 | |
| 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. Grossmann was sent by Pastor Wilhelm Löhe to establish a pastor training school for German immigrants. The location of the college moved many times between Illinois and Iowa until permanently settling in Waverly in 1935. Also in 1935, St. Paul Luther College of the Phalen Park neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota merged into 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 in the castle several times. Waverly and Eisenach are sister towns, and they 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 of Wartburg traditions. 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 following day. [2] [3]
Old Main, the oldest building on the campus, was constructed 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 Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and Wartburg College has produced colorful moments over several years. The origins of the rivalry are vague. Stories of pranks date back to the 1940s. The rivalry has, for the most part, been characterized by fun and good sportsmanship. The rivalry rose to new heights in October 1996, when two clever 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 newspaper in Iowa, got national mention on the Fox network, and made Rolling Stone magazine's list of the most memorable college pranks of 1996–1997. 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 judges stand, the float quickly changed colors from blue and white to orange and black. The float continued all the way through town and onto Luther's campus, with numerous Wartburg students joining the procession from the crowd as the parade passed them. [5]
In 2022, Rebecca Ehretsman became its 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]
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 Virginia Cavaliers, also known as Wahoos or Hoos, are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level, in the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1953. Known simply as Virginia or UVA in sports media, the athletics program has twice won the Capital One Cup for men's sports after leading the nation in overall athletic excellence in those years. The Cavaliers have regularly placed among the nation's Top 5 athletics programs.
The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, located in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's NCAA Division I sports teams and is marketed as "Chicago's Big Ten Team". The mascot is Willie the Wildcat.
The Manhattan Jaspers are composed of 19 teams representing Manhattan College 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 Canisius University Golden Griffins are composed of 16 teams representing Canisius University in intercollegiate athletics. These teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, track, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming and diving. Men's sports include baseball, ice hockey, and golf. Women's sports include volleyball, soccer, and softball. The Golden Griffins compete in the NCAA Division I and are members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) for most sports, excluding men's ice hockey which competes in Atlantic Hockey.
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 1946 Iowa Conference football season was the season of college football played by the 13 member schools of the Iowa Conference as part of the 1946 college football season. The Central Dutch and Upper Iowa Peacocks were co-champions of the conference, each compiling perfect 6–0 records against conference opponents. None of the Iowa Conference teams was ranked in the Associated Press poll or played in a bowl game.
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 the U.S. state of 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.
Eric Keller is a collegiate wrestling coach, currently at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Keller was promoted to co-head coach in 2010 with then head coach Jim Miller, and became the sole head coach after Miller stepped down following the 2012–2013 season.
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.
The Wartburg Knights women's volleyball team represents Wartburg College and competes in the American Rivers Conference of NCAA Division III. The team is coached by co-head coaches Jen Walker in her 25th year and Doug Frazell in his 10th. The Knights play their home matches in Levick Arena along with wrestling and the men's and women's basketball 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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