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10 unusual facts about Vanderbilt University


Francis Craig

"Dynamite!" now the official fight song of Vanderbilt University, was written by Craig in 1922, when Craig was an undergraduate student at the University.

Howard Kester

In the late 1920s, Kester enrolled in the divinity school of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jane Dixon

Dixon was born in Mississippi in 1937 and, after being graduated from Vanderbilt University, spent her early life as a teacher and mother, raising three children.

Krum, Texas

Dr. W.H. Kimbrough's sons, Walter and Wallace, completed their medical education at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, and joined their father in Krum.

Liddle's syndrome

It is named after Dr. Grant Liddle (1921–1989), a Pioneering American Endocrinologist at Vanderbilt University, who discovered it in 1963.

Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute

In 1963, the Tennessee Neuropsychiatric Institute was formed by Vanderbilt University and its research facility was located at Central State.

Recognition of same-sex unions in Tennessee

A May 2013 poll by Vanderbilt University survey of Tennessee registered voters found that 49% of Tennessee voters supported the legal recognition of same-sex couples, with 32% supporting same-sex marriage, 17% supporting civil unions but not marriage, 46% favoring no legal recognition, 3% said they don't know, and 2% refused to answer.

Robert V. Lee

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and continued graduate studies in journalism at the University of Georgia.

Thomas Osgood Summers

In 1875, he served as Professor of Systematic Theology at Vanderbilt University, a newly established university in Nashville which was started as a Methodist institution by Holland Nimmons McTyeire (1824-1889), Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

William Harding Mayes

Born in Mayfield, Kentucky, Mayes was educated at Norton's English and Classical School in Tennessee, Paducah District Methodist College in Kentucky and Vanderbilt University.


Alpha Indexes

The Nasdaq OMX Alpha IndexesTM were developed by Jacob S. Sagi and Robert E. Whaley, both professors at the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University.

Amy H. Sturgis

She earned her Ph.D. in intellectual history from Vanderbilt University, serves on the scholarly board of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research and the advisory board of Mythopoeic Press, and contributes to the Hugo Award winning StarShipSofa podcast and the Liberty and Power group weblog.

Arthur B. Hancock III

After graduating from Vanderbilt University, Hancock moved to the New York City area where he worked as an apprentice under future Hall of Fame trainer Edward A. Neloy.

Carmen A. Puliafito

These new appointees have been recruited from institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt and the Cleveland Clinic as the result of national searches.

Christopher Rollston

He has lectured and delivered invited papers in a number of venues, including Vanderbilt University, George Washington University, the University of Michigan, Brown University, Duke University, Tel Aviv University, Baylor University and the University of Wisconsin.

Dennis Mammana

After completing work toward his M.S. in Astronomy Vanderbilt University, he was awarded a one-year internship at the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York.

Edwin Mims

He served as the Chair of the English Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee for thirty years from 1912 to 1942, and he taught many members of the Fugitives and the Southern Agrarians, two literary movements in the South.

Farrar LSG-1 Bird Flight Machine

The LSG-1 was specially designed by Farrar for research purposes as part of a Vanderbilt University project into how birds fly and was supported by the US National Science Foundation.

Geoff Eley

Eley is particularly well known for his early study, The Peculiarities of German History (first published in German as Mythen deutscher Geschichtsschreibung in 1984), co-authored with David Blackbourn (a fellow Briton, who now teaches at Vanderbilt University), which challenged the orthodoxy in German social history known as the Sonderweg thesis.

Gerd Lüdemann

After periods of teaching and research at McMaster University (1977–79) and Vanderbilt University (1979–82), he was appointed in 1983 to the Chair in New Testament Studies in the Theological Faculty of the University of Göttingen.

Harry George Drickamer

After graduating early from public schools in East Cleveland, he played minor league professional baseball in the Cleveland Indians farm system, then entered Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship.

Hobbs, New Mexico

His son Jeffery Taylor moved from his native Sweden in 2006 to play for Hobbs High, and completed his college career at Vanderbilt University in 2012.

