Wayland Baptist University
Encyclopedia
Wayland Baptist University is private, coeducation
al Baptist
university based in Plainview
, Texas
, U.S.A.
Wayland Baptist has a total of fourteen campuses in four additional Texas cities, five other states, and the country of Kenya. On August 31, 1908, the university was chartered by the state of Texas, under the name Wayland Literary and Technical Institute. The university would have another name change in 1910 as Wayland Baptist College. In 1981, it attained university status and settled with the current name, Wayland Baptist University. It currently has a total enrollment of approximately 8,000 .
10,000 and 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) of land in Plainview if the Staked Plains Baptist Association and the citizens of the city would raise an additional $40,000. In 1910, the school offered its first classes despite the administration building not yet being fully built. A total of 225 students were taking classes in primary education
through junior college levels during the school's first term. After a public school system was well established in Plainview, the elementary grades were discontinued. Wayland Baptist gained membership to the American Association of Junior Colleges in 1926 and would later be approved as a senior college by the Texas Department of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Texas Education Agency for teacher education training.
The school is the oldest institution of higher education in continuous existence on the High Plains of Texas due to the leadership of Dr. George W. McDonald, the fifth president of the school. When a run on the banks during the Great Depression threatened to close the school, the administration and faculty agreed to forgo pay in order to continue the task of educating students, trusting God to supply their needs.
In 1951, a black teacher approached the college asking if she could fulfill continuing education requirements at the college. Dr. James W. "Bill" Marshall, the school's sixth president, led the college to take the historic step to admit black students to the college, making Wayland the first four-year liberal arts college in the former Confederate states
to integrate voluntarily. This action came three years before the Supreme Court's decision to ban school segregation, Brown v. Board of Education
.
The Malouf Abraham Family Arts Center on the Wayland campus was endowed by the family of the late State Representative
Malouf Abraham, Sr.
, and his son, Malouf Abraham, Jr.
, a retired allergist and active art collector from Canadian
, the seat of Hemphill County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle
.
A musical scholarship has been established at Wayland in honor of Sybil Leonard Armes
, a Christian writer and alternate poet laureate
of Texas in 1969, who was the mother of Wayland President Paul Woodson Armes.
In 1979 the Hawaii campus opened as Wayland's first outside of Texas. There are now 12 satellite campuses located throughout the U.S.
In May 2008, entertainer Jimmy Dean
, a Plainview native, announced that he is making the largest ever gift to Wayland.
Ironically, the strong support of Claude Hutcherson created problems for the school. Wayland considered dropping the team because the scholarships threatened their accreditation. In 1961, the Wayland board of trustees voted unanimously to eliminate women's basketball. The school had difficulty funding the academic programs. The accrediting organization, the Southern Association of Colleges, wasn't interested in AAU championships. Interestingly, there were no plans to eliminate the men's scholarships, only the women's scholarships. The local citizens did not accept the decision. Local businessmen, under the leadership of Claude Hutcherson, raised money to privately fund scholarships for a year. The trustees voted to reverse their position.
The team was coached by Harley Redin. Redin served in the Marine Air Corp in WWII, logging 50 combat missions over the South Pacific. After the war, he became the athletic director of Wayland Baptist, and the coach of the men's basketball team. The men's teams were very successful, making the NAIA post-season tournament three separate years.
However, he became the coach of the women's team in 1955, and was even more successful—in 1954 they began a winning streak that would stretch to 131 games, including four consecutive AAU national championships. The winning streak would eclipse a prior winning streak of 102 games, held by Hanes Hosiery, which ended in 1954. For eighteen years under the coaching leadership of Redin, the team would win 431 games against only 66 losses. The team won six national AAU championships, and finished second six other times. Redin would go on to coach the USA Women's Pan American Team
in 1959 and 1971. He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
in 1999.
On April 1, 2010, Wayland Baptist announced its intention to bring back the football program and join the Central States Football League
in 2012. On December 8, 2010, the Pioneers introduced Jeff Lynn, former head coach of New Mexico Military Institute
, as the first head coach in over 70 years. On April 24, 2011, Lynn stepped down from head coach because of family reasons. He would be replaced by former Lubbock Coronado High School coach, Butch Henderson.
The cross country, and track and field program have won a total of 14 national championships. The Programs compete at notable track meets and Cross country such as the Cowboy Jamboree, Texas relays, Drake relays, and the Micheal Johnson Classic.
