On Sept. 1, the Great Midwest Athletic Conference will officially gain active status as an NCAA member conference.
Remember on the first day of school every year when you'd sit and introduce yourself to everyone in your class? Well, that's sort of what we'll do here as Kentucky Wesleyan essentially meets its new classmates.
The 10-school G-MAC brings a much different look than what KWC's Great Lakes Valley Conference counterparts brought to the table for the past 35 years.
The goal is that after reading this you can feel like you know KWC's future opponents just a little bit better.
We'll start first with Alderson-Broaddus College in Philipi, W. Va. Two baptist universities — Alderson Academy and Broaddus College— merged in 1932 to give the school the name it has today. The school is also rich in Civil War history and got part of its name from Rev. William Francis Ferguson Broaddus, a prominent minister during the Civil War.
Many of the G-MAC schools have unique athletic nicknames and logos, but Alderson-Broaddus might have the best — nicknamed the "Battlers" after a Civil War battle called the Battle of Philipi, which took place in 1861. However, that battle is largely considered more of a "skirmish" than a full-on battle. What that says about the Battlers themselves is for you to decide.
They have several logos, but their best one is a blue and yellow profile of a Civil War solidier furrowing his brow at his enemy, all the while sporting one of the best mustaches you'll see in any logo. For the sake of discussion, any further logo critiques will be given on the Battler Meter. Seriously, look this logo up.
Next up is Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio. Originally a Presbyterian university when it was chartered in 1887, Cedarville now affiliates with the Baptist Church. There's not much rich history to speak of here.
The Yellow Jackets, as they're nicknamed in athletics, became a Division II member on July 12, 2012. Cedarville's logo is a pretty standard yellow and blue yellow jacket. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the Alderson-Broaddus Battler, I'd give this logo a five.
Next is Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, the only historically black university in Ohio. It's won 18 athletic national championships, most of which came at the NAIA level.
Athletic teams are nicknamed the Marauders, which is someone who basically raids and robs people. Their logo is a maroon and yellow buccaneer sporting a thick beard and a left eye patch. This is one of the better logos in the G-MAC.
Davis & Elkins College is next. As the school itself writes, "D&E is a small liberal arts college nestled in the mountains in Elkins, W. Va."
The school's athletic teams are known as the Senators. Their logo is just a script, intertwined D&E logo, which is sort of disappointing given the potential of a creative Senators logo. D&E is pretty much the Ben Stein of the G-MAC as far as intrigue goes.
Next is Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W. Va. Perhaps the most unique thing about OVU is
that it actually operates on two separate campuses totalling 267 acres.
OVU's logo really gives the Battler a run for its money. It features a mean-looking cartoon character sporting a red Grizzly Adams-esque beard with a plaid sash draped across his body. His cuffed fists are disproportinately big and we can only assume he's also wearing a kilt, as his lower body is blocked by the letters "OVU."
Salem International is next. From 1888 until 1989, the school aligned with the Seventh Day Advtentist Church until it began a partnership with Teikyo University in Tokyo. Until that partnership ended in 2000, the school was named Salem-Teikyo University. Investors from Singapore bought the school and the name changed to what it is today.
The Tigers, as they're known athletically, use a green "S" — similar to the one in the Syracuse logo — and turned it into a paw print.
Next is Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. It was founded in 1901 as an independent ministerial training school. It uses a standard purple Trojan profile as the logo.
Ursuline College, which resides in Pepper Pike, Ohio, may bring the saddest story both present and past to the G-MAC. The school was hit by a tornado on July 20, and their nickname, the Arrows, references martyrdom. They use a French Fleur-de-lis (New Orleans Saints logo) as the logo, but a member of the school's athletics staff said the term Arrows is a reference to an Ursuline nun who was killed as a martyr. Yikes.
The last school is Georgetown College, a provisional member which will apply for Division II membership in February 2014. Anything you want to know about the Tigers you can likely get from former Georgetown and current KWC basketball coach Happy Osborne.
It might take some time to get used to KWC's new opponents. I'm hoping this was at least a good start.
