View source for Austin Peay

'''Austin Peay III''' was the governor of [[Tennessee]] from 1923 until his death in 1927.  Born in 1876 in [[Kentucky]], he moved to Tennessee to open a law firm.<ref>http://www.apsu.edu/General/austin-peay.aspx</ref>  He was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1901.  He lost the race for governorship in 1918, but set gubernatorial voting records for margin of victory when he ran again in 1922, after having set forth a plan to complete the state's highway system and build more schools.  The most famous legislation to pass his desk was a 1925 bill that made it illegal to teach [[evolution]] in Tennessee, leading to the [[Scopes Trial]].<ref>http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/people/austin_peay</ref>  He died in 1927 of a brain hemorrhage.  

Austin Peay State University, located in Tennessee, was named so in 1929 as a tribute to the governor.  The school's mascot is "The Governors". (Unfortunately, due to the pronunciation of his surname -- which rhymes with a slang word for urination -- the school has developed a rather vulgar chant said during sports events.)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peay III, Austin}}
[[Category:Tennessee Governors]]
[[Category:Democratic Governors]]
[[Category:1920s]]