The Beginning: The Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity was founded on March 9th, 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 friendships he and his friends had already formed on the campus of the university.