Gadsden, Anniston, & Centre, Alabama · Founded 1925 · Cardinals (Swoop the Cardinal)
“A century-old Alabama trade school turned five-campus community college, where the Show Band still headlines Christmas and JUCO baseball rose from the dead.”
Archival footage of the Gadsden State Show Band performing in exhibition under director Rip Reagan — the Reagan era on film.
The Kings of Swing performing at the Gadsden State Jazz Festival in November 2019 — the college's annual jazz showcase at Wallace Hall.
Full ACCC volleyball match broadcast — the Lady Cardinals in conference play.
Gadsden State men's basketball in the 2026 long-form JUCO showcase at Wallace State College in Hanceville.
Second 2026 showcase game for the Cardinals — summer JUCO circuit ball.
Lady Cardinals volleyball against ACCC rival Southern Union.
The Lady Cardinals hosting a nationally ranked Georgia Highlands squad — big-stage JUCO women's basketball.
Wallace State vs. Gadsden State men's basketball — the Region 22 rivalry on film.
Lady Cardinals volleyball on the road — conference play broadcast.
Cardinals basketball against ACCC foe Shelton State, via the Shelton State athletics channel.
Championship highlights from the ACCC volleyball title match — Snead State vs. Gadsden State with the conference crown on the line.
The college's official Fall 2025 commencement ceremony — the centennial-year graduating class.
Founding member of the Country Music Hall of Fame band Alabama; earned a degree in Electronic Technology from Gadsden State and was named 'Outstanding Alumni' by the American Association of Community Colleges.
Former professional baseball player and legendary Cherokee County athlete; the Gadsden Times marked his 2017 passing with a career retrospective.
Country music singer and songwriter with Nashville cuts to his name.
Birmingham artist, author, and educator known for 'Numinousneoism' — paintings and sculptures blending childlike innocence with a spiritual path.
Country singer known for 'Livin' the Dream'; the Gadsden Times covered his recovery from partial paralysis and his Wednesday Night Therapy online concert series.
Gadsden State alumnus who rose from adjunct instructor to president of the college in 2025.
Lady Cardinals basketball All-American — the program's first in 38 years — under coach Dixon.
2025 ACCC Baseball Player of the Year; sophomore infielder from Hueytown who led the Cardinals' 38-13 turnaround season.
Recent graduate who spearheaded the 'Don't Drop It on Alabama' cleanup project, earning the college a $1,000 statewide award in Montgomery.
The Alabama School of Trades opened in Gadsden in 1925, the first state-operated trade school in the southern United States. It offered hands-on training in brick masonry, carpentry, electrical work, and printing. This trade school is the oldest root of today's Gadsden State and the reason the college celebrated its centennial in 2025.
By 1941 the trade school enrolled 200 students, and its first permanent two-story buildings were literally built by the students themselves alongside government workmen. That sweat-equity origin still fits the college a century later — it has always been a place where working people learn by doing. The hands-on ethos from these years carried straight into the modern career-technical programs.
Eugene N. Prater founded the Gadsden Vocational Trade School in 1960 as a private institution for Black students, who were prevented from attending the segregated Alabama School of Trades. It opened with training in auto mechanics and repair, plastering and cement finishing, brick masonry, woodworking, dry cleaning and laundry, general business, and tailoring. By 1961 it enrolled 70 students. This is the branch of the family tree that made Gadsden State a historically Black institution.
The State of Alabama assumed ownership of the Gadsden Vocational Trade School in 1962, bringing the Black institution into the public system. Ten years later it would be renamed Gadsden State Technical Institute, and the public ownership set the stage for the multi-campus structure the college still runs on today.
The Alabama Legislature created the Harry M. Ayers State Trade School by act on May 3, 1963, in Anniston. It offered associate degree and certificate programs and became the college's foothold in Calhoun County. In 1972 the State Board of Education formally designated it a technical college. It survives today as Gadsden State's Ayers Campus.
