Son of 1827 UT-graduate Ebenezer Alexander, professor Eben Alexander attended the university’s Preparatory Department and then entered Yale University. He returned home and planned to practice law, but instead accepted an appointment as instructor in ancient languages at UT in 1873. He became a beloved professor and faculty leader.
In 1883 he resigned from the faculty in protest against the board of trustees’ overturning of the faculty’s decision to expel the nephew of President Humes. Alexander’s resignation was accepted, but he was reelected to the faculty by the board after President Humes was dismissed the same year. In 1886, having served as chairman of the faculty in 1885–86 and having been frequently mentioned as a possible president of UT, he resigned to accept a position at the University of North Carolina. He subsequently became dean of the University of North Carolina, and while on leave from that institution, served for four years (1893–97) as minister to Greece, Romania, and Serbia.
Because he was the Minister to Greece, the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin contacted him soliciting the United States’ participation in the 1896 Olympics—in fact, Harper’s magazine reported in 1895 that he was the first person to donate to the Olympic project. Alexander worked with Princeton history professor William Sloane, who had met de Coubertin, to enlist participation by four members of the Princeton track team and five track and field athletes from the Boston Athletic Association. Harvard student, James Connolly, who had been denied leave from school to participate, quit college and became the first US Olympic champion of the modern games (hop, step, and jump—now called the triple jump). A swimmer and two pistol shooters rounded out the 13-man Olympic team representing the United States. The United States was one of 13 nations that participated in the games.
Alexander served as UT commencement speaker in 1898. A character in Stephen Crane’s novel Active Service is modeled after Alexander, and the book is dedicated to him.