Savannah, Georgia · Founded 1890 · Tigers and Lady Tigers
“Georgia's oldest public HBCU, sitting on marsh-side live-oak ground in Savannah — 135 years of turning overlooked kids into mayors, Hall of Famers, and Tiger legends.”
SSU hosted the first Big HBCU Battle of the Bands ever held in Savannah — nine bands at Theodore A. Wright Stadium; the Powerhouse of the South's full field show lands at 02:06:52.
The 2025 homecoming halftime show with the Majestic Jewels auxiliary — peak Tiger Pride on the home field.
A band-room session of the Stevie Wonder classic by the Powerhouse — the kind of clip Tiger Nation passes around between Saturdays.
The Powerhouse of the South's full halftime show at South Carolina State's 2016 High School Band Day, captured in 4K by BandTube HD.
The 2024 halftime show against Tuskegee — another classic SIAC matchup with the full Powerhouse production.
The Fort Valley State rivalry on film: the September 14, 2013 halftime performance from Eight To Five Entertainment.
Savannah State's 7th Honda Battle of the Bands appearance (2023) at Alabama State — the Powerhouse on the national HBCU band stage.
Killa Kev Productions' 4K capture of SSU's 2025 Big HBCU Battle of the Bands field show.
Live multi-camera coverage with commentary of the first half of SSU's historic 2026 home Battle of the Bands.
The second half of the 9.13.26 Savannah showdown — stand battles and the home-band closer.
The 2025 homecoming parade through Savannah — the Powerhouse plus Groves, Arabia Mountain, and Sol C. Johnson high school bands.
A full walking tour of the marsh-side campus, soundtracked by Powerhouse of the South recordings.
Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end (class of 2011) — three Super Bowls, 8 Pro Bowls, 815 catches for 10,060 yards; SSU retired his No. 2 jersey in 2009; now a star sports-media personality (Club Shay Shay, ESPN).
First African-American woman elected mayor of Savannah (2012–2015); B.S. Sociology 1968, M.Ed. 1972; later Georgia House District 165 representative; once directed SSU's alumni affairs office.
Mayor of Savannah since January 1, 2020, re-elected 2023; B.S. Business Administration 1990; Alpha Phi Alpha; hailed SSU as 'the best' at the 2026 Battle of the Bands.
Mayor of Savannah 2003–2011 and former SSU faculty member — a professor who became the city's chief executive.
NFL official (umpire), class of 1987 — worked Super Bowl XLIII; one of the few HBCU graduates to officiate at the league's highest level.
Former NFL player, class of 1987 — linebacker for the Washington Redskins and New York Jets.
Former NFL running back, class of 2000 — led a six-year pro career out of Savannah State's backfield.
College football defensive backs coach, class of 1990 — coached DBs at Vanderbilt and Miami (Fla.), and served as interim head coach and defensive coordinator at his alma mater.
Former Harlem Globetrotter, class of 1983 — took the Tiger basketball pedigree to the world's most famous exhibition team.
Basketball coach, class of 1975 — interim head coach of the WNBA's Washington Mystics; former assistant with the Seattle Storm and Mystics.
Former ABA forward, class of 1967 — played for the New Jersey Americans in pro basketball's wildest league.
Former professional wrestler — carried the Tiger name into the squared circle.
Broadcast journalist, class of 1993 — former anchor/reporter for WSB-TV, the ABC affiliate in Atlanta.
News content specialist (WTOC Savannah), actor, and film producer, class of 2009 — building a multi-hyphenate media career out of the mass communications program.
The Second Morrill Land Grant Act of August 30, 1890 forced southern states to build land-grant colleges for Black students. On November 26, 1890, the Georgia General Assembly answered with legislation creating the Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth. It made Savannah State the first public historically Black college in Georgia and the first institution of higher learning of any kind in the city of Savannah.
A preliminary session ran in the Baxter Street School Building in Athens with Richard R. Wright Sr. as principal. On October 7, 1891, the school moved to its permanent home in Savannah, on the former lands of Placentia Plantation — including its colored cemetery — with Wright as the first president. It opened with five faculty members and eight students, every one of them a graduate of Augusta's Edmund Asa Ware High School, the first public Black high school in the city.
The college awarded its first baccalaureate degree in 1898. The recipient was Richard R. Wright Jr. — the founding president's own son — who went on to become the ninth president of Wilberforce University. A father handing the school's first diploma to his son set a tone of family and legacy that alumni still talk about 125 years later.
Cyrus G. Wiley, class of 1902, became president in 1921 — the first alumnus to lead the institution. The same year, the first female students were admitted as residents on campus, ending three decades as an all-male school. Wright resigned that June and moved to Philadelphia, where he founded the only African-American-owned bank in the North, Citizens & Southern Bank & Trust Co., and campaigned for National Freedom Day.
