The Ravens is the name used for all of the men's intercollegiate athletic teams that play for Anderson University in

Anderson, Indiana Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Indiana, United States. The population was 54,788 at the 2020 census. It is named after Chief William Anderson. The city is the headquarters of the Church of God and its Anderson ...

. The female intercollegiate teams are known as the Lady Ravens. Men's sports offered at Anderson University include football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, soccer, cross country, and track & field. Women's sports offered at Anderson University include basketball, softball, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, soccer, golf, cross country, and track & field.

Conference affiliation

The Ravens compete in athletics in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

and the

Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. Founded as the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Con ...

Varsity sports

Football

In 1970 the Ravens played in the NAIA Division II National Football Championship and lost to Westminster (Pa.), 21–16. The Anderson Ravens football team won the HCAC conference title in 2001 season. Two former AU players currently playing professional football are

Hyman Smith Hyman is the surname of: * Alan Hyman (1910–1999), author and screenwriter * Albert Hyman (1893–1972), co-inventor of the artificial pacemaker * Anthony Hyman (disambiguation), several people * Ben Zion Hyman (1891–1984), Canadian-Jewish ...

and Joel Steele. In 2008, a new all-weather synthetic field turf and outdoor game lights were installed at

Macholtz Stadium Macholtz Stadium is a 4,300-seat multi-purpose stadium in Anderson, Indiana. The facility opened in 1977, is located on the campus of Anderson University, and is named in honor of Dr. James Macholtz who served as coach of the Anderson Universi ...

The Kevin Donley era

Kevin Donley William Kevin Donley (born July 4, 1951) is an American former college football coach. He served as the head football coach at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana from 1978 to 1981, Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky from 1982 to 1 ...

has been one of the most successful coaches in NAIA football. After graduating from Anderson College in 1973, Donley returned to his alma mater in 1976 to serve two seasons as

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

. In 1978, at the age of 26, Donley was named the youngest

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

in the country. Over the next four years, Donley's teams would compile an overall record of 28–9 (.757), winning the conference title in 1980 and 1981. Through 2017 and 71 years of Anderson football history, Donley's overall winning percentage stands as the best among all Anderson football coaches.

1978

(5–4 overall, 4–4 conference)

1979

(7–2 overall, 6–2 conference)

1980

(8–1 overall, 7–1 conference)

1981

(8–2 overall, 8–0 conference)

Baseball

The baseball teams has qualified for postseason tournaments 30 of the last 32 years and 99 percent of the four-year players have graduated. Some notable accomplishments are: * Eight World Series appearances * 19 years in the final Top 20 Coaches Poll * 16 conference championships * 32 players signed professional contracts * NAIA Indiana champions 12 times, 8 of last 9 years in NAIA * 6 NCAA Div. III Regional appearances since 1993 * 3 NCAA Div. III World Series appearances.

Women's basketball

In more recent history, the women's basketball team made their first appearance in the Division III NCAA Tournament in 2000-2001. The Women's Basketball team has a co-conference championship in 2007-2008 when they finished 18-8 (12-4).

Softball

The Softball team has posted a record of 214–195 over the past decade, reaching the NCAA regionals three times. In total, they have had 7 conference MVP's and 71 All-Conference players. The 1999 team was the most successful in school history. They finished with a total of 35 wins, including a 14–0 performance in conference play.

Men's soccer

The Men's Soccer team also became the first NCAA team, regardless of division, to be named Academic All-Americans 12 straight years. The Women's team achieved 11 straight seasons. Major team accomplishments include, two HCAC tournament titles, two HCAC regular season titles, 38 All-Conference players, 28 NSCAA Academic All-American selections, three HCAC Players of the Year and two HCAC Freshmen of the Year.

Cross country teams

The men's cross country team has won 14 conference titles since 1988, having perfect scored twice, 16 most valuable runner awards, and 5 freshmen of the year awards (since 2000). In addition, they have won 11 coach of the year awards. The women's cross country team has also won conference awards since 1993 including, 11 conference titles, 11 most valuable runner awards, 4 freshmen of the year awards (since 2000), and 10 coach of the year awards.

Facilities

Most athletic teams have on-campus facilities for competition, including

for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, and O. C. Lewis Gymnasium for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Team colors

The official

school colors School colors, also known as university colors or college colors, are the colors chosen by a school, academy, college, university or institute as part of its brand identity, used on building signage, web pages, branded apparel, and the uniforms ...

for Anderson University are

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

and

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

is often used as a secondary color and for alternate jerseys.

Mascot

Formerly the Tigers, AU's nickname was changed to the Ravens in 1937. The current mascot is Rodney the Raven.

References

External links

* {{Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference navbox