[3] McCall attended Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, from which he graduated summa cum laude as valedictorian in 1935.
[4] McCall's first full-time pastorate, during the early years of World War II, was at Broadway Baptist Church, a prominent congregation in downtown Louisville.
[citation needed] During his tenure the SBC became the largest Protestant faith group in the United States.
Soon after becoming president, McCall integrated the seminary's classrooms in defiance of Kentucky's segregationist state law.
He had long been active in the Alliance, beginning with his attendance at the first BWA-sponsored Baptist World Youth Conference, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, when he was 16 years old.
[19] At Southern Seminary in August 2019, Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. announced the establishment of the Duke McCall Chair of Pastoral Leadership.