The college became a full four-year, degree-granting institution and shut down its high school and normal-school programs, which had trained elementary teachers under the old German model. Under Benjamin F. Hubert's administration the school shed its preparatory identity and stepped fully into collegiate life. The curriculum kept its industrial roots — agriculture, commerce, vocational trades — but now aimed at bachelor's degrees.
When the University System of Georgia was created in 1932, the college became one of its founding members and was renamed Georgia State College. State-system membership meant steadier funding and a clearer academic standing. It kept serving as Georgia's land-grant institution for African-American students for another fifteen years.
The 1890 land-grant designation was transferred from Savannah State to Fort Valley State College in 1947, ending the school's run as Georgia's Black land-grant university. The loss of the land-grant title stung, but the college was already established enough to keep growing without it. The two schools would spend the next century as sister institutions and football rivals.
The earliest record of a Savannah State band program dates to 1949, under the direction of J.J. Ballou, when it was called the Georgia State Industrial College Senior Band. That same year the band made history marching in Savannah's Army Day Parade as the only African American band in the parade. The Powerhouse of the South traces its bloodline straight to that parade field.
On January 18, 1950, the Board of Regents changed the name from Georgia State College to Savannah State College, tying the school's identity to its city. Dr. William K. Payne became the fifth president that March and served until his death in 1963. Early in his administration the college joined the American Council on Education and earned membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
The institution received its initial accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1955, the gold seal that made its degrees portable. Payne organized the academic program into seven divisions — business, education, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, technical sciences, and home study. Accreditation locked in the college's legitimacy during the hardest years of Jim Crow Georgia.
Howard Jordan Jr. became president on November 1, 1963, after Payne's death, and launched a building program that modernized the campus. During his tenure the college developed its first master's degree program — the first graduate program at a Savannah college. By 1968 the campus held 136 acres and 36 buildings, with the original 1890s–1910s structures — Meldrim Hall (1896), Hill Hall (1901), Hammond Hall (1915) — still in daily use.
Head football coach Dr. Leo Richardson led the Tigers to a 6-2-1 record in 1967, good enough to win the Southeastern Athletic Conference championship, and was named SEAC Coach of the Year. Richardson also coached men's basketball and taught biology, the classic small-college multitasker. He was inducted into the SSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010 and died in July 2023.
Prince A. Jackson Jr., the second alumnus to become president, took office February 1, 1971 and established both the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps and campus radio station WHCJ at Savannah State. He institutionalized the federal Title III program and carried through the reaccreditation work that earned SACS renewal in December 1971 plus NCATE accreditation the same year. WHCJ 90.3 FM still broadcasts Tiger games and HBCU culture today.
Wendell G. Rayburn's administration (1980–1988) implemented the court-ordered Desegregation Plan mandated by the Georgia Board of Regents and led the first major building program since the 1970s. The plan moved three of Savannah State's graduate programs to Georgia Southern — a transfer alumni called a 'slap in the face' and a violation of the 1979 desegregation settlement. The wound shaped alumni politics for decades.
A lanky kid from Glennville, Georgia arrived in 1986 and rewrote the Tiger record book: 192 catches, 3,744 yards, 40 touchdowns across four seasons, three-time All-SIAC, SIAC Player of the Year in 1987. Sharpe led Savannah State to its best records in program history — 7-3 in 1988 and 8-1 in 1989. Drafted in the 7th round (192nd overall) in 1990, he became a three-time Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer, and the school retired his No. 2 jersey in 2009.
With graduate and research programs growing, the Board of Regents elevated Savannah State College to state university status in 1996 and renamed it Savannah State University. John T. Wolfe Jr., the 10th president, presided over the transition. The name change marked the school's arrival as a full research-and-graduate institution after 106 years of climbing.
Paramount Pictures filmed portions of 'The General's Daughter' at historic Hill Hall during the summer of 1997. Director Simon West said the campus and Savannah had 'the most varied and interesting look' to capture the film's brooding, hot-and-steamy Southern Gothic mood. For a summer, the 1901 student-built landmark doubled as a movie set.
Savannah State decided to leave the SIAC and NCAA Division II for Division I, playing its first D-I football season in 2002 and joining the MEAC. The move chased bigger stages and television money. It delivered neither — the Tigers went 1-10 in 2010 and hadn't posted a winning season since 1998 — and the school eventually came home to Division II and the SIAC in 2019.
Under director Alzie F. Walker, the Powerhouse of the South earned its first-ever invitation to the Honda Battle of the Bands in Atlanta in 2004, and came back again in 2005. Walker also composed the university's official fight song. The Honda stage put SSU's band on national television and cemented the Powerhouse name in HBCU band culture.