Gadsden State Junior College opened under the Alabama State Board of Education and SACS in September 1965, with more than 700 students in day and night courses offering both professional and technical programs. The city of Gadsden's own history credits former Governor George Wallace with founding it. Construction plans for the 115-acre campus in East Gadsden called for an administration building, science building, library, student center, and fine arts building — the core of today's Wallace Drive Campus.
The vocational trade school founded for Black students was renamed Gadsden State Technical Institute in 1972, the same year Ayers was designated a technical college. The rename gave the historically Black branch a name that matched its growing stature. It became the Valley Street Campus, the HBCU-designated heart of the modern college.
The 1925 Alabama School of Trades was renamed Alabama Technical College in 1973, reflecting a shift from pure trade instruction toward broader technical education. It is now the East Broad Street Campus. Together with the Technical Institute and the Junior College, the three schools were drifting toward the merger that would come twelve years later.
Gadsden State first offered distance learning courses in 1978, remarkably early for a two-year college in Alabama. By fall 2005 some 800 students were enrolled in distance courses. The school was reaching students across its five-county service area long before online classes became standard everywhere.
NBC filmed the television docudrama 'Kent State' (1981), about the 1970 Kent State shootings, on Gadsden State's campus because of its physical resemblance to Kent State University. The New York Times covered the production, and the shoot remains one of the stranger footnotes in the college's history — a quiet Alabama junior college standing in for one of the most infamous campuses in America.
On February 28, 1985, the Alabama State Board of Education merged Alabama Technical College, Gadsden State Technical Institute, and Gadsden State Junior College into Gadsden State Community College, as part of a statewide effort to eliminate duplicate community college programs. Three institutions with roots in 1925, 1960, and 1965 became one college with three Gadsden campuses: East Broad Street, Valley Street, and Wallace Drive.
The U.S. Department of Education designated the former Gadsden State Technical Institute — the school founded in 1960 for Black students shut out of the segregated trade school — as a Historically Black College or University. It is now identified as the Valley Street Campus. That federal recognition is why Gadsden State sits on HBCU lists today, and why UNCF counts it among its impact-report institutions.
The Gadsden State Cherokee Campus opened in Centre in 2002 to serve students in Cherokee County and surrounding communities who couldn't easily reach Gadsden. It gave the college a permanent presence in its eastern service area. Six years later it would move into a much bigger home.
On July 8, 2003, the Alabama State Board of Education consolidated Harry M. Ayers State Technical College into Gadsden State Community College. The Anniston institution became the Ayers Campus, adding Calhoun County to the college's footprint. Combined with the McClellan Center, it made Gadsden State a genuine two-city college.
The Cherokee Campus relocated in 2008 to a multi-level complex that includes a 2,500-seat arena, a 300-seat conference room, and meeting rooms. It also houses the Economic Development Center for community outreach and the offices of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce. For a community college satellite, it's an unusually ambitious facility — the arena hosts events far beyond class schedules.
In 2013 the vast majority of Gadsden State faculty and staff voted no confidence in president Raymond Staats. Two months after the vote he was placed on leave and Bill Blow returned as interim president. Staats resigned and by 2015 had been picked for the top job at a North Carolina community college. The episode remains the most public leadership crisis in the college's history.
Martha Lavender, a PhD-prepared nurse who had been serving as interim president since 2014, was named Gadsden State's president in October 2015. She led the college through August 2020 — the longest recent presidential tenure — steering it through enrollment pressures and the early months of the pandemic. Gregg Bennett filled in as interim from September to December 2020.
The Lady Cardinals volleyball team won the 2019 NJCAA Gulf Atlantic District A/B Championship and advanced to the NJCAA Division I Volleyball Championship — the program's biggest stage. The same year the college closed its McClellan Center on the former Fort McClellan Army Base and moved its programs to the Ayers Campus in Anniston.
