page_title: Virginia Military Institute
section_title: Football
hierarchical_section_title: Virginia Military Institute / Athletics / Football
caption_attribution_description: English: Alumni Memorial Field on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.
context_page_description: Virginia Military Institute is a public military college in Lexington, Virginia. It was founded in 1839 and is the first public Senior Military College in the United States. In keeping with its founding principles and unlike any other Senior Military College in the United States, VMI enrolls cadets only and awards baccalaureate degrees exclusively. VMI offers its students, all of whom are cadets, strict military discipline combined with a physically and academically demanding environment. The Institute grants degrees in 14 disciplines in engineering, science, and the liberal arts, and all VMI students are required to participate in ROTC.
  While VMI has been called "The West Point of the South", it differs from the federal military service academies. As of 2019, VMI had a total enrollment of 1,722 cadets. All cadets must participate in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps of the United States Armed Forces programs, but are afforded the flexibility of pursuing civilian endeavors or accepting an officer's commission in any of the active or reserve components of any of the U.S. military branches upon graduation, excluding the United States Coast Guard.
context_section_description: VMI played its first football game in 1871. The one-game season was a 4–2 loss to Washington and Lee University. There are no records of a coach or any players for that game. VMI waited another twenty years, until 1891, when head coach Walter Taylor would coach the next football team. The current head football coach at VMI, Scott Wachenheim, was named the 31st head coach on 14 December 2014. The Keydets play their home games out of Alumni Memorial Field at Foster Stadium, built in 1962. VMI's last winning football season was in 1981.
caption: Alumni Memorial Field at Foster Stadium
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FX35", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:09 18:52:43", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "508", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1090", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11497", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:31 09:51:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:31 09:51:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "22/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3648", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2276", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "25", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}