East Carolina University's Pirates triumphs and tragedies are captured in this collection of striking images.
East Carolina University played its first intercollegiate football game on October 29, 1932, against the Scots of Presbyterian Junior College. In the more than eight decades that have followed, the ECU Pirates have experienced triumph and tragedy while creating a premier game-day experience. From the team's early days playing on farmland through the decade-long quest to join the Southern Conference, ECU's rise is recounted through these pages. Players are featured alongside legendary and colorful coaches in this history of Pirate football.
Arthur Carlson serves as the university archivist and records manager, and Elizabeth Brooke Tolar is the assistant university archivist. Greenville native John Tucker is a professor of Asian history and university historian at East Carolina University. The majority of these images are from the archives of Joyner Library and the Department of Athletics at East Carolina University.