These lectures trace the origin of string theory as a theory of hadronic interactions (predating QCD itself) to the present ideas on how the QCD string may arise in Superstring theory in a suitably deformed background metric. The role of 't Hooft's large N_c limit, Maldacena's String/Gauge duality conjecture and lattice spectral data are emphasized to motivate and hopefully guide further efforts to define a fundamental QCD string.

PACS numbers: 11.25.Tq, 11.15.Pg, 11.15.Ha, 12.39.Mk