TLC's 'Trading Spaces' filmed its 'Savannah: SSU Steppers' episode on campus September 7–9, 2007, transforming two rooms in the King-Frazier Student Center with members of Sigma Gamma Rho and Phi Beta Sigma. That same year, the evangelical student group Commissioned II Love sued the university in federal court after being suspended and expelled over foot-washing and baptism rituals the school called hazing. A federal judge denied dismissal in August 2007; the parties settled in February 2008 with the group re-registered and no admission of wrongdoing.
A proposal to merge Savannah State with Armstrong Atlantic State University went down in 2008 — alumni and supporters refused to let the oldest public HBCU in Georgia be absorbed, and the consolidation fear that had shadowed the school for years finally died on paper. A decade later the tables turned: Armstrong itself was merged into Georgia Southern. The same year, the restored Hill Hall reopened after a community fundraising campaign. The 1901 student-built landmark now houses the Enrollment Management Center, a presidential suite, and a small museum honoring the school's first century.
Under Earl G. Yarbrough Sr., enrollment topped 3,800 — a school record — and the new 48,000-square-foot social sciences building opened. In October 2009 the university proclaimed Shannon Sharpe Day, retired his No. 2 jersey (the first football jersey retirement in school history), and presented him the keys to the city and county. Two years later he entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Savannah State returned to NCAA Division II and the SIAC in 2019 and promptly posted a 7-3 season, 5-0 in conference — the program's best record since 1998 — including a 53-24 thrashing of Fort Valley State. The Tigers set a school record with nine consecutive conference wins stretching into 2021. Coming home to Division II felt like the program breathing again.
On April 1, 2025, Dr. Jermaine Whirl — 39 years old, the former president of Augusta Technical College — became the 15th president of Savannah State and the youngest HBCU president in history. He laid out 'presidential pillars': student success, a unified Tiger culture, a stronger SSU brand, and making the school Savannah's anchor institution with doctoral programs and a U.S. News Top 25 HBCU ranking by 2035. Students serenaded him on his first day in true HBCU fashion.
On September 13, 2026, nine HBCU marching bands packed Theodore A. Wright Stadium for the Big HBCU Battle of the Bands — the first time nine bands had ever gathered in Savannah to compete. South Carolina State, Fort Valley State, Virginia State, Bethune-Cookman, Talladega, Albany State, Winston-Salem State, Benedict, and host Savannah State squared off in field shows and stand battles. Mayor Van Johnson — an SSU alumnus — said it plainly: 'Of course the best is Savannah State.'
The oldest and deepest football rivalry on the schedule — the first meeting dates to 1934, and Fort Valley holds a 38-15-4 edge as of 2025. The teams met 37 times between 1967 and 2002 before SSU's Division I move forced a 17-year break; the rivalry reignited when Savannah State returned to the SIAC in 2019 and won 53-24 that year. Recent editions have carried classic names: the Music City Classic in Macon (2010), the Central City Classic (2022), and the Good Trouble Heritage Classic at Augusta's David Dupree Memorial Stadium (2025).
SSU's other historic in-state rival and a fellow SIAC East power — the athletics department calls Albany State and Fort Valley 'two of the program's oldest rivals.' The 2022 meeting at Theodore A. Wright Stadium went down to the wire, Albany State escaping 31-20 after a late Tiger turnover. The 2026 home game (Sept 12, '912 Day') keeps the series on the front of the schedule every year.
🥁 Powerhouse of the South · since 1949
The Powerhouse of the South is the most visible ambassador Savannah State has — award-winning, show-style, and rooted in a 1949 Army Day Parade where it marched as the only Black band on the field. It has appeared at the Honda Battle of the Bands multiple times (2004, 2005, and its 7th appearance in 2023) and performs at home and select away football games, parades, and classics across the Southeast. Its auxiliaries include the Majestic Jewels dance line, and its band-room sessions (like the viral Stevie Wonder 'Part Time Lover' cut) keep Tiger Nation fed between Saturdays.
The earliest director on record; led the Georgia State Industrial College Senior Band in the 1949 Army Day Parade in Savannah as the only African American band in the parade.
Names and tenures for the mid-century directors were not found in the sources checked — J.J. Ballou (1949) is the earliest name on record. This gap is flagged, not filled.
Directed the band when Kim Ogletree became its first female drum major in 1999–2000.
Composed the university's official fight song and led the marching band to its first-ever Honda Battle of the Bands appearances in 2004 and 2005. Also served as band director at Norfolk State. A giant of the HBCU band world; died October 28, 2017 at age 63, honored with a tribute halftime show by the Powerhouse.
