Founded by Legislative Act on March 30, 1910, The University of Southern Mississippi was the state’s first state-supported teacher training school. Originally known as Mississippi Normal College, the school was built on 120 acres of cutover timber land donated by H.A. Camp, A.A. Montague and Dr. T. E. Ross, and funded by bonds issued by the city of Hattiesburg and Forrest County in the amount of $250,000. A close relationship between the university, city, and county is still maintained today.

The school’s stated purpose in 1910 was to “qualify teachers for the public schools of Mississippi.” Mississippi Normal College opened for classes Sept. 18, 1912, and hosted a total of 876 students during its initial school year.

The first president, Joseph Anderson “Joe” Cook, oversaw construction of the original buildings and guided the school during its formative years. Cook served as superintendent of the Columbus, Miss., city schools prior to being selected as the first president. The school’s five original buildings were College Hall, Forrest County Hall, Hattiesburg Hall, the Industrial Cottage, and the president’s home, currently the Ogletree House.

Prior to 1922, the school awarded certificates, which required at least two terms of attendance, and diplomas, which required at least six terms. In 1922, the school was authorized to confer the baccalaureate degree, the first of which was awarded in May 1922 to Kathryn Swetman of Biloxi.

In 1924, the school underwent the first of a series of name changes. On March 7, 1924, Mississippi Normal College became State Teachers College. Many improvements were instituted following the name change as the institution pursued accreditation by the Southern Association of College and Secondary Schools (SACS). One of the improvements was construction of the Demonstration School in 1927, which served as a training ground for student teachers.

On September 28, 1928, at the behest of Gov. Theodore G. Bilbo, President Cook was summarily dismissed by the STC Board of Trustees. The reason given was Cook’s age (65), but onlookers saw it as a political ploy because Cook had not supported Bilbo in the recent gubernatorial election.

The Board of Trustees selected supervisor of Rural Schools Claude Bennett to succeed Joe Cook as the second president. Many of the faculty and staff remained loyal to the former president and viewed Bennett with suspicion. Nevertheless, it was during the Bennett administration that the school was approved for membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1929.

Moreover, enrollment continued to increase, extension courses were offered in 25 Mississippi counties, and a strong music program was set in motion.

Unfortunately, Gov. Bilbo continued to meddle in the internal affairs of State Teachers College and the other state-supported institutions of higher learning. As a result, SACS revoked the schools accreditation in 1930.

In 1932, due to the Great Depression, the state was unable to pay faculty salaries. Fortunately, Hattiesburg banks arranged signature loans for hard-pressed faculty members, and grocery stores extended credit to those with good payment records. In 1932, a single board of trustees was created to oversee all of Mississippi’s institutions of higher learning. This body replaced the separate boards of trustees under which the institutions had previously operated. Uppermost on the new board’s agenda was removing political appointees of Gov. Bilbo, so, in 1933, President Bennett was fired.

Dr. Jennings Burton George, a Mississippi Normal College alumnus, became the school’s third president July 1, 1933, and the first to hold a doctorate. The new chief executive inherited a huge debt, which he corrected by setting strict financial guidelines, cutting employees’ salaries, and freezing departmental budgets. His efforts not only resulted in a balanced budget, but each year of his administration ended with a small surplus in the treasury.

On February 13, 1940, the school’s name was changed for the second time. Its new name, Mississippi Southern College, reflected the fact that it was no longer exclusively a teachers’ college. During World War II, enrollment plummeted to around 300 as students and faculty members joined, or were drafted into, military service. Both head football coach Reed Green and his assistant, Thad “Pie” Vann, served in the armed forces. Looking ahead to the end of the war, President George established a $35,000 trust fund to provide scholarships for returning veterans. He also proposed graduate work in education, home economics, and music.

But, in January 1945, before any of his plans were implemented, the Board of Trustees declined to rehire Dr. George, giving no definitive reason for its action. The school is deeply indebted to President George, for it was his sound fiscal policies and managerial genius that steered it safely through both the Great Depression and World War II.

Dr. Robert Cecil Cook became the institution’s fourth president, after being discharged from the Army on July 6, 1945. President Cook, whose credentials as an educator were impeccable, placed academic development at the top of his agenda. During his tenure, the Graduate Studies division was created, and the Reading Clinic, the Latin American Institute, and the Speech and Hearing Clinic were established. Sorority and fraternity presence on campus was increased, the band program was expanded, the “Dixie Darlings” precision dance team was formed, and enrollment soared to more than 2,000. The athletic program was strengthened, as coaches Reed Green and Pie Vann returned from military service and resumed their former positions. Over the next two decades, the combined efforts of these two outstanding coaches brought national recognition to the Southern Miss football program.

In December 1954, Cook became the first president to leave the office voluntarily when he resigned to accept the position as vice president and general manager of the Jackson State Times, a new daily newspaper.

