The Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity was founded March 9^th, 1856, at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Its founders were eight young men, five of them seniors at the university; the other three were juniors. The leader of the eight was Noble Leslie DeVotie, a young Alabamian of splendid promise. The original idea to found a new Greek-letter fraternity was clearly DeVotie’s. His motive was simple: to perpetuate through the organization the warm friendship he and his friends had already formed on the campus of the university.