In honor of Samford's 175th Anniversary in 2016, we collected stories from our long history from the people that helped make it great.
1959-1961 Graduates
"I think that at Howard, not only did you get a good education, but I think that this, the five of us together after all those years, is an indication of what was our greatest gift from Howard and Samford. It was the friendships that we made."
Charles T. Carter
"I was angry, very angry because it was 12 hours after it happened that I was preaching it on the radio. I got death threats and threatening things because of that . . . it got the community aware how awful the KKK was and what they had done to a group."
Chriss Doss - East Lake
"There was talk of moving it to several places but finally they settled on East Lake, right here where we are, and East Lake was a separate city. A little town."
Chriss Doss - Samford History
"He was down there in a split second and drew back and hit the Southern player and just, I mean laid him up in the bleachers with his fist and blood started squirting and the place went wild."
Harwell Goodwin Davis
"And in that moment, I resolved, that if I should return to my native land, that I would endeavor to serve my God and my fellow man a little better than I had in the past."
Jim Barnette
"The place erupted. And I was in the balcony, and I thought, 'This is going to cave in, we’re all going to die,' because . . . people cheered, went wild and then 'U.S.A. U.S.A.' screaming at the top of their lungs."
Martha Ann Cox
"I don’t consider myself to be a confident person, I consider myself to be a competent person. You know, if you don’t know how to do something. You find out how to do it."
Sigurd Bryan
"I found out that I enjoyed teaching and the prospects of staying on there as a teacher and the prospects of being a pastor... I knew when I tried to preach I really was just teaching. That's what was natural."