Centenary College of Louisiana


 * For other institutions of higher education using the name Centenary College, see Centenary College

Centenary College of Louisiana is an undergraduate, liberal arts college in Shreveport, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is among sixteen members of the Associated Colleges of the South.

History
Centenary College of Louisiana is the oldest chartered liberal arts colleges west of the Mississippi River. The lineage of the college dates back to 1825, when the College of Louisiana opened in Jackson, Louisiana. The school enjoyed early success, but struggled financially until Centenary College of Clinton, Mississippi (founded 1839) agreed to merge with the Jackson campus, creating Centenary College of Louisiana in 1845. The college prospered until the beginning of the American Civil War. Three lines, written in a large bold hand, cover the entire page of the faculty minute-book dated October 7, 1861: "Students have all gone to war--College suspended, and God Help the Right!" During this time, the Jackson campus was used as a Confederate hospital for the garrison of Port Hudson, and was sacked upon arrival of Union troops in 1863. The old campus is presently operated and preserved as a state historic site by the Louisiana Office of State Parks and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Never regaining the footing it had in the 1840s and 1850s, the college moved to Shreveport in 1908 and immediately enjoyed success. Mansfield Female College, the first women's college founded west of the Mississippi (1855), merged with Centenary in 1930. President George Sexton outlined campus growth and prosperity in the 1920s and 1930s, including the architectural design that largely remains today. During that time, Centenary was a football powerhouse, whose fame included wins over LSU, Texas, and Notre Dame.

Centenary's academic reputation remained strong. In 2007, Newsweek named Centenary a "Hottest Liberal Arts School You Never Heard Of" in its "25 Hottest Universities" feature. In 2009, Forbes ranked it 90th of America's Best Colleges.

Campus
Centenary is south of downtown Shreveport in the historic Highland Area. The campus is noted for its distinctive Georgian architecture and well-maintained grounds. In 2010, several buildings were for portions of Gates Academy on the television series The Gates

Major buildings

 * Magale Library is the most visible landmark on campus.
 * Hargrove Memorial Band Shell is a 2,000-seat outdoor theater.
 * Hurley Music Building is home to the Hurley School of Music.
 * Jackson Hall is home to the Frost School of Business.
 * Anderson Choral Building houses a state-of-the-art auditorium and practice facilities
 * Feazel Instrumental Hall house state-of-the-art orchestral music space.
 * Marjorie Lyons Playhouse, named for the wife of Louisiana Republican politician Charlton Lyons, is home to the Department of Theatre.
 * Mickle Hall, constructed in 1949-50, has been renovated with science classrooms and labs.
 * The Samuel Peters Research Center houses the only Jack London museum east of San Francisco, California.
 * The geodesic Gold Dome sports arena is host to numerous events, including basketball, volleyball and gymnastics competitions.
 * Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College offers exhibitions and arts education activities.
 * The Fitness Center contains a competition-size swimming pool, indoor running track, gymnasium, exercise and free-weight equipment areas and racquetball courts as well as rooms for dance, aerobics, and classroom instruction.

Academics
The university offers 22 majors and 9 interdisciplinary minors in the traditional liberal arts, sciences and fine arts, and two graduate programs in education and business administration. Across all disciplines, Centenary stresses close interaction between students and faculty members. Undergraduate research is particularly emphasized.

Student life
, the university enrolled 905 undergraduate and 107 graduate students. Fifty-nine percent of the first-year students came from the state of Louisiana, while 3 percent came from outside the United States. The median composite ACT score of incoming students was 26. Full-time faculty numbered 96, 94 percent of whom held a terminal degree in their field.

Centenary hosts six social fraternities and sororities. For the women there is Chi Omega and Zeta Tau Alpha. For the men there is Theta Chi, Kappa Alpha Order, Kappa Sigma, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and Alpha Phi Alpha, who has a joint charter from Centenary and Louisiana State University in Shreveport. The school hosts chapters of several academic honor organizations, including Sigma Alpha Iota, Omicron Delta Kappa, Alpha Chi, Kappa Pi, and Sigma Tau Delta.

