Spring Hill College
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Spring Hill College is a private, co-educational Roman Catholic Jesuit college in the United States. It was founded in 1830 on the Gulf Coast in Mobile, Alabama by Bishop Michael Portier of the Archdiocese of Mobile. It was the first Catholic college in the southeast, fifth oldest Catholic college in the United States and third oldest of the 28 member Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The Spring Hill academic calendar is divided into two semesters, 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 is during June and July.
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History
Spring Hill College was founded by the first bishop of Mobile, Michael Portier. 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. 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. 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, 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 (Bishop Mathias Loras), the other to Vincennes, Indiana (Bishop John Stephen Bazin), 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 Congregation of the Fathers of Mercy, and next to the Congregation of Eudists, both of whom lacked teaching and administrative experience. He then persuaded the Fathers of the Lyonnais Province of the Society of Jesus 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.
Instruction at the College was not interrupted by the American Civil War, but in 1869 a fire destroyed the main building and required the removal of students and faculty to St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Bishop John Quinlan and other benefactors assisted in rebuilding the College, which reopened at Spring Hill before the year's end.
As the enrollment increased, Quinlan Hall, the College 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, 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 His Excellency, Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen of Mobile, the College became co-educational in 1952. At present the ratio of male to female students is approximately 1:2. Black students were accepted into all departments of the College for the first time in 1954, before desegregation was mandated by the United States government.
Statistics
Over 1400 students study at Spring Hill College each year of which over 70% are from outside the Alabama state limits. Of these students, 28% 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. 86% of faculty members hold doctorates or the highest degrees in their fields. More than one-third of graduating students continue their education at graduate or professional school.
Facts About SHC
The campus rests on a 450 acre (1.8 km²) site, is naturally landscaped and features huge oaks, azalea-lined walkways and an 18-hole golf course. There are 32 buildings, several of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1941, the Spring Hill football team began play for the first time. Because they were also disbanded that same year, it is commonly said on campus that the Spring Hill College Football Team has been undefeated since 1941.
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 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 -- 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."
In 1962, Lee Harvey Oswald gave a speech at Spring Hill, just months before assassinating President John F. Kennedy.
In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mentions Spring Hill in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," citing the College as one of the first Southern schools to integrate.
In 1969, Musician Jimmy Buffett married his first wife, Margie Washichek, in St. Joseph's Chapel.
Athletics
Spring Hill College competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference as the Spring Hill College Badgers. Men and women Spring Hill College Badgers field teams in baseball, basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball.
Spring Hill College has maintained a baseball team for much of its storied history. 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. Stan Galle Field has played host to a plethara of former major league players, including such legends as Babe Ruth. Notable alumni include Blake Stein (former pitcher for the Kansas City Royals) and Jim Hendry (general manager of the Chicago Cubs).
In addition, the Spring Hill College Football Team has been undefeated since 1941.
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)
- Softball (9-on-9, 4 women, 4 men/team, up to 12 on team)
- Flag Football (7-on-7)
- Basketball (5-on-5)
- Basketball (3-on-3, up to 4 on team)
- Racquetball
- Wallyball (3-on-3 Co-Rec)
- Soccer (6-on-6, including the goalie, up to 10 on team)
- Golf Tournament*
- Tennis*
- Card Tournament*
*Tennis, Golf, and Card Tournaments are tentative.
Famous graduates and faculty
- Edward Troye is a famous mid-19th century artist. He taught French and drawing at the college from 1849 to 1855.
- Paul Morphy graduated in the Spring of 1855 at 18 years of age. He was generally considered to have been the strongest chess master of his time, as well as the first recorded chess prodigy 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).
- Joe Langan is a former Alabama state senator and mayor of Mobile, Alabama, and is credited with having maintained the peace during the racial turmoil of the 1960s, when many other southern Alabama cities were attracting national attention because of their racism. He graduated from the college in 1951.
- Jeremiah Denton was one of the most famous American POWs during the Vietnam War. A pilot during the war, he was shot down on July 18, 1965 while flying a combat mission. He was subsequently captured and tortured for seven years. He is perhaps most famous for a TV interview he gave during his time as a prisoner of war, in which he blinked the word "torture" in morse code during what was supposed to be a North-Vietnamese propaganda piece on the "humane" treatment of detainees. He is the author of the book, When Hell was in Session, which details his experiences as a prisoner of war.
