By Sarah Clayton

On Wednesday, Feb. 24, the winners of Mr. and Ms. Montevallo were announced via Zoom.  

The event was led by SGA President Thomas Dillard and it started off with Dr. Jefferson Walker, former Gold Side leader.  

Walker is now a communications studies professor and teaches a class on College Night. He is also the author of “College Night: A Centennial Celebration.”  

Walker started off the Zoom call by giving a brief lecture on the history of College Night from its humble beginnings of a class competition in Main dining hall. 

It was not until 1921 that the Gold and Purple Sides were created. For the first three decades, College Night was more of an evening of entertainment with Vaudeville type of shows. 1950 was the year where the competition shifted to competitive musical theatre.  

Walker went on about the history of College Night describing how the tradition has changed over time to what we see today, with sports being added, moving to Palmer Hall, and the introduction of the catch phrase.  

Walker also pointed out something significant about the tradition. 

“College Night was really giving women an opportunity to do things they would not get to do at some other institutions in the country. Because women were not only playing men’s roles on stage, but they were doing a lot of what would have been traditionally considered masculine work, right?  

“They were the ones designing and building set pieces. Women were the ones writing the scripts and directing the plays and doing every single thing related to these College Night productions,” said Walker.  

After Walker’s lecture on a brief history of College Night, Dillard took over.  

Dillard gave a brief history on past winners of Mr. and Ms. Montevallo, and then went on to announce the nominees for Mr. and Ms. Montevallo.  

The nominees for Mr. Montevallo were Nate Blakely, Jonathan Everheart and Lavaun Thompson. The nominees for Ms. Montevallo were Abby Jo Askins, Christine Compton and Peri McCoy.  

Dillard described a few words about the nominees and acknowledged how involved each of them are on campus and around the community of Montevallo.  

With lots of anticipation, the winners were finally announced with Jonathan Everheart announced as Mr. Montevallo and Peri McCoy announced the winner for Ms. Montevallo.  

Even though College Night has changed drastically this semester, it is still important to reflect just how special College Night is on campus.  

“It is important to keep traditions going no matter what is in the way,” said Walker.