Drury University

Drury University, formerly Drury College and originally Springfield College, is a private university in Springfield, Missouri. The university's mission statement describes itself as "church-related". It enrolls about 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students in six master's programs and 1,279 students in the College of Continuing Professional Studies. In 2013, the Drury Panthers men's basketball team won the NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Championship. The Drury men's and women's Panthers have accumulated 22 NCAA Division II National Championships between them, in addition to numerous NAIA titles before moving to the NCAA. History Drury was founded as Springfield College in 1873 by Congregationalist church missionaries in the mold of other Congregationalist universities such as Dartmouth College and Yale University. Nathan Morrison, Samuel Drury, and James and Charles Harwood provided the school's initial endowment and organization; Samuel Drury's gift was the largest of the group and the school was soon renamed as Drury College in honor of Drury's recently deceased son on December 10, 1874. The early curriculum emphasized educational, religious, and musical strengths. Students came to the new college from a wide area including the Indian Territories of Oklahoma. The first graduating class included four women. When classes began in 1873, they were held in a single building on a campus occupying less than . Twenty-five years later the campus included Stone Chapel, the President's House and three academic buildings. Today, the university occupies a campus, including the original historic buildings. On April 28, 1960, Drury College was the setting for an episode of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. Tennessee Ernie Ford sang his trademark "Sixteen Tons" and the hymn "Take My Hand, Precious Lord".