James Madison University

If you drive down I-81 toward southern Virginia (or up I-81 toward northern Virginia) you will go through the lovely town of Harrisonburg, Virginia (population 49,973). If you pay attention as you go through town, you will see James Madison University -- a school with over 17,000 undergraduates, making it one of the largest universities in the Old Dominion.

JMU, as it is known to the people who talk about it, began life in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg. At first, it was basically a technical or junior college. In 1916, however, it was authorized to award bachelor's degrees. By this time it had been renamed the State Normal School for Women at Harrisonburg.

The term Normal School is confusing now, and was probably confusing then. (According to Wikipedia, it derived from the French ecole normale, which referred to a school that established teaching standards or "norms.") Anyway, in 1924 was re-named the State Teachers College at Harrisonburg. It kept that name until 1938, when it was named Madison College after James Madison, whose estate was in Orange, Virginia -- about 52 miles away from Harrisonburg.

After that the school continued to grow. In 1946, men were first enrolled as regular day students. In 1954, the school was authorized to grant master's degrees. In 1966, the school became fully co-educational. In 1976, it was renamed James Madison University. And in 2009, it was granted a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. These days, it is one of the most highly-regarded regional universities in the country, and is filled with students from the crowded (and education-obsessed) suburbs of Northern Virginia. Virginia has kept UVA and William and Mary at roughly the same size even as the state's population has soared, and JMU has greatly benefited from the overflow.

JMU's sports teams are known as the Dukes -- after Samuel Page Duke, who was the president of the school from 1919 to 1949. The Dukes started playing Division III football in 1972, but in 1980 they shifted to Division I-AA. They have an all-time record of 250-192-4, and they won the I-AA national championship in 2004, and they stunned Virginia Tech 21-16 in 2010. Their current coach, Mickey Matthews, has been there since 1999 and has an all-time record of 98-61. This season the Dukes are 2-0 with home wins over St. Francis (Pa.) (55-7) and Alcorn State (42-3). They are currently number 4 in the country in Division I-AA (I know that division has been renamed but I refuse to use the new name).

This will be JMU's first chance to play for the UCFC.