Oxford MS Filmmaker's Emmy ® Nominated Documentary Airs Nationwide

Mississippi Filmmaker’s Emmy ® Nominated Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899 Tells the Story of the Greatest Season in College Sports History

Airs Sunday 8/6 at 2pm on Mississippi PBS

National Debut on WORLD Channel September 16 and Streaming on PBS.org

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, from Oxford-based filmmaker David Crews (Sewanee C ’76), will encore on Mississippi PBS on Sunday, August 6 at 2 pm before making its national television debut on the WORLD channel Saturday, September 16 at 7 pm ET/6 pm CT/4 pm PT (check local listings) during college football season. It is distributed by the National Educational Television Association (NETA). The documentary is also available to stream at PBS.org.

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 Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899 uses a mix of interviews, re-enactments, historical documents and illustrations to bring to life the story of these underdogs who became the champions of the South under seemingly impossible circumstances unheard of in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.

“When my college classmate and friend Norman Jetmundsen first suggested that we collaborate on a film about Sewanee’s famed 1899 football team, I figured the contours of the story would be largely lore with only fragments of truth. But as we dug deep into the story, we discovered a rich, dramatic, textured, and authentic story of grit, determination, ambition, skill, and perseverance,” says filmmaker and Sewanee alum David Crews (C ’76). “Playing five games in six days is a monumental undertaking and no sport for the short-winded. Much the same can be said about making a comprehensive film about the team.” 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 University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, CBS Sports commentator Tony Barnhart, ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit, College Football Hall of Fame historian Kent Stephens, 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.

About NETA

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

*Southeast region 2023