President Kathy Murphy reinstated baseball and softball in 2022 — baseball had been disbanded in 2011, softball in 2016 — and cross country, cut after fall 2011, came back too. The Cardinals had a storied diamond past: baseball won ACCC state titles in 1981 and 1985, and the Lady Cardinals won state softball titles in 1988 and 1989 with a third-place NJCAA Tournament finish in 1989. Blake Lewis, hired from Lawson State as head coach and athletic director, was tasked with rebuilding it all.
Gadsden State marked 100 years since the 1925 trade school with a centennial celebration September 16, 2025, in Beck Gymnasium on the Wallace Drive Campus, plus a Cherokee Campus celebration on August 27 and a 65-years-at-Valley-Street commemoration July 7. The same year Kathy Murphy left to become president of Wallace Community College in Dothan, and alumnus Alan Smith — interim since June 1 — was named permanent president effective August 1, 2025. The college also launched the Cardinalettes Dance Team, earned Schneider's 'Truck Driving School of the Quarter' honor, placed 52 athletes on NJCAA All-Academic Teams, and saw its Cardinal Foundation earn a four-star Charity Navigator rating.
On September 11, 2026, Gadsden State cut the ribbon on a nearly $9 million renovation of Wallace Hall, the 38,322-square-foot fine arts home on the Wallace Drive Campus. The 1967 academic wing was gutted and rebuilt with new mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems and redesigned studios for photography, pottery, visual arts, choral, and band programs; the 16,286-square-foot theater got a new brick facade, entrance, courtyard, and lighting. U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers joined President Alan Smith for the ceremony. The project closed out the $20 million capital improvement push Smith had been overseeing since 2025.
No formal rivalry name was found, but Wallace State is the recurring ACCC/Region 22 basketball foil — full game broadcasts of Wallace State men's basketball versus Gadsden State circulate on YouTube, and the two programs met again at the June 2026 JUCO showcase held on Wallace State's own campus in Hanceville. In Alabama JUCO ball, these are the games that decide postseason seeding.
The volleyball programs have collided with conference hardware on the line — highlight reels from the ACCC Conference Championship title match between Snead State and Gadsden State are a staple of recruiting film. When Gadsden won the 2019 district title, it was through this same ACCC gauntlet.
Another standing ACCC basketball matchup with broadcast games on record. Shelton State and Gadsden State trade Region 22 positioning most seasons, making it one of the schedule's circled dates.
A regular ACCC volleyball opponent with full-match video on record. The Cardinals' path to district and conference titles runs through programs like Southern Union.
🥁 Gadsden State Show Band
The Show Band is Gadsden State's flagship ensemble — an auditioned group based on the Wallace Drive Campus that plays college functions, community events, and recruiting shows rather than football Saturdays (the college fields no football team). It has appeared as an exhibition band at the Midsouth Band Festival, including the 1994-95 festival under Rip Reagan. The fine-arts ecosystem around it includes the A Cappella Choir (director J.T. Harrell), the GSCC Singers, and the annual 'Christmas with the Cardinals' concert plus a regional Christmas tour of churches, tree lightings, and the Gadsden Christmas Parade.
Directed the Show Band for 26 years and served as its principal music arranger; the band performed for college functions, community events, and recruiting shows under his baton. Inducted into the Alabama Music Educators Hall of Fame in 2012. Previously directed the Emma Sansom High School band for 25 years, earning 200+ superior marching ratings and the 'Greatest Band in Dixie' title in 1963, 1965, and 1967.
Directed the Show Band's finale concert at the 2019 Gadsden State Jazz Festival — Ellington, Maynard Ferguson, and Dizzy Gillespie charts at Wallace Hall. First name not published in available sources.
Current Show Band director; builds programs collaboratively with students across pop, R&B, soul, and country styles. Led the band's set at the annual 'Christmas with the Cardinals' holiday concert.
No Greek-letter organizations. Gadsden State is a two-year community college; its 40+ published student clubs include Baptist Campus Ministries, FCA, Singers, Gospel Singing and the Show Band, but no fraternities or sororities appear in official listings.
