Samford University history

The college's first nine students began studies in January 1842 with a traditional curriculum of language, literature and sciences.

Howard College was converted to a military hospital by the Confederate government in 1863.

In 1865 the college reopened.

Howard College's board of trustees accepted real estate and funding from the city of Birmingham, Alabama in 1887 Faculty who remained in Marion, formed Marion Military Institute on the old campus.

Howard College added its School of Music in 1914 and School of Education and Journalism the following year.

The college introduced its Department of Pharmacy in 1927.

In 1961, the college acquired Cumberland School of Law, one of the nation's oldest law schools.

In addition to the law school, Howard College added a new school of business and reorganized to achieve university status in 1965.

In 1967, it admitted Samford's first black student, Audrey Lattimore Gaston.

In the fall of 1969 Elizabeth Sloan Ragland became the first African American student to live on campus.

In 1973, the university acquired Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing.

Samford University established a study center for students to study abroad in Kensington, England in 1984.

On September 21, 1989, a Samford University professor, William Lee Slagle, stabbed one of his debating team students to death before going on the run; Slagle was finally captured six months later.

In 1994, Samford's board of trustees voted to allow it to elect its own members.

Doctor Andrew Westmoreland was appointed president of the university in 2006.

A new soccer and track facility opened in 2011, part of a decade-long expansion of new athletics facilities that included a tennis center, a basketball arena, a football field house and a softball stadium.

In 2013, the university established a new College of Health Sciences, including Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, the School of Health Professions and the School of Public Health.

In 2014, the West Village residence complex opened.

For the 2016–17 academic year, the economic and fiscal impacts of the university on Alabama were $424.8 million, 2,424 jobs, $16.1 million in state income and sales taxes, and $6 million in local sales tax.

The university's long financial connection with the Alabama Baptist State Convention was ended by the university in July 2017 when the trustees announced they would no longer accept funds from the convention.

The dean of the nursing school, Nena Sanders, was named vice-provost of the new college, and after her retirement in 2020 the nursing school was renamed the Moffett & Sanders School of Nursing.