Houston Christian High School

Student matriculation after their time at HC includes top universities in Texas and throughout the nation including but not limited to Davidson College, Texas A&M University, University of Texas, Cornell University, Vanderbilt University, and UVA.

Jack M. Sasson

Jack M. Sasson currently serves as Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt Divinity School and as a Professor of Classics at Vanderbilt University.

James C. Duff

James C. Duff is the president and CEO of the Freedom Forum, the nonpartisan foundation dedicated to the First Amendment and media issues and which runs Washington, D.C.’s Newseum, the First Amendment Center, and the Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Joan Pennington

She received her master's degree in health promotion and exercise science at the Vanderbilt University, and a doctorate degree in preventive health care at the School of Public Health, Loma Linda University in California.

Karen Kohanowich

Kohanowich received a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from Vanderbilt University in 1982, a Master of Science in Air Ocean Science from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1995, and a Master of Science in Environmental Science and Policy from Johns Hopkins University in 2005.

Krider Performing Arts Center

Ruby taught public speaking and drama to many generations of Parisians, a few being Tony winner Cherry Jones, Pulitzer Prize winner John Noble Wilford, Cheers star Shelley Long, Vanderbilt law professor Robert Covington, and Ford Motor Company Controller Frank Mason.

Lloyd Saxon Graham

Dr. Graham's father-in-law was prominent physician Hugh Jackson Morgan, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University.

Louis J. Nigro, Jr.

Prior to doing so, he received a PhD in Modern European History from Vanderbilt University, was a Fulbright-Hays Research Fellow in Italy, taught modern European history at Stanford University, and served as an officer in the California Army National Guard.

Mack Brown

Brown attended Vanderbilt University and later graduated from Florida State University in 1974, starting his coaching career as a student coach after a vicious hit in practice from Scott Meseroll prematurely ended his playing career.

Margaret Bird

Ms. Bird received her Bachelor's Degree in Theoretical Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and her Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Utah.

Mountain Vista Governor's School

Top acceptances for the Class of 2011 have included Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in St. Louis, Vanderbilt University, University of California, Berkeley, Tufts University, and Purdue University.

Pine School

Since then, TPS graduates have been accepted to the finest colleges in the nation, including Yale University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the United States Military Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, Boston College, Pomona College, Swarthmore College, Davidson College, Tufts University, Vanderbilt University, Wesleyan University, and more.

Ronnie McMahan

McMahan played college basketball at Vanderbilt University from 1992 through 1995 and finished his career there as the school's fourth all-time leading scorer, with 1,719 - the first three are Shan Foster, Matt Freije, and Phil Cox.

Southern Ivy

Harvie Branscomb, then-chancellor at Vanderbilt University, originally attempted to establish a rivalry between Vanderbilt and traditional Ivy League schools to foster relationships with academically-oriented schools.

T. J. Stiles

This massive study was the first comprehensive account of the life of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, the nineteenth-century shipping and railroad mogul, financial backer of Vanderbilt University, and founder of the Gilded Age Vanderbilt dynasty.

Thomas C. Butler

Butler received his MD degree from Vanderbilt University in 1967 and served in the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit studying infectious disease, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

Tim Weiland

Timo Weiland studied economics, Spanish literature, and business management at Vanderbilt University before moving to the fashion and design industry.

Timothy M. Devinney

He has held visiting appointments on the faculties of UCLA, Vanderbilt University, University of Chicago, London Business School, Copenhagen Business School, The Humboldt University of Berlin, Trier University, Hamburg University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and City University - Hong Kong.

Vanderbilt Commodores baseball

It is adjacent to both Vanderbilt Stadium and Memorial Gymnasium and is across the street from the McGugin Center.

Walter Russell Lambuth

Walter graduated from Emory and Henry College in 1875, and later received theology and medical degrees from Vanderbilt University.

Youth for Western Civilization

YWC had chapters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt University, American University, Elon University, the University of Connecticut-Storrs, Liberty University, Boise State University, Bentley University, and Towson University; there was also a chapter at Providence College which is recognized by the national organization, but not by the school.