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Gadsden State opened a campus in Centre to serve Cherokee County students who couldn't easily reach Gadsden, establishing its eastern foothold.
The consolidation with Harry M. Ayers State Technical College brought the Anniston campus into the college, adding Calhoun County to its footprint.
The Anniston Center (opened 1970) relocated to the former Fort McClellan Army Base as the McClellan Center. It operated there until 2019, when its programs moved to the Ayers Campus.
The Cherokee Campus moved into a multi-level complex with a 2,500-seat arena, a 300-seat conference room, and meeting rooms — also home to the Economic Development Center and the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce offices.
With baseball and softball reinstated, the college committed to new playing facilities: softball at the Gadsden Sports Park behind the Wallace Drive Campus and baseball at the Gadsden Sports Complex on Meighan Boulevard.
The college established its own police and public safety department covering all five campuses across three counties. By July 2025 it was marking two years of growth, including new evidence lockers at its Wallace Drive headquarters funded by the Cardinal Foundation.
Under Alan Smith's workforce-development leadership, the college secured and managed over $38 million in career-technical education investments, anchored by the Advanced Manufacturing and Workplace Skills Training Center — the physical symbol of the school's pivot toward high-wage technical careers.
The former Meadows Library space in Inzer Hall on the Wallace Drive Campus was converted into a Black Box Theatre performance venue, hosting the 2024 'Christmas with the Cardinals' concert and giving the fine-arts division a flexible second stage.
Construction began on state-of-the-art baseball and softball fields as part of roughly $20 million in capital improvement initiatives, giving the reinstated programs real homes for the first time.
Ribbon-cutting September 11, 2026, on the 38,322-square-foot fine arts building: the 1967 academic wing was gutted and rebuilt with new mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems and redesigned studios for photography, pottery, visual arts, choral, and band; the 16,286-square-foot theater got a new brick facade, entrance, courtyard, and architectural lighting. Built by Hudak Construction Co. with Lathan McKee Architects; U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers attended the ceremony.
The college runs four divisions — Academic, Career Technical, Health Sciences, and Skills Training — with open admissions and transfer agreements with every public four-year institution in Alabama. A Lightcast analysis cited by the ACCS puts Gadsden State's regional economic impact at $270.5 million supporting more than 4,400 jobs. It also holds a crosstown ROTC agreement with Jacksonville State University's Tiger Battalion.
Gadsden State alumnus; former adjunct, Dean of Workforce Development, and VP of Capital Projects before his 2025 appointment.
System chancellor who recommended Smith's appointment to the ACCS Board of Trustees.
Hired from Lawson State in 2022 to rebuild the reinstated baseball program; named 2025 ACCC Coach of the Year after a 13-37 to 38-13 turnaround and a No. 2 seed in the ACCC Division I Region Tournament.
34-year coaching veteran and Sand Rock High School standout; ranks top-10 in four Alabama high school rebounding categories and played in the 1982 Alabama North/South All-Star game.
Leads the fine-arts division behind Wallace Hall, the Show Band, and the 'Christmas with the Cardinals' tradition.
Current band director; J.T. Harrell directs the A Cappella Choir alongside him.
Gadsden State is a multi-city commuter college spread across five campuses and centers in Gadsden, Anniston, and Centre, so campus life is decentralized — the Wallace Drive Campus is the main hub with the library, student center, fine-arts buildings, and Beck Gymnasium. The student body runs about 52 percent full-time and 48 percent part-time; fall 2020 demographics were 71 percent white, 17 percent Black, 5 percent Hispanic, with students from 32 countries. More than 40 clubs operate, from Baptist Campus Ministries and FCA to the Cardinal Arts Journal, the Gadsden State Singers, Gospel Singing, and the Show Band. Campus housing exists, which is unusual for a community college and keeps a residential core on the Wallace Drive Campus.