© 2024 South Carolina Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

"W" is for Wofford College

South Carolina from A to Z logo

" “W" is for Wofford College. A four-year liberal arts college in Spartanburg, Wofford was founded with a bequest from the Methodist minister and Spartanburg native Benjamin Wofford. The General Assembly granted a charter in 1851 and the then all-male college opened in 1854. In the late 19th century Wofford played Furman in the first intercollegiate football game in South Carolina, allowed fraternities on campus, and its faculty participated in the founding of the Association of Southern Colleges and Secondary Schools. In the 1970s Wofford became fully co-educational and implemented innovative curriculum reforms. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, Wofford College was named the best southern liberal arts college by U.S. News and World Report and the college’s athletics program began to compete in the NCAA’s Division I Southern Conference.

Stay Connected
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.