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
al Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
university based in Plainview
Plainview, Texas
Plainview is a city in and the county seat of Hale County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,336 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Plainview is located at ....
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, U.S.A.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Wayland Baptist has a total of fourteen campuses in four additional Texas cities, five other states, and the country of Kenya. On August 31, 1908, the university was chartered by the state of Texas, under the name Wayland Literary and Technical Institute. The university would have another name change in 1910 as Wayland Baptist College. In 1981, it attained university status and settled with the current name, Wayland Baptist University. It currently has a total enrollment of approximately 8,000 .
History
In 1906, the Staked Plains Baptist Association purposed the creation of a school. Dr. and Mrs. James Henry Wayland offered $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
10,000 and 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) of land in Plainview if the Staked Plains Baptist Association and the citizens of the city would raise an additional $40,000. In 1910, the school offered its first classes despite the administration building not yet being fully built. A total of 225 students were taking classes in primary education
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
through junior college levels during the school's first term. After a public school system was well established in Plainview, the elementary grades were discontinued. Wayland Baptist gained membership to the American Association of Junior Colleges in 1926 and would later be approved as a senior college by the Texas Department of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is one of the six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation...
. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Texas Education Agency for teacher education training.
The school is the oldest institution of higher education in continuous existence on the High Plains of Texas due to the leadership of Dr. George W. McDonald, the fifth president of the school. When a run on the banks during the Great Depression threatened to close the school, the administration and faculty agreed to forgo pay in order to continue the task of educating students, trusting God to supply their needs.
In 1951, a black teacher approached the college asking if she could fulfill continuing education requirements at the college. Dr. James W. "Bill" Marshall, the school's sixth president, led the college to take the historic step to admit black students to the college, making Wayland the first four-year liberal arts college in the former Confederate states
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
to integrate voluntarily. This action came three years before the Supreme Court's decision to ban school segregation, Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
.
The Malouf Abraham Family Arts Center on the Wayland campus was endowed by the family of the late State Representative
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...
Malouf Abraham, Sr.
Malouf Abraham, Sr.
Malouf Abraham, Sr. was a self-made Texas multi-millionaire in the oil and natural gas business and a political and civic leader from Canadian, the seat of Hemphill County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle. He made his fortune in part by leasing mineral rights throughout the eastern Panhandle...
, and his son, Malouf Abraham, Jr.
Malouf Abraham, Jr.
Malouf Abraham, Jr. , is a retired physician and active art collector from Canadian, a community in the Texas Panhandle and the seat of Hemphill County...
, a retired allergist and active art collector from Canadian
Canadian, Texas
Canadian is the county seat of Hemphill County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,233 at the 2000 census. It is named for the Canadian River, a tributary of the nearby Arkansas River. Canadian is sometimes called "the oasis of the Texas Panhandle."-History:The trails along the river are...
, the seat of Hemphill County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east...
.
A musical scholarship has been established at Wayland in honor of Sybil Leonard Armes
Sybil Leonard Armes
Sybil Leonard Armes was a prominent Baptist author and musician, who served as alternate poet laureate for the U.S. state of Texas in 1969...
, a Christian writer and alternate poet laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
of Texas in 1969, who was the mother of Wayland President Paul Woodson Armes.
In 1979 the Hawaii campus opened as Wayland's first outside of Texas. There are now 12 satellite campuses located throughout the U.S.
In May 2008, entertainer Jimmy Dean
Jimmy Dean
Jimmy Ray Dean was an American country music singer, television host, actor and businessman. Although he may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand, he became a national television personality starting in 1957, rising to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit "Big Bad...
, a Plainview native, announced that he is making the largest ever gift to Wayland.
Athletics
Wayland's women's basketball program has the distinction of being the only women's team to win 1,300 games. The mascot for the women's team is the Flying Queens. The original team name was the Wayland Lassies, but in 1948, a local company, Harvest Queen Mill provided uniforms for the team, so they became the Harvest Queens. Before the 1950 season began, the team had a chance to play a game in Mexico city. A Wayland grad, Claude Hutcherson, was persuaded to fly the team to Mexico. Hutcherson became enamored with the team, and became a major sponsor, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the team. When Hutcherson Air Service became a full sponsor of the team, they began calling the team the Hutcherson Flying Queens. Hutcherson provided three sets of uniforms, plus traveling attire, and flew the team about nine thousand miles a year to games. To this day, Hutcherson Air Service continues to provide travel for the women's road games.Ironically, the strong support of Claude Hutcherson created problems for the school. Wayland considered dropping the team because the scholarships threatened their accreditation. In 1961, the Wayland board of trustees voted unanimously to eliminate women's basketball. The school had difficulty funding the academic programs. The accrediting organization, the Southern Association of Colleges, wasn't interested in AAU championships. Interestingly, there were no plans to eliminate the men's scholarships, only the women's scholarships. The local citizens did not accept the decision. Local businessmen, under the leadership of Claude Hutcherson, raised money to privately fund scholarships for a year. The trustees voted to reverse their position.
