By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com

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With a proud football past, the Keydets are marching their way back home.

nAfter losing Appalachian State, Elon and Georgia Southern to realignment, the Southern Conference has welcomed the Virginia Military Institute back into the league. A member from 1924-2002, the Keydets have a long and storied bond with one of college football’s most time-honored conferences. The unique history of VMI football comes with great charm and appeal. It is a story worth telling again.xc2xa0

nThe Keydets began play way back in 1873 with a harsh 4-2 home loss to Washington and Lee. Following the game, VMI wouldn’t return to the gridiron as an intercollegiate competitorxc2xa0 until 1891. The start-up squad was coached by Walter Taylor III, the son of a former aide to Robert E. Lee. For over two full years, VMI didn’t suffer a single defeated and toppled the likes of Duke, Kentucky and North Carolina. The Keydets did lose to Virginia in late November of 1893 but reportedly quit due to suspicions of a fixed game.xc2xa0xc2xa0xc2xa0

nMisfortune hit at the end of the 19th century when, after the team’s first game, the rest of the season was cancelled when the student body was sent home after an outbreak of typhoid fever.

nThe first of eight conference championships for VMI came in 1920 with a perfect 9-0 season. That fall, the Keydets outscored their opponents by a margin of 431-to-20 and topped UVA, North Carolina State, UNC and Virginia Tech along the way. Another nine-win campaign, this one including a 33-0 shutout of Tennessee in Knoxville, came three years later. That next season the Keydets became one of 22 members of the cradle of southern college football the SoCon.

nIn 1937, Allison Hubert became the second eventual-College Football Hall of Famer, following Bill Roper in the early 1900s, to coach VMI. Hubert, one of countless heroes to walk the halls in Lexington, dropped out of high school so he could fight in World War I, then returned to lead Alabama to the 1925 national championship. Legendary coach Wallace Wade called Hubert “undoubtedly one of the greatest football players of all time” and described him as the best leader and playmaker he ever coached. Hubert went 43-45-8 in ten seasons.

nThe creator the famed I-formation, Tom Nugent, led the Keydets to their first SoCon title in 1951. John McKinna would later usher in the golden era of VMI football and win four more league championships during his 13-year tenure. From 1957-1960, the Keydets compiled a 30-5-5 record. Bob Thalman followed with a near decade-and-a-half run and a pair of conference crowns of his own.

nSubsequent coaches include former Army offensive coordinator Jim Shuck, the late Big East and Orange Bowl champion from West Virginia Bill Stewart, and, currently, former Appalachian State and South Carolina head man Sparky Woods.xc2xa0

nThose men, along with those who came before them, have long participated in one of the game’s most special pairings. The “Military Classic of the South” pits VMI and The Citadel and has most years since 1920. This fall’s November 22nd matchup will be be the 70th meeting between the two respected schools. The Keydets and Bulldogs play for the “Silver Shako”, a mounted military cap honoring the pageantry of both.

nThe traditions at VMI aren’t just limited to those that are shared. Alumni Memorial Field is home to one of the most unique mascots in all of college football, “Moe the Kangaroo”. While marsupials are far from native to the Commonwealth, school cheerleaders made the suggestion not long after World War II and the idea stuck. Accompanying Moe and the team’s entrance, along with every score, is the boom of a replica 1750 howitzer cannon named “Little John”. Even the nickname is a southern colloquialism of the word cadet.

nJimmy Leech, a College Football Hall of Fame inductee in 1956, was carried the football for the red and yellow. Former quarterback Bobby Thomason was a first round pick in the 1949 NFL Draft and was a three-time Pro Bowler during an eight-year professional career. Iconic coach Bobby Ross played quarterback and defensive back as a two-way player at VMI. General George Marshall, one-time Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff of the Army and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, also played for the Keydets.

nFounded 175 years ago, VMI is the oldest state-supported military college in the country. The school was long ago founded out of a small arsenal guard. With a proud football past, the Keydets are marching their way back home. A grand narrative is following that lead.