Dr. Richard Aubrey McLemore was named acting president, effective January 1, 1955, and served in that capacity until August 17, 1955. Dr. McLemore, known to the students as “Dr. Mac,” had been a faculty member at Mississippi Southern College since 1938, and had served as professor of history, head of the social studies division and dean of the college.

The Board of Trustees selected State Archivist Dr. William David McCain as the school’s fifth president, and he assumed the office August 18, 1955, promising to keep the campus “dusty or muddy with construction.” At least 17 new buildings were erected during the McCain administration, including Reed Green Coliseum. Dr. McCain’s driving ambition, however, was to achieve university status for Mississippi Southern College, a drive that was sponsored by the Alumni Association. To that end, he reorganized the academic programs into colleges and schools, and on February 27, 1962, Gov. Ross Barnett signed the bill that made Mississippi Southern College a university: The University of Southern Mississippi.

The second watershed event of the McCain administration occurred in September 1965 when, for the first time in the school’s history, African-American students were admitted. The first students were Raylawni Young Branch and Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong. Other noteworthy events of the McCain era include formation of the Oral History Program in 1971 and establishment of the Southern Miss Gulf Park Campus in 1972. Also in 1972, the nickname of the athletic teams was changed from “Southerners” to “Golden Eagles.” Dr. McCain retired from the presidency June 30, 1975. During his 20-year presidency, enrollment grew to 11,000.

On July 1, 1975, Dr. Aubrey Keith Lucas became the sixth president of Southern Miss, having served as instructor, director of admissions, registrar, and dean of the Graduate School, in addition to holding both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the school.

Among the accomplishments that punctuated the Lucas years were the formation of the Teaching and Learning Resource Center; creation of the Faculty Senate; establishment of the Center for International Education; replacement of the quarter system with the semester system; creation of the Polymer Science Institute; reorganization of the university’s 10 schools into six colleges; formation of the Institute for Learning in Retirement; and affiliation with the new athletic conference, Conference USA. After 21 years, Dr. Lucas stepped down from the presidency December 31, 1996, saying it was time for someone new.

Dr. Horace Weldon Fleming, Jr. assumed his duties as the university’s seventh president January 3, 1997. During his tenure, the School of Nursing became a college, the Office of Technology Resources was created; a master’s program in hydrographic science was added in the Department of Marine Science; a master’s program in workforce training and development was added in the School of Engineering Technology; and online classes were instituted.

In addition, a strategic plan for the future was unveiled. Designed to plot the university’s course over the next three to five years, the plan envisions Southern Miss as “a national university for the Gulf South.” In 2001, Dr. Fleming introduced the public phase of a $100 million comprehensive campaign.

Dr. Fleming resigned the presidency in July 2001, and President Emeritus Dr. Aubrey Keith Lucas was selected to serve until the Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning hired a new president.

On May 1, 2002, Dr. Shelby Freland Thames became The University of Southern Mississippi’s eighth president. Thames has an extensive history at Southern Miss, starting in 1955 when he walked onto the campus as a student earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The University of Southern Mississippi in chemistry and organic chemistry. His previous administrative positions at Southern Miss were chair of the Department of Polymer Science, dean of the College of Science and Technology, vice president for Administration and Regional Campuses, and executive vice president.

In 1970, he was the founder of the Department of Polymer Science, and, in 1973, cofounder of the Waterborne and High-Solids Coatings Symposium. In 1998, the Polymer Science Research Center was named in honor of Dr. Thames and is now known as the Shelby Freland Thames Polymer Science Research Center.

During Thames’ presidency, the state college board voted unanimously to establish a second campus for The University of Southern Mississippi, and on August 19, 2002, Southern Miss admitted its first class of freshmen on its Gulf Park Campus, making the university the only comprehensive university in the state with dual-campus status.

Dr. Thames returned to faculty at the University in May 2007. He teaches and manages a research group in the building named after him, the Shelby Freland Thames Polymer Science Building, while focusing on the building of the Southern Miss Innovation and Commercialization Park.

On May 21, 2007, Dr. Martha Dunagin Saunders began as the ninth president of The University of Southern Mississippi.

Dr. Saunders, a Hattiesburg native and Southern Miss alumna, came to Southern Miss from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where she served as its first-ever female chancellor. During her tenure, she brought the campus together with a widely inclusive strategic planning process, hosted a successful Higher Learning Commission re-accreditation review and finalized plans for major building projects totaling $110 million, including a new University union and a new building for the College of Business and Economics.

Prior to her appointment at Wisconsin-Whitewater, Dr. Saunders held positions at Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga., where she served as the vice president for academic affairs, and at the University of West Florida as director of the Honors College and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Saunders has pledged to "build trust, build a team and build a campus." With the naming of a new site for a Southern Miss campus on the Mississippi Gulf Coast I-10 corridor, Dr. Saunders is moving forward in her presidency with planning and programming for the Gulf Coast, continuing academic excellence on all campuses and teaching sites and focusing on economic development for the region.