- Robert McCown, S.J. is a Jesuit artist and literatus. In 1979, he filmed the award-winning documentary República Jesuítica del Paraguay, which depicts the efforts of Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries in Paraguay. He taught at Spring Hill in 1968.
- Brian D. Melton is president of the Dallas Bar Association. He graduated from the college in 1980.
- Joe Miller is a research biologist who helped discover that IRDS (infant respiratory distress syndrome) was due to a lack of surfactants. This research led to the discovery of a treatment for infants with this condition.
- Blake Stein is a baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League. He graduated from Spring Hill in 1994.
- John Patrick McGraw was a journalist for the Denver Post for twenty years. He taught journalism and headed the SpringHillian during his time at the college from 1993 to 2003.
- Nick Dupree is an activist for the Disability Rights Movement. His two-year campaign to change health care laws in Alabama resulted in a special program for people with particular disability needs to continue home nursing care after they turn 21. In 2003, he received the National Advocacy and Protection Systems award for Self-Advocate of the Year. He is a current student at Spring Hill.
Presidents of the College
- The Most Reverend Michael Portier, D.D., first bishop of Mobile, founded Spring Hill College on May 1, 1830.
- Mathias Loras, D.D. 1830-1832
- John S. Bazin, D.D. 1832-1836
- Peter Mauvernay 1836-1839
- John S. Bazin, D.D. 1839-1840
- Dominic F. Bach, S.P.M. 1840-1842
- John S. Bazin, D.D. 1842-1844
- J. P. Bellier, C.J.M. 1844-1845
- A. Desgaultieres 1845
- Claude Rampoon 1845-1846
- John S. Bazin, D.D. 1846-1847
- Thomas Rapier 1847
- Francis de S. Gautrelet, S.J. 1847-1859
- Anthony Jourdant, S.J. 1859-1862
- Francis de S. Gautrelet, S.J. 1863-1865
- Aloysius Curioz, S.J. 1865-1868
- John Montillot, S.J. 1868-1875
- Dominic Beaudequin, S.J. 1875-1880
- John Downey, S.J. 1880-1883
- David McKiniry, S.J. 1883-1887
- James Lonegan, S.J. 1887-1896
- Michael S. Moynihan, S.J. 1896-1899
- William Tyrrell, S.J. 1899-1907
- Francis X. Twellmeyer, S.J. 1907-1913
- Edward Cummings, S.J. 1913-1919
- Joseph C. Kearns, S.J. 1919-1922
- Michael McNally, S.J. 1922-1925
- Joseph M. Walsh, S.J. 1925-1931
- John J. Druhan, S.J. 1931-1938
- W. Doris O'Leary, S.J. 1938-1946
- W. Patrick Donnelly, S.J. 1946-1952
- Andrew C. Smith, S.J. 1952-1959
- A. William Crandell, S.J. 1959-1966
- William J. Rimes, S.J. 1966-1972
- Paul Smallwood Tipton, S.J. 1972-1989
- Donald I. MacLean, S.J. 1989
- William J. Rewak, S.J. 1989-1997
- Gregory F. Lucey, S.J. 1997-Present
External links
- Spring Hill College (http://www.shc.edu/)
- Spring Hill Athletics (http://athletics.shc.edu/)
- SpringHillian College Newspaper (http://ac-server3.shc.edu/hillian/)
- SpringHillian Archives 2001-2004 (not updated) (http://www.springhillian.com/)
- SpringHillian Archives 2000-2001 (not updated) (http://ntserver.shc.edu/www/shp/index.html)
- Burke Library (http://camellia.shc.edu/byrne/)
- SHC Calendar of Events (http://camellia.shc.edu/cc/)
- Faculty Web Pages (http://faculty.shc.edu/)
- ERes: Electronic Reserve System & Online Classes (http://notes.shc.edu/)
- Administrative Web Interface (http://adminweb.shc.edu/)
Spring Hill Wiki Contributors
Contact Information
Spring Hill College
4000 Dauphin Street
Mobile, AL 36608 USA
800.742.6704
Disambiguation
In Birmingham, England, Mansfield College (one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom) was originally founded under the name of Spring Hill College.