Late University of Georgia Head Coach Vince Dooley Featured in PBS Doc

Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899 Tells the Story of the Greatest Season in College Sports History

Interviews Include Late University of Georgia Head Coach and Athletic Director Vince Dooley

Airs Monday September 18 at 10 pm on Georgia Public Broadcasting

In 140 years of college football, nothing comes close to the University of the South’s 1899 season. Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899 is the story of how 21 players, playing both offense and defense, traveled 2,500 miles by train to play five grueling games in six days – “and on the seventh day they rested” -- goes the legend. In fact, they didn't rest and instead defeated 12 opponents across seven states in just six weeks. The Emmy ® nominated* documentary will air on Monday, September 18 at 10 pm on Georgia Public Broadcasting. The film is distributed by the National Educational Television Association (NETA). The film is also available to stream at PBS.org. Among the notable interviews featured in the film is the late University of Georgia head coach and athletic director Vince Dooley in one of his last interviews.

Founded in 1857, the University of the South’s future was in jeopardy after the Civil War and Reconstruction. The struggling college known as “Sewanee” fielded its first team in 1891 for a new sport called football. Just eight years later, a remarkable season invigorated the school and ensured its survival. In 1899, Sewanee not only defeated Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Southwestern Presbyterian, Texas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, LSU, Tulane, Cumberland, Auburn, and North Carolina, but only one of those teams (John Heisman-coached Auburn) was even able to score on them. Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899 uses a mix of interviews, re-enactments, historical documents and illustrations to bring to life the story of these underdogs who became the champions of the South under seemingly impossible circumstances unheard of in today’s game of football. As the film explores, the Sewanee team played as many games in a season in half the time of modern college football, under much different rules, with no practice time between, no helmets and protective gear, plaster on their cuts, and every disadvantage against them. The film also shines light on African-American trainer Cal Burrows and another whose name is lost to history, who travelled with the team and were the unsung heroes of this victorious season in the post-Civil War South.

“This is much more than a football story,” says filmmaker and Sewanee alum Norman Jetmundsen (C ’76). “It captures the culture of the late 1890s, when electricity was a novelty and trains were the main mode of transportation. It’s the story of a 20-year-old student who crafted the most ambitious schedule in college football history and goes on to become the youngest U.S. Senator of his day. Above all it’s a story of a group of young men who are drawn together in pursuit of a dream and who give everything they have to make it a reality.” And as former Sewanee Vice-Chancellor notes in the film, the story of the Sewanee Tigers and their season have all the hallmarks of fiction, yet “It's more than lore, it's true!”

The film includes interviews with descendants of the 1899 team players and their manager Luke Lea, along with CBS Sports commentator Tony Barnhart, ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit, College Football Hall of Fame historian Kent Stephens, University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, former Florida State University head coach Bobby Bowden, former University of Georgia athletic director and head coach Vince Dooley, former University of Tennessee head coach Johnny Majors, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham (C ’91), University of the South history professor Woody Register, New York Jets scout and sport analyst Phil Savage (C ‘87), and more recent players, coaches, and Sewanee staff. The film’s score is composed by frequent Ken Burns collaborator Bobby Horton.

Prior to its public television premiere, Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899 was featured in the Austin Lift-Off Festival, Oxfilm, Beaufort Film Festival, Cobb International Film Festival (Best Local Film), Central Tennessee Downtown Film Festival, Hollywood Gold Awards, Knoxville International Film Festival (First Place, Documentary Feature Film), Sidewalk Film Festival (Birmingham), the Tennessee International Indie Film Festival, and the Shockfest Film Festival.

For more information about the film, visit: https://sewanee1899.org/

About NETA

The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) is a professional association representing 294 member stations in 48 states, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. NETA provides leadership, general audience content, educational services, professional development, and trusted financial management services, including human resources and benefits administration, to individual public media licensees, their affinity groups, and public media as a whole. For more information, visit netaonline.org.

*Southeast region 2023