In an era in which collegiate monuments physical (the University of North Carolina's Silent Sam statue) and aural (the University of Texas's use of "Eyes on Texas") are being scrutinized on a national stage, From Dixie to Rocky Top explains how so much history became embedded in Southern football culture and reflects on how Southern universities reckon with their troubling icons, symbols, and songs.

The project took author Carrie Tipton deep into the archives of the seventeen universities currently or formerly in the Southeastern Conference. It also draws on historic newspapers, magazines, recordings, football programs, scrapbooks, photographs, and sheet music accessible in online databases and print sources. In interpreting the primary source data, the book draws on approaches and secondary literature from sports history, Southern and American history, Southern and American studies, and musicology.

From Dixie to Rocky Top traces and analyzes the history of SEC football fight songs over a turbulent century. The book chronicles iconic Southern fight songs’ origins, dissemination, meanings, and cultural reception, weaving a compelling narrative around a repertory virtually unexplored by scholars.