Middle Tennessee State University: A Centennial Legacy

When Middle Tennessee State Normal School opened its doors on September 11, 1911, 125 eager students enrolled in a teacher training program. Today, the • edgling teachers' school has grown into Middle Tennessee State University, the largest undergraduate university in Tennessee. “ is collection of essays, a centennial tribute that is both celebratory and critical, reveals the school's laudable successes along with its growing pains over the past one hundred years. “ ese are accounts of the ” erce competition generated by Tennessee towns that sought to win the right to build the school, the ongoing eœ orts by countless students, administrators, and alumni to create an acceptable identity for their university, and the story of campus women and African Americans who carved out a place for themselves as students and educators. In other instances, teachers became professors, sports teams reached Division I-A status, and PhD programs appeared, all against a backdrop of economic boom and bust times, decades of war and peace as well as social and civic upheaval. “ e Middle Tennessee State University story is sure to educate, enlighten, and entertain.