Cumberland University

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Cumberland University

Established: 1842
Type: private
President: Dr. Harvill C. Eaton
Students: 1345
Undergraduates: 1037
Postgraduates: 308
Location: Lebanon, Tennessee
Athletics: NAIA (TranSouth, Mid-South)
Website: http://www.cumberland.edu
This institution is unrelated, other than by similarity of name, to University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky or Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama.

Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee founded in 1842. The current campus was built in 1896.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early history

Cumberland University Drawing - c.1858
Cumberland University Drawing - c.1858

The University was founded by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The original building, designed by William Strickland in 1844, housed schools of art, law and theology. The building was burned during the American Civil War.[1]

After the American Civil War, the University was briefly host to former Confederate general and Rogersville, Tennessee native A. P. Stewart, who taught during his post-war Union parole.[1]

Even in its early years, Cumberland University had a reputation for high-quality education. Its former law school, the Cumberland School of Law, was at one time was reputed to have had more of its alumni elected to Congress than any other in the South.

[edit] Cumberland School of Law

For many years the law school was located in historic Caruthers Hall, named for Robert Looney Caruthers, a founder of Cumberland University.[1] The school fell on hard times during the Great Depression, however, as was common with many smaller private colleges, and was slow to recover, being forced to sell the law school to what is now Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama in 1962 and to operate only as a junior college until the 1980s when university status could be restored.

[edit] Intercollegiate athletics

See also: 1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game

Ironically, Cumberland may well be best-known for being on the losing end of the most lopsided college football game in history, 222-0 to Georgia Tech in 1916. A more praiseworthy athletic effort was that of the 2004 baseball team, which won the World Series of the NAIA; the 2006 team was runner-up in this event. The football team is a member of the Mid-South Conference. Other intercollegiate sports are conducted under the auspices of the TranSouth Athletic Conference, which does not contest football. A top-ten finish at the National Collegiate Cycling Association's National Championship...a women's basketball team that finished as NAIA National Tournament Runner-Up in 2007...a National Tournament appearance for the No. 17-ranked Men's Tennis Team in 2007...the tradition continues.

[edit] Notable alumni

The school's alumni include over 80 congressmen and 30 college presidents.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Lebanon, Tennessee: A Tour of Our City (PDF). Lebanon/Wilson County Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved on February 5, 2007.

[edit] External links