 | |
| Motto | Experience more. |
|---|---|
| Type | Private liberal arts college |
| Established | 1852 |
Religious affiliation | Evangelical Lutheran Church in America |
| Endowment | $94 million (2023) |
| President | Rebecca Ehretsman |
Academic staff | 83 full-time and 60 part-time (fall 2022) [1] |
| Students | 1,563 fall 2022 [1] |
| Location | , United States |
| Campus | Rural, 118 acres (48 ha) |
| Colors | Orange and black |
| Nickname | Knights |
| Website | www |
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Wartburg College is a private Lutheran liberal arts college in Waverly, Iowa.
Wartburg College was founded in 1852 in Saginaw, Michigan, by Georg M. Grossmann, a native of Neuendettelsau, Bavaria. Pastor Wilhelm Löhe sent Grossmann to establish a pastor training school for German immigrants. The college moved many times between Illinois and Iowa before settling in Waverly in 1935. Also in 1935, St. Paul Luther College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, merged with Wartburg College.
The college is named after Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany, where Martin Luther was protected during the stormy days of the Reformation. Student and alumni groups often travel to the castle, and the Wartburg Choir has performed there several times. Waverly and Eisenach are sister towns and often swap foreign exchange students. The college is proud of its German heritage and celebrates an annual student-declared one-day holiday, Outfly, a deliberately mistaken translation of the German noun Ausflug. Outfly is the most enduring Wartburg tradition. The first mention of Ausflug comes from Mendota, Illinois, in 1883, when students went on a Friday-Saturday excursion to nearby Starved Rock, now a state park. Faculty minutes for October 5, 1892, note that Ausflug was scheduled for the next day. [2] [3]
Old Main, the oldest building on campus, was built in 1880 for the Wartburg Teachers Seminary. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 under the name Wartburg Teachers' Seminary. [4]
The longstanding rivalry between Wartburg and Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, has produced some colorful moments. The rivalry's origins are unclear. Stories of pranks date to the 1940s. For the most part, the rivalry has been characterized by fun and good sportsmanship. It rose to new heights in October 1996, when two Wartburg cross-country runners rented a light plane, flew to Decorah, and dropped leaflets on the Luther campus. The incident was reported in every major Iowa newspaper, got national mention on Fox, and made Rolling Stone magazine's list of the most memorable college pranks of 1996–97. The creativity in the rivalry continued when student staff members of the college radio station, KWAR, secretly entered a float in the Luther College Homecoming Parade. The staff members decorated the float as an environmental club, the "Organization of Nature Enthusiasts", from Luther College. In front of the judges' stand the float quickly changed color from blue and white to orange and black. It continued all the way through town and onto Luther's campus, with numerous Wartburg students joining the procession from the crowd. [5]
In 2022, Rebecca Ehretsman became Wartburg's first female president. [6]
Wartburg College has moved many times throughout its history: [8]
Wartburg College teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Knights are a member of the American Rivers Conference (ARC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, track & field, and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, volleyball, wrestling, and lacrosse. The women's lacrosse team competes in the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference (MWLC). In the spring of 2012, Wartburg's wrestling and women's track and field teams led Wartburg to become the only school in NCAA history to win two national team championships on the same day. Wartburg has had an individual or team national champion for 28 straight years including Wartburg Knights wrestling winning the 2022 NCAA DIII Wrestling Tournament. [9] The men's wrestling team has a NCAA DIII leading 15 NCAA national titles. Wartburg's softball team appeared in two Women's College World Series in 1971 and 2003, [10] while the baseball team has also played in two College World Series, coming in 2000 and 2005. [11]
The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States. UNI offers more than 90 majors across five colleges. The fall 2023 total enrollment was 9,021 students.
Waverly is a city in Bremer County, Iowa, United States. The population was 10,394 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Bremer County and is part of the Waterloo–Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Waldorf University is a private for-profit university in Forest City, Iowa. It was founded in 1903 and associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its predecessors. In 2010, it was sold to Columbia Southern University and became a for-profit institution; twelve years later, on January 1, 2022, ownership was transferred to the Waldorf Lutheran College Foundation.
The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the Tar Heel State. The campus at Chapel Hill is referred to as the University of North Carolina for the purposes of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Since the school fostered the oldest collegiate team in the Carolinas, the school took on the nickname Carolina, especially in athletics. The Tar Heels are also referred to as UNC or The Heels.
Inspector Georg Martin Grossman was a German-American Lutheran pastor, academic, missionary, and church leader who founded the Iowa Synod, Wartburg College, and Wartburg Theological Seminary.
The Manhattan Jaspers are composed of 19 teams representing Manhattan University in intercollegiate athletics. The Jaspers compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The Grand View Vikings are the athletic teams that represent Grand View University, located in Des Moines, Iowa, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) since the 2015–16 academic year. The Vikings previously competed in the defunct Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC) from 1989–90 to 2014–15.
LeRoy Gardner III was an American amateur wrestler.
The Sacred Heart Pioneers are the 32 sports teams representing Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut in intercollegiate athletics. The Pioneers compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Atlantic Hockey, Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, and New England Women's Hockey Alliance.
Rick Willis is an American college administrator and former football, baseball, and softball coach. He was the athletic director at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, from 2005 to 2021, before transitioning to vice president for student recruitment. Willis served two stints as the head football coach at Wartburg, from 1997 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2021, compiled a record of 185–46. He was succeeded in 2021 by his former player and defensive coordinator Chris Winter. He was the head baseball coach at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio from 1991 to 1996, amassing a record of 150–85. Willis also coached the softball team at Wartburg for one season, in 2003, tallying a mark of 38–10 and reaching the Division III Women's College World Series.
The Wartburg Knights are the athletic teams that represent Wartburg College, located in Waverly, Iowa. The Knights have varsity teams in 27 sports, 13 for men and 14 for women. The teams participate in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the American Rivers Conference. Currently, the school's athletic director is John Cochrane.
The Citadel Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent The Citadel. All sports participate in the NCAA Division I except football, which competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Since 1936, varsity sports have competed in the Southern Conference. The Citadel fields teams in sixteen sports, nine for men and seven for women.
The Wartburg Knights men's basketball team represents the Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, United States. The team is a member of the American Rivers Conference as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The team plays its regular season games in Levick Arena, along with women's basketball, wrestling, and volleyball teams.
Robert "Bob" Amsberry is an American college basketball coach. He is the current head women's basketball coach at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.
Chris Winter is an American college football coach. He was named the head football coach in 2021 at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, after serving as an assistant since 2004, under former head football coach Rick Willis. In just his second year at the helm of the Wartburg Knights, he led them to a program record 13 wins and to the first NCAA Division III Semifinal appearance in school history.
The Wartburg Knights baseball program represents Wartburg College in college baseball. The program started in 1958. The team competes in the NCAA Division III and a member of the American Rivers Conference (ARC). The team plays its home games at Harms Stadium at Hertel field in Waverly, Iowa.
The Wartburg Knights football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Wartburg College located in Waverly, Iowa. The team competes in the NCAA Division III and a member of the American Rivers Conference (ARC). Wartburg's first football team was fielded in 1929 with varsity play starting in 1935. The team plays its home games at Walston-Hoover stadium in Waverly, Iowa.
The Wartburg Knights women's basketball team represents the Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, United States. The team is a member of the American Rivers Conference as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The team plays its regular season games in Levick Arena, along with men's basketball, wrestling, and volleyball teams.
Casey Klunder is an American baseball coach. He is the current head baseball coach at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, a position he has held since the May of 2023. Klunder played college baseball at Waldorf College—now known as Waldorf University—in Forest City, Iowa.
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