The Viking Tradition: 100 Years of Sports at Berry College

In 1902, Martha Berry founded the Industrial School for Boys to educate the children of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, and in 1909 the school admitted women. The institution grew from a mountain industrial school to a two-year college in its first twenty-four years, became a four-year college in 1930, and has since become one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the South. This volume portrays, in word and image, the role of sports at Berry College throughout its 100-year history. Situating athletics within the social and cultural life of the college, the book includes both intramural and intercollegiate sport, and traces the evolution of the Viking tradition as it both parallels and reflects the development of sport in the United States. The story begins with the recreational and leisure activities of the early years of the school and traces the continuation of the sporting spirit from the days of the "Silver and the Blue" through the post-war "Blue Jacket" tradition, and ends with the Viking years of the last four decades. Of notable interest in the book is the development of the women's sports program, which has brought four national titles to the college; the importance of soccer to the college; the well-rounded intercollegiate program, which currently fields teams in seven sports; and an excellent intramural program.

© 2025 Arcadia Publishing (Ebook): 9781439629314

Release date

Ebook: 22 January 2025