Known across the HBCU band community as a prolific arranger and composer; directed the band as of the 2019 season.
A retired Marine sergeant and former FSU head drum major who came from Nicholls State (director of athletic bands). He has grown the band from 30 members in 2021 to 120 in 2026, appointed the program's first white drum major (Christopher Taylor, 2024), and led SSU's first time hosting the Big HBCU Battle of the Bands in 2026.
All nine Divine Nine orgs hold chapters on the Savannah State yard, alongside roughly 75 registered student organizations. The Greeks have mainstream-culture receipts: Sigma Gamma Rho and Phi Beta Sigma both appeared in the 2007 TLC 'Trading Spaces' episode filmed in the King-Frazier Student Center. Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia counts current director of bands Dr. Gabriel Arnold among its brothers. Charter dates were not verified.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
Walter Bernard Hill Hall — built 1900–1901 by students studying manual arts and blacksmithing, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981, closed in 1996 — reopened after a university-and-community fundraising campaign. It now houses the Enrollment Management Center, a presidential suite, administrative offices, a lecture hall, a banquet room, and a small museum.
A 660-bed upperclassman residence hall, University Village, opened to handle the enrollment surge of the late 2000s. It became one of the largest single dormitories on the marsh-side campus.
A 48,000-square-foot social sciences building opened under President Yarbrough, who donned a hard hat to inspect it in his first year. It arrived the same year enrollment set a record above 3,800 students.
Hardin Construction began a $19.9-million renovation and expansion: three new buildings totaling 170,000 square feet with 607 beds in suite and semi-suite configurations for freshmen. Adams and Morgan halls, dating to the 1920s and 1930s, were renovated into academic, conference, and social space to support the new residence halls.
More than $17 million — funded by student fees — went toward a new student center and the renovation of the football stadium, part of Yarbrough's aggressive facilities push. Completion details were not confirmed in the sources checked, so this entry reflects the funded project as announced.
Hardin Construction completed Tiger Court, a 325-bed residence hall and the fourth hall it built on campus. With Tiger Court, Hardin had delivered 682 beds to Savannah State since 2011, each hall offering one- and two-bedroom units with keyless entry, campus-wide wireless, study lounges, and landscaped courtyards.
In July 2019 the university combined its Access to Success and Center for Academic Success units into a single Center for Student Success, rolling out professional advisement for every incoming student, EAB Navigate analytics, and block scheduling for first-year students.
Construction began in April 2026 on a 15,000-square-foot physical plant facility, celebrated with a traditional topping-out ceremony where administrators signed the steel beams. Expected completion is February 2027, with a new parking lot and a dedicated transportation building for SSU buses. Once operations move, the old physical plant becomes space for the arts programs — new theaters and instructional venues. Alumni at the ceremony called it an overdue era of physical growth: no new building had gone up on campus in more than ten years.
The football stadium at the heart of the marsh-side campus hosted the first Big HBCU Battle of the Bands ever held in Savannah on September 13, 2026 — nine HBCU marching bands, stand battles, and a full day of HBCU culture, with SSU's Powerhouse of the South as the home band.
Two threads run through SSU's leadership story: presidents who arrive young and ambitious (Wright at the founding, Whirl at 39) and coaches who stay for decades (Richardson, Broadnax). The faculty bench includes civic heavyweights — former Savannah mayor Otis Johnson taught here — and the band program is treated as a flagship on par with athletics.
Took office April 1, 2025 at age 39 — the youngest HBCU president in history; former Augusta Technical College president.
Chief academic officer listed in the university's administration.
Leads the Tigers in the 2026 season; his weekly 'Thomas Howard Show' breaks down each game for Tiger Nation.
Coached four seasons at SSU (15–21 record per the October 2025 game preview), including the program's 2021 nine-game conference win streak era.
Retired after two decades leading Tiger basketball — one of the longest coaching runs in school history.
Appointed to lead the Tigers' baseball program.
Led the 1967 Tigers to a 6-2-1 record and the SEAC championship; also coached men's basketball and taught biology. SSU Athletics Hall of Fame 2010; died July 23, 2023.
Retired Marine and FSU drum major; grew the Powerhouse of the South from 30 to 120 members since 2021.
Campus sits about five miles from downtown Savannah on marsh-side ground draped in Spanish moss, live oaks, palms, and azaleas — students call the football stadium 'The Marsh.' About 75 student organizations, 15 intramurals, choirs, concert bands, and full Greek life fill the week. What actually defines the place: everybody shows up for the band, the football team plays its biggest rivals within driving distance, and Savannah's Black civic leadership — two recent mayors are alumni — treats the campus as the city's front porch.