Howard Payne University is a four-to-five-year (depending on degree plan), private university located in Brownwood, Texas. The university is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Currently the university has almost 1,200 full-time students. Howard Payne is known for its Christian Studies program, the Guy D. Newman Honors Academy, and its Music department.
HPU founders named the college after Edward Howard Payne, a Missouri resident. Payne, brother-in-law to John David Robnett, the college's founder, gave the lead monetary gift to start the university.
HPU offers more than 50 majors, minors and pre-professional programs within six schools: Science and Math, Business, Christian Studies, Education, Music and Fine Arts, and Humanities.
With a student to professor ratio of 11:1 and peer tutoring through the collegium on campus, student success is a priority at HPU.
Athletic programs include NCAA Division III football, baseball, softball, women's volleyball, men and women's soccer, basketball and tennis. The HPU mascot is a yellow jacket named "Buzzsaw."
The university also has extension centers located in New Braunfels, Texas and in El Paso, Texas.
Founding and history
Baptist leaders in Brown County saw a need for a Baptist institution of higher education. In 1889, Howard Payne College opened for its first semester. Two years later, HPU became sister schools with Baptist school Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. Late nineteenth-century travelers found travel methods unreliable at best and placed themselves at risk of attack from American Indians of the Comanche tribe native to the area. Texas recorded its last Indian attack in the early twentieth century near Santa Anna, Texas.
Daniel Baker College, a Presbyterian institution, began operation near the time local Baptists founded Howard Payne. Ironically, DBC backers began construction on a piece of land directly behind where Howard Payne's Old Main Hall would stand and eventually moved the foundation to the NE corner of Austin and Coggin Avenues. DBC and Howard Payne merged in 1953 after DBC fell into financial difficulties, and after extensive renovation, DBC's main building became the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom building in 1969.
After initial financial difficulties related to the 1890s financial panic, Howard Payne joined the system of colleges and universities funded by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The BGCT operated Howard Payne as a junior college from 1900 until 1914, when it regained four-year status.
Dr. Thomas Taylor took office as university president in 1929 shortly before the stock market crash began the Great Depression. Taylor kept Howard Payne open when other rural, private colleges failed by challenging faculty members to work without pay and house students in their homes without compensation. At the end of the faculty prayer meeting in which Taylor issued the challenge, most faculty members tore up their contracts and agreed to work without pay until the college began operating in the black.
Taylor's successor, Guy D. Newman, took office in 1955 and before retiring from the post in 1973, created the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom and built most of the campus buildings still in use today.
In 1974, the BGCT recognized Howard Payne's broad academic scope and approved a name change in the school's charter, from "Howard Payne College" to "Howard Payne University."
In 1984, Old Main Hall, the building symbolic of HPU, burned to the ground during finals week. Although the Brownwood Fire Department headquarters sit across the street from the HPU campus, a prank caller phoned in a false alarm in Bangs, a small town 8 miles from the Brownwood city limits, to which the department responded. Before the crews could return to Brownwood, fire completely consumed the 95-year-old building.
Presidents
- Dr. A. J. Emerson 1890 -1893
- Dr. John D. Robnett 1893- 1896
- Dr. James H. Grove 1896- 1908
- Dr. John S. Humphreys (Acting President) 1908-1910
- Dr. Robert H. Hamilton 1910-1911
- Dr. John S. Humphreys 1911-1913
- Dr. James M. Carroll 1913-1914
- Dr. Anderson E. Baten (Vice President & Acting President) 1915-1917
- Dr. Judson A. Tolman 1917-1919
- Dr. L. J. Mims 1919-1922
- Dr. William R. Hornburg (Vice President & Acting President) 1922-1923
- Dr. Edgar Godbold 1923-1929
- Dr. Thomas H. Taylor 1929-1955
- Dr. Guy D. Newman 1955-1973
- Dr. Roger Brooks 1973-1979
- Dr. Charles A. Stewart (Chief Executive officer) 1979-1980
- Dr. Ralph A. Phelps, Jr. 1980-1985
- Dr. Don Newbury 1985-1997
- Dr. Rick Gregory 1997-2002
- Dr. Russell H. Dilday (Interim President) 2002- 2003
- Dr. Lanny Hall 2003-2009
- Dr. William Ellis 2009â€"Present
Athletics
The school supports an active athletic program for both men's and women's competition in the NCAA Division III. The school is currently a member of the American Southwest Conference.
National Championship teams
Howard Payne University teams achieved national championship status in 1957 and 1964 in NAIA Cross Country, and in 2008 with NCAA Division III Women's Basketball.
Football
Football began at Howard Payne in 1903. Gwinn Henry was named the first head coach in 1912 and coached for two seasons.
Campus life
Student organizations
Student elected organizations
- Student Government Association
Greek organizations
- Alpha Delta Kappa
- Alpha Psi Omega
- Chi Alpha Omega sorority
- Delta Chi Rho
- Iota Chi Alpha
- Kappa Kappa Psi (National Honorary Band Fraternity)
- Sigma Theta Phi
- Tau Beta Sigma (National Honorary Band Sorority)
- Zeta Chi
Service Organizations
- International Student Association
- Student Activity Council
- Student Foundation
Honorary organizations
- Gamma Beta Phi
- Sigma Beta Delta
- Beta Beta Beta
Departmental organizations
- Beta Beta Beta
- Pi Gamma Mu
- SIFE
- Social Work Club
- Student Speaker Bureau
- Moot Court
- Model UN
- Athletic Organizations
- Cheerleaders
- HPU Yellow Jacket Band
- Student Foundations
- Jacket Ambassadors
Religious organizations
- Baptist Student Ministry
- Fellowship of Christian Athletes
- La Hora Bautista
- Ministerial Alliance
- Athletes in Action
Notable alumni
- Coffey Anderson, singer.
- Cynthia Clawson, who is a multiple Dove Award and Grammy Award winning contemporary Christian music artist.
- Keith Crawford, NFL player.
- Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention (2014-2016).
- Ken Gray, NFL Pro Bowl player.
- Slim Harriss, Major League Baseball player.
- Ray Hildebrand, half of the duo of Paul & Paula. Jill Jackson (Paula) also attended Howard Payne but did not graduate.
- Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian.
- Ray Jacobs, four-time NFL All-Star.
- Jim Reese, mayor of Odessa from 1968 to 1974.
- Ken Sanders, NFL player.
- J. D. Sheffield, Republican state representative from Coryell County since 2013; a physician in Gatesville, Texas.
- Blackie Sherrod (1941), The Dallas Morning News sportswriter.
- Joe Simpson, American music manager and reality television producer, and the father of Ashlee and Jessica Simpson.
- George E. "Buddy" West, Republican state representative from Odessa, 1993â€"2008.
- Bob Young, NFL All-Pro player.
References
External links
- Official website
- Howard Payne Athletics website
