*From Alma Mater Vol 4: The South*

*Alabama A&M* 

Why do they do it? 

Where do they find the passion? Where does it come from? 

Why do the Bulldogs at Louis Crews put in the time, and those in Elmore put in the grind? 

They’re not in front of a sold-out audience of 100,000. You won’t find the ESPN GameDay crew on this campus. So why do these weight rooms stay full? What gives their inner drive its pull? 

What brings it out onto the intramural courts and recreational sports that might not be sold out, but has the same feel of a high-stakes bout? 

These Bulldogs won’t be in Madison Square Garden. They aren’t under the bright city lights. And won’t have standing-room fans chanting their names. 

What they do have are instilled southern values.  

They have learned from southerners like Ali who didn’t fall upon fame, they overcame, and  

Today what they have is a love for their game.  

You’ll see it in the batting cages across Alabama. When a teenager is out late practicing her swing not because of any big-dream aspirations, but for reasons even she herself is unaware. 

You’ll see it on volleyball courts, softball parks, and in every D2 and even D3 sport across the country. It’s even in the little leagues like Huntsville Eastern League, where a receiver isn’t running to the end zone in Cove Park thinking about how it will help him come contract time, only how he wishes he could just keep running.  

Bulldogs have a quality that no athlete, no matter how great they were in their prime can honestly say: 

They are never over The Hill. 

This is home. And this home births love. 

Along with the sports in Huntsville there is a love for knowledge. At A&M, the competitive nature of Bulldogs is also in the library as they study not to compete to be better than others…but to better themselves. And when you yourself have found yourself to be a champion, 

Who in the world can contest that? 

You are a triumph undisputed. 

If you will it so. 

Perhaps that is why many turn to education to compete instead of sports, 

Because the mind is an even playing field.  

The smartest person you’d ever know could be somewhere buried in the books of Drake, or a nameless avatar in an online discussion board who did not go to Princeton or Harvard, 

But here at A&M University, 

Where through Service to the mind: 

Gained Sovereignty.