If ever there was an "Auburn Man," then George Petrie would be near the top of the list. He founded Auburn football and put Auburn's first team on the field in Atlanta against Georgia in 1892. He taught at Auburn for almost 55 years and for many years he was Dean of the Graduate School. He influenced so many Auburn people including Shug Jordan. He composed "The Auburn Creed" in 1943.
Petrie was born in Montgomery in 1866, the son of a former Confederate chaplain who later became a prominent Presbyterian minister in Charlottesville, Virginia. In doing his undergraduate work at UVA his chosen field was to be Latin and modern languages. Hard to believe, he took no history classes at Mr. Jefferson's university. He accepted an Auburn job in 1887 to teach modern languages at $750 a year.
What did he think of Auburn when he arrived in 1887? Old Main (it was called), the precursor of Samford hall, had just burned and Langdon Hall was just about it. It's amazing that Petrie stayed, but stay he did, but not before heading Johns Hopkins for his doctorate.
In the spring of 1889 Petrie headed for Baltimore. It was in grad school under the famous historian Herbert Baxter Adams that he got turned on to history. How many people were inspired into their career choice by a great teacher?
It was a visiting lecturer named Woodrow Wilson who turned Petrie on to football. I had no idea before reading this book that Woodrow Wilson played a role in the beginning of Auburn football.
Petrie returned to Auburn in 1891 when President Broun created for him a Professorship in Latin and History at the Agricultural and Mechanical College as Auburn was known then. He didn't retire until 1943.
In 1907 Petrie was attracted to a potential job at Tulane, Thank goodness he decided to remain at Auburn. Otherwise, there might have been no Auburn Creed. He also received an offer from the U of Alabama 1913. Thank goodness he stayed with us!
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