 1883-1887
  21. James Lonegan, S.J. 1887-1896
  22. Michael S. Moynihan, S.J. 1896-1899
  23. William Tyrrell, S.J. 1899-1907
  24. Francis X. Twellmeyer, S.J. 1907-1913
  25. Edward Cummings, S.J. 1913-1919
  26. Joseph C. Kearns, S.J. 1919-1922
  27. Michael McNally, S.J. 1922-1925
  28. Joseph M. Walsh, S.J. 1925-1931
  29. John J. Druhan, S.J. 1931-1938
  30. W. Doris O'Leary, S.J. 1938-1946
  31. W. Patrick Donnelly, S.J. 1946-1952
  32. Andrew C. Smith, S.J. 1952-1959
  33. A. William Crandell, S.J. 1959-1966
  34. William J. Rimes, S.J. 1966-1972
  35. Paul Smallwood Tipton, S.J. 1972-1989
  36. Donald I. MacLean, S.J. 1989
  37. William J. Rewak, S.J. 1989-1997
  38. Gregory F. Lucey, S.J. 1997-2009
  39. Richard Salmi, S.J. 2009–present

External links

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