The college was initially founded as
McMurry College on September 20, 1923. The college was established through the efforts of Methodist minister
James Winfred Hunt and the
Northwest Texas Conference of the
Methodist Church, who initially voted to establish the school in 1920. After working with the city of Abilene to acquire the needed land, the charter of the school was ratified on November 21, 1921. Accreditation from the
Texas Association of Colleges was received in 1926, the same year the school graduated its first class. The college gained university status in 1990, becoming
McMurry University.
Indians mascot controversy McMurry's sports teams originally used
Indians as their mascot. In late August 2005, the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) handed down a decision calling for the eighteen universities with
Native American mascots to change their names or obtain a waiver from their representative tribe for the use of the mascot name. The McMurry Indians were part of this list. The Indians nickname was chosen as a tribute to the University's first president,
J.W. Hunt, who grew up on an Indian reservation in the
Indian Territory. On May 18, 2006, the NCAA rejected McMurry's appeal to keep their nickname. The school chose to appeal the ruling, and indicated their intention to do so by the June 18, 2006, deadline. According to a press release, "the University’s appeal will be based on the arbitrariness of the NCAA’s decision-making process and the inconsistent results and messages that have come from the process." Other schools, such as
Florida State University, made successful appeals by garnering the endorsement of Indian tribes. Although McMurry did not actively seek an endorsement, representatives from the
Kaw,
Kiowa, and
Comanche tribes voiced their approval of McMurry's mascot. In October 2006, McMurry's board of trustees decided that the university would no longer use any names for its athletic teams. Citing the school's 83-year history of honoring Native Americans, the school announced that in spite of no longer using names to designate athletic teams, the school traditions created to honor Native Americans would continue. The school's stadium name was changed from Indian Stadium to
Wilford Moore Stadium as of May 13, 2007.
Wilford Moore was the most-winning coach in McMurry football history. On March 11, 2011, it was announced that McMurry University's athletic teams would be known as the
War Hawks. The new mascot was chosen after a nearly year-long search to find a new mascot to replace the former Indian mascot. The war hawk is meant to represent pride, courage and fierce competition for McMurry's athletic teams. ==Athletics==