Radio station KSCL 91.3FM broadcasts from the campus, a progressive community radio station dedicated to community events and alternative music, from college rock and jazz to local Cajun music and zydeco.

The Conglomerate, Centenary's independent press, is a weekly publication that circulates 20 issues per academic year. The paper is staffed entirely by students, and is paid for by student fees and advertisement. Originally called The Maroon and White, the paper changed its name to The Conglomerate in 1923.

The Centenary Film Society is a student-led organization under faculty advisory that is dedicated to introducing both independent and foreign films to the student body as well as the surrounding community.

Athletics


Centenary is currently a member of the NCAA Division III's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), having moved from the American Southwest Conference (ASC) after the 2011–12 academic year. Prior to July 2011, the college was a member of The Summit League in NCAA Division I.

The school is well known for its basketball prominence in the late 1970s being the college for NBA great Robert Parish, and golf ability—in the early 1980s PGA Tour golfer Hal Sutton played there. The school sport's nickname is the gentleman; the women's sports' nickname is the lady. Prior to adopting the Gentleman nickname, Centenary's football team was known as the Old Ironsides and had a reputation as a fearsome and powerful team with a penchant for playing rough. To clean up their image, they selected the Gentleman nickname.

U.S. Olympics Women's Gymnastics Coach (Tokyo, 1964) Vannie Edwards coached the Centenary women's gymnastics team from 1964 to 1968 and again from 1977 to 1985. Coach Edwards was also the team manager for the U.S. Olympics Women's Gymnastics teams in 1968 (Mexico City) and 1972 (Munich). He was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1986.

Recently, a student-driven initiative asked for a mascot to complement the Ladies and Gents. The new mascot was announced at halftime of the Men's Basketball game December 6, 2007. The winner was Catahoula and Rick DelaHaya, Director of Marketing, surprised the crowd by bringing out a Catahoula named Skeeter (SKEE-Tur) which the College has rescued from an animal shelter in Houston, Texas. Officially, the school has two mascots in the Gentlemen/Ladies and the Catahoulas, though all sports teams are still known as the Gents and Ladies.

College of Louisiana (Jackson, LA)

 * Jeremiah Chamberlain (1826–1829)
 * Henry H. Gird (1829–1834)
 * James Shannon (1835–1840)
 * William B. Lacey (1841–1845)

Centenary College (Brandon Springs, MS)

 * Thomas C. Thornton (1841–1844)

Centenary College of Louisiana (Jackson, LA)

 * David O. Shattuck (1844–1848)
 * Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1848–1849)
 * Richard H. Rivers (1849–1853)
 * John C. Miller (1855–1866)
 * William H. Watkins (1866–1871)
 * Charles G. Andrews (1871–1882)
 * D. M. Rush (1882–1885)
 * T. A. S. Adams (1885–1888)
 * W. L. C. Hunnicutt (1888–1894)
 * Charles W. Carter (1894–1898)
 * Inman J. Cooper (1898–1902)
 * Henry B. Carre (1902–1903)
 * Charles C. Miller (1903–1906)

Centenary College of Louisiana (Shreveport, LA)

 * William Lander Weber (1907–1910)
 * Felix R. Hill (1910–1913)
 * Robert H. Wynn (1913–1918)
 * W. R. Bourne (1919–1921)
 * George Sexton (1921–1932)
 * Bishop Angie Smith (interim, 1932–1933)
 * Pierce Cline (1933–1945)
 * Joe J. Mickle (1945–1964)
 * Jack Stauffer Wilkes (1964–1969)
 * John Horton Allen (1969–1976)
 * Donald A. Webb (1977–1991)
 * Kenneth L. Schwab (1991–2009)
 * B. David Rowe (2009–present)

