Qualla: Randolph–Macon College

Randolph–Macon College: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Visitingvowels, CC0. Randolph–Macon College won its first national championship in March 2022 — a 75-45 men's basketball blowout of Elmhurst University in the NCAA Division III final. It came 192 years after the college's founding and 154 years after the school had to physically move itself a hundred miles to survive. Founded in 1830 in Boydton, near the North Carolina border, Randolph–Macon was the second-oldest Methodist-affiliated college in the country and the oldest still in continuous operation. The Civil War destroyed the railroad linking Boydton to the rest of Virginia. Rather than wait for the tracks to come back, the trustees relocated the college to Ashland in 1868. The Yellow Jackets have been a fixture of this small Hanover County town ever since. The main north-south railroad line on the east coast still runs straight through the middle of campus.

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Image: Visitingvowels | CC0

Randolph–Macon College: Two Statesmen, One Name

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark Warner, CC BY-SA 2.0. The college takes its name from John Randolph of Roanoke, the Virginia statesman known for his caustic oratory and erratic genius, and Nathaniel Macon, the long-serving North Carolina senator and Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Neither man founded the school. The ac...

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Image: Mark Warner | CC BY-SA 2.0

Randolph–Macon College: The Move

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DanTD, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Civil War broke the railroad connection to Boydton, and after the war the trustees decided that rebuilding in place was not feasible. In 1868 the college moved to Ashland — a railroad town about 15 miles north of Richmond, on the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac line. Th...

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Image: DanTD | CC BY-SA 3.0

Randolph–Macon College: Firsts

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hungrydog55, CC BY-SA 4.0. For a small liberal arts college, Randolph-Macon accumulated an unusual number of "firsts." It became the first college south of the Mason-Dixon line to require physical education for graduation. The old gym built in 1887 was the first structure in the South built solely for inst...

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Image: Hungrydog55 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Randolph–Macon College: The Game

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DanTD, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Randolph-Macon vs. Hampden-Sydney football rivalry dates to 1893 and has been called the oldest small-school rivalry in the Southern United States. Both schools are NCAA Division III. The matchup is known simply as "The Game." It has expanded over the years to encompass all s...

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Image: DanTD | CC BY-SA 4.0

Randolph–Macon College: Ashland Today

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DanTD, CC BY-SA 4.0. Randolph-Macon today enrolls more than 1,800 students on a 116-acre campus with over 65 academic, administrative, athletic, and residential buildings. The main north-south CSX railroad line — the spine of the east coast — still runs straight through the campus, with most building...

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Image: DanTD | CC BY-SA 4.0