Centenary College of Louisiana - Athletics

Athletics

See also: Centenary Gentlemen basketball, :Category:Centenary Gentlemen and Ladies, and List of college sports teams in the United States with different mascot names for men's and women's teams

Centenary is currently a member of the NCAA Division III's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), having moved from the American Southwest Conference (ASC) after the 2011–12 academic year. Prior to July 2011, the college was a member of The Summit League in NCAA Division I.

The school is well known for its basketball prominence in the late 1970s being the college for NBA great Robert Parish, and golf ability—in the early 1980s PGA Tour golfer Hal Sutton played there. The school sport's nickname is the gentleman; the women's sports' nickname is the lady. Prior to adopting the Gentleman nickname, Centenary's football team was known as the Old Ironsides and had a reputation as a fearsome and powerful team with a penchant for playing rough. To clean up their image, they selected the Gentleman nickname.

U.S. Olympics Women's Gymnastics Coach (Tokyo, 1964) Vannie Edwards coached the Centenary women's gymnastics team from 1964 to 1968 and again from 1977 to 1985. Coach Edwards was also the team manager for the U.S. Olympics Women's Gymnastics teams in 1968 (Mexico City) and 1972 (Munich). He was inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1986.

Recently, a student-driven initiative asked for a mascot to complement the Ladies and Gents. The new mascot was announced at halftime of the Men's Basketball game December 6, 2007. The winner was Catahoula and Rick DelaHaya, Director of Marketing, surprised the crowd by bringing out a Catahoula named Skeeter (SKEE-Tur) which the College has rescued from an animal shelter in Houston, Texas. Officially, the school has two mascots in the Gentlemen/Ladies and the Catahoulas, though all sports teams are still known as the Gents and Ladies.