The team was coached by Harley Redin. Redin served in the Marine Air Corp in WWII, logging 50 combat missions over the South Pacific. After the war, he became the athletic director of Wayland Baptist, and the coach of the men's basketball team. The men's teams were very successful, making the NAIA post-season tournament three separate years.
However, he became the coach of the women's team in 1955, and was even more successful—in 1954 they began a winning streak that would stretch to 131 games, including four consecutive AAU national championships. The winning streak would eclipse a prior winning streak of 102 games, held by Hanes Hosiery, which ended in 1954. For eighteen years under the coaching leadership of Redin, the team would win 431 games against only 66 losses. The team won six national AAU championships, and finished second six other times. Redin would go on to coach the USA Women's Pan American Team
USA Women's Pan American Team
The Pan American Team is one of the teams under the auspices of the USA Basketball organization. The Pan American Games are held every four years in the year before the Olympics. The first Pan American Games were held in 1951, but those games were men only. The Second Pan American games in 1955...
in 1959 and 1971. He was inducted into the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame honors men and women who have contributed to the sport of women's basketball. The Hall of Fame opened in 1999 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA...
in 1999.
On April 1, 2010, Wayland Baptist announced its intention to bring back the football program and join the Central States Football League
Central States Football League
The Central States Football League is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA. Member institutions are located in Oklahoma and Texas and compete only in football...
in 2012. On December 8, 2010, the Pioneers introduced Jeff Lynn, former head coach of New Mexico Military Institute
New Mexico Military Institute
New Mexico Military Institute is a state-supported educational institution. NMMI is located in Roswell, New Mexico, United States. It is sometimes referred to as the West Point of the West and it is the only state-supported military college located in the western United States. NMMI includes a...
, as the first head coach in over 70 years. On April 24, 2011, Lynn stepped down from head coach because of family reasons. He would be replaced by former Lubbock Coronado High School coach, Butch Henderson.
The cross country, and track and field program have won a total of 14 national championships. The Programs compete at notable track meets and Cross country such as the Cowboy Jamboree, Texas relays, Drake relays, and the Micheal Johnson Classic.
Notable alumni
- Matt BrownMatt Brown (track and field athlete)Matthew S. Brown, known as Matt P.F. Brown , is a football and track and field coach at Idalou High School in Idalou in Lubbock County, Texas, who is a gold and bronze winner in the Parapan American Games...
, a Wayland alumnus, is a footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and track and field coachCoach (sport)In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...
at Idalou High School, who is a goldGoldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and bronzeBronzeBronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
winner in the Parapan American GamesParapan American GamesThe Parapan American Games is a multi-sport event held every four years after every Pan American Games for athletes with physical disabilities. The first Games was held in 1999 in Mexico City, Mexico...
. He lost his left leg, amputated above the knee, as a result of an industrial accident in December 2005.
- Marsha SharpMarsha SharpMarsha Sharp is the former head coach of Texas Tech University's women's basketball team, the Lady Raiders. She retired after twenty-three years at the conclusion of the 2005/06 season....
, former head coach of the Texas Tech Lady Raiders basketball teamTexas Tech Lady Raiders basketballThe Texas Tech Lady Raiders basketball team represents Texas Tech University and competes in the Big 12 Conference of NCAA Division I. The team is coached by Kristy Curry who is in her fourth season at the university.-History:...
, graduated in 1974 from Wayland.
- [ [Devon Morris] ], Former track and field athlete for Wayland Baptist University. Ran for Jamaica in the 1988 olympics. Also won the IAAF indoor world championship with a 400 time of 45.49
See also
- Southern Baptist ConventionSouthern Baptist ConventionThe Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
- Baptist General Convention of TexasBaptist General Convention of TexasThe Baptist General Convention of Texas is the oldest surviving Baptist convention in the state of Texas. The churches cooperating with the Baptist General Convention of Texas partner nationally and internationally with both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,...
- List of state and other conventions associated with the Southern Baptist Convention
- List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people