This group was organized in the late 1920s by Len Bowden, Fess Whatley, and Paul Bascomb.
[1] Bowden went on to direct the Navy's music program at Camp Robert Smalls during World War II.
John Tuggle "Fess" Whatley (1895-1972) was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and has a K-8 school in Birmingham named after him.
The Bama State Collegians have been directed by a number of notable musicians, including Tommy Stewart and Erskine Hawkins.
In 2011, the story of Erskine Hawkins and his start in the Bama State Collegians was the subject of a Florida State University Film School MFA Thesis Film "The Collegians", written and directed by Alabama State University alumn Bryan Lewis.