Higher Education

Higher Education. Cascades Park. Tallahassee's second industry is higher education. Florida State University (FSU) was established in 1851 as a military seminary, later transforming into Florida State College for Women in 1909. By 1947, the state officially converted the women’s college into its present coed status. Florida A&M University (FAMU) began in 1887 as a teachers’ college and later became the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes. FAMU achieved university status in 1953., From 1947 to 1949, FSU's home football and baseball games were played at Centennial Field, which was located in Cascades Park from 1924 to 1974. In 1949, FSU hired 125 professors , dubbed the 49ers , to jumpstart science, research and graduate programs. Nobel and Pulitzer prize winners have served on its faculty, and its National High Magnetic Field Laboratory attracts international scholars. FSU's athletic department is highlighted by a football program that finished among the top five in the country 14 consecutive seasons, (1987-2000) National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) record., FAMU is one of the nation's leading historically black universities. Before integration, it produced most of the education and business leaders for Florida's black communities. It’s Marching 100 band has performed at Super Bowls and presidential inaugurations and was the only U.S. band selected for France’s 1989 bicentennial celebration. As of 2010, the football team held 13 national titles and the inaugural (1978) NCAA Division I-AA championship., By the early 21st century, FSU, FAMU, and Tallahassee Community College (founded 1966) attracted more than 60,000 students annually., (Captions) , West Florida Seminary in1894, a predecessor to Florida State University. State Archives of Florida, Roland Hayes, Marion Anderson, Langston Hughes and other major artists, attracted community-wide audiences to FAMU’s Lee Hall during segregation, 1947. State Archives of Florida