Ethelbert Dudley Warfield

Who was Ethelbert Dudley Warfield?

Ethelbert Dudley Warfield, D.D., LL.D. was an American professor of history and college president who served as president of Miami University, Lafayette College and Wilson College. As Miami University's youngest president, he was noted for bringing football to Miami where its first intercollegiate game was played against the University of Cincinnati in 1888. He was the brother of Princeton theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield.

He was born in Lexington, Kentucky to William and Mary Cabell Breckinridge Warfield. He was educated at Princeton University, Wadham College of University of Oxford and the Columbia University Law School. He briefly practiced law in New York and in Lexington, Kentucky before being appointed professor of history and president of Miami University at the age of 27. As Miami University's youngest president, he is remembered for bringing college football to Miami during his term--with its first intercollegiate game being played against the University of Cincinnati in 1888. The Miami-Cincinnati rivalry is the oldest west of the Allegheny mountains.

After three years at Miami, he accepted an appointment as president of Lafayette College where he served from 1891 until 1914. His final appointment was as president of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania where he remained until his death just after his retirement in 1936.