Notable alumni

 * Calhoun Allen (1921–1991) - Mayor of Shreveport from 1970 to 1978, utilities commissioner from 1962 to 1970, and city council member in 1991 until his death that year
 * Brady Blade - American drummer, music producer, founded record label Brick Top Recordings LLC, and owner of Blade Studios.
 * Eric John Brock (Class of 1988, 1966-2011) - Shreveport historian
 * Algie D. Brown (Class of 1934, 1910–2004) - Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1948 to 1972
 * Sherri Smith Buffington - Member of the Louisiana State Senate since 2004
 * John William Corrington - poet and author; early television writing pioneer
 * Scott Durbin - Member of the children's music group Imagination Movers
 * George Dement - mayor of Bossier City from 1989 to 2005; attended after World War II but did not graduate; holds honorary doctorate from Centenary
 * D. L. Dykes, Jr. (1917–1997) - pastor of First United Methodist Church in Shreveport from 1955–1984; urged racial harmony in civil rights movement; known for opposition to "Religious Right"
 * Lenny Fant (Class of 1950, 1923-1998) - basketball coach at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, 1957–1979
 * Thomas Wafer Fuller (Class of 1890) - state senator, newspaper publisher, Webster Parish school superintendent
 * William Gabriel Fuller, IV (Class of 1980) (Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) US Army) Finalist - National Security and International Affairs, 2010 Service to America Medal; know as the moving force behind the development of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Ambulances supporting troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
 * John Spencer Hardy (Class of 1938, 1913-2012) - Lieutenant General of the United States Air Force, later member of the Centenary board of directors and the Hall of Fame
 * Lovette Hill - former head baseball coach for the University of Houston
 * Cal Hubbard - former professional football player, member of Baseball Hall of Fame and the Professional Football Hall of Fame
 * Edward Kennon - Shreveport-area developer and former member of the Louisiana Public Service Commission (1973–1984)
 * Clyde Lee - former head football coach for the University of Houston
 * Max T. Malone - former state senator from Caddo and Bossier parishes, businessman
 * Mike Mann - innovator in Lasik surgery.
 * Fred C. McClanahan (1918–2007) - businessman, United States Air Force officer, congressional candidate in 1960
 * Taylor Frost Moore (Class of 1969) - Shreveport businessman; owner of the former Shreveport Captains - now Frisco RoughRiders; coached Centenary baseball team, Centenary athletic director (2003–2006). Brother, Loy Moore, former trustee, manages family real estate, timber, oil and natural gas holdings in Bossier and Claiborne parishes
 * Charlotte Moorman - avant-garde performance artist
 * Taylor W. O'Hearn - former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, studied for bar exam through Centenary
 * W. Darrell Overdyke (Class of 1928, 1907–1973) - historian, faculty member ca. 1929 until his death
 * Robert Parish - National Basketball Association Hall of Fame Center, nicknamed "The Chief"
 * Clarence Cullam Pope - Bishop of Fort Worth, Texas
 * Robert G. Pugh (Class of 1946, 1924–2007) - Shreveport attorney, civic leader, and gubernatorial advisor
 * E.S. Richardson (Class of 1936, 1875–1950) -- former president of Louisiana Tech University
 * Edward White Robertson (1823–1887) -- United States Representative from Louisiana
 * Virginia Shehee (Class of 1943, born 1923) -- first woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate; businesswoman and philanthropist
 * Linus A. Sims - educator who founded Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond
 * Hal Sutton - PGA Tour golfer; captain of the 2004  U.S. Ryder Cup team
 * J. Smith Young (1834–1916) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana

Faculty and staff

 * Bill Joyce - Creator of Rolie Polie Olie cartoon series; noted children's author and illustrator.
 * Earle Labor - Official biographer of novelist Jack London; curator of the Jack London Museum in Shreveport.
 * W. Darrell Overdyke - Louisiana historian; alumnus
 * Walter M. Lowrey - Louisiana historian
 * Arthur C. Morgan - sculptor

Other

 * Rose Van Thyn (1921–2010) - Holocaust survivor; Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture; Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2002; Van Thyn Endowed Professorship