In 140 years of college football, nothing comes close to the University of the South’s 1899 season. “Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899” is the story of how 21 players, playing both offense and defense, traveled 2,500 miles by train to play five grueling games in six days – “and on the seventh day they rested” – goes the legend. In fact, they didn’t rest and instead defeated 12 opponents across seven states in just six weeks. The Emmy ® nominated (Southeast region 2023) documentary from Sewanee alumni Norman Jetmundsen and David Crews (both C’76) will encore on WCTE Central Tennessee PBS on Wednesday, Aug. 23, at 10 p.m., before making its national television debut on the public television WORLD channel Saturday, Sept. 16, at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, check local listings) during college football season. It is distributed by the National Educational Television Association (NETA). The documentary is also available to stream at <PBS.org>.

Founded in 1857, the University of the South’s future was in jeopardy after the Civil War and Reconstruction. The struggling college known as “Sewanee” fielded its first team in 1891 for a new sport called football. Just eight years later, a remarkable season invigorated the school and ensured its survival. In 1899, Sewanee not only defeated Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Southwestern Presbyterian, Texas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, LSU, Tulane, Cumberland, Auburn (coached by John Heisman), and North Carolina, but only one of those teams was even able to score on them. “Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899” uses a mix of interviews, re-enactments, historical documents and illustrations to bring to life the story of these underdogs who became the champions of the South under seemingly impossible circumstances unheard of in today’s game of football. As the film explores, the Sewanee team played as many games in a season in half the time of modern college football, under much different rules, with no practice time between, no helmets and protective gear, plaster on their cuts, and every disadvantage against them. The film also shines light on African-American trainer Cal Burrows and another whose name is lost to history, who travelled with the team and were the unsung heroes of this victorious season in the post-Civil War South.

“This is much more than a football story,” says Birmingham-based filmmaker Norman Jetmundsen. “It captures the culture of the late 1890s, when electricity was a novelty and trains were the main mode of transportation. It’s the story of a 20-year-old student, Luke Lea, who crafted the most ambitious schedule in college football history and goes on to become the youngest U.S. Senator of his day. Above all it’s a story of a group of young men who are drawn together in pursuit of a dream and who give everything they have to make it a reality.” And as a former Sewanee Vice-Chancellor notes in the film, the story of the Sewanee Tigers and their season have all the hallmarks of fiction, yet “It’s more than lore, it’s true!”

The film includes interviews with descendants of the 1899 team players and their manager Luke Lea, along with University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, CBS Sports commentator Tony Barnhart, ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit, College Football Hall of Fame historian Kent Stephens, former Florida State University head coach Bobby Bowden, former University of Georgia athletic director and head coach Vince Dooley, former University of Tennessee head coach Johnny Majors, historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham, C’91, University of the South history professor Woody Register, New York Jets scout and sport analyst Phil Savage, C’87, and more recent players, coaches, and Sewanee staff. The film’s score is composed by frequent Ken Burns collaborator Bobby Horton.

Prior to its public television premiere, “Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899” was featured in the Austin Lift-Off Festival, Oxfilm, Beaufort Film Festival, Cobb International Film Festival (Best Local Film), Central Tennessee Downtown Film Festival, Hollywood Gold Awards, Knoxville International Film Festival (First Place, Documentary Feature Film), Sidewalk Film Festival (Birmingham), the Tennessee International Indie Film Festival, and the Shockfest Film Festival.

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For more information about the film, visit: https://sewanee1899.org/;.