The Central Methodist Eagles are the athletic teams that represent

Central Methodist University Central Methodist University (formerly known as Central Methodist College and also known as Central College or CMU) is a private university in Fayette, Missouri. CMU is accredited to offer masters, bachelors, and associate degrees. The school is ...

, located in

Fayette, Missouri Fayette is a city in and the county seat of Howard County, Missouri, United States. It is part of the Columbia, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 2,803 at the 2020 census. History Fayette was laid out in 1823. The ...

, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA), primarily competing in the

Heart of America Athletic Conference The Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC or The Heart) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska in ...

(HAAC) since the 1991–92 academic year; which they were a member on a previous stint from 1971–72 to 1985–86. The Eagles previously competed as an NAIA Independent from 1986–87 to 1990–91; and in the

Missouri College Athletic Union The Missouri College Athletic Union (MCAU) was an intercollegiate athletic conference that existed from 1924 to 1971. It consisted primarily of private universities from the state of Missouri that departed the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Asso ...

(MCAU) from 1924–25 to 1970–71.

Varsity teams

Central Methodist competes in 19 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, track & field and wrestling; basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, track & field, volleyball and wrestling; and co-ed sports include competitive cheer, competitive dance and eSports.

Softball (women's)

CMU Eagles softball head coach Pat Reardon became the winningest coach in the Heart of America Athletic Conference history, after a game-one win over Evangel (Mo.) on April 4, 2015, as he surpassed the Crusaders' Jerry Breaux. He also moved into the Top 10 on the NAIA active coaches wins list.

Basketball (men's)

CMU Eagles men's basketball team first appeared in the NAIA tournament in

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 – ...

Rugby

In the 1970s Central Methodist had a rugby team that enjoyed some national success.

Roger B. Wilson Roger Byron Wilson (born October 10, 1948) is an American politician who briefly served as the 52nd Governor of Missouri from October 16, 2000 to January 8, 2001. Wilson was serving his second four-year term as lieutenant governor and was prepa ...

, who later became

Governor of Missouri A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...

, was a member of Central Methodist's rugby teams in the early 1970s. In that time Central Methodist regularly beat opponents such as the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

and posted the most lopsided victory in the history of sanctioned American rugby to that time (77-0 over St. Louis University). In 1973 Central Methodist won a regional rugby tournament by defeating the

32-4 in the championship game. Central Methodist then entered the national championship tournament, defeating the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

24-10 and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

29-4 to reach the national semi-finals. Central Methodist lost its semi-final match to the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

13-3 but won the consolation match to finish third in the nation.

Men's Soccer

The men's soccer programme led by coach Alex Nichols and assisted by David Macsicza, Marc Russell and Rafael Ortiz Ferreira, won the 2018 NAIA National Championship.

Fight song

In the late spring of 2006 Central Methodist University adopted an official fight song written by Andrew Glover, a 1983 alumnus of Central Methodist College, called ''Fighting Eagles''. The previous unofficial fight song had been ''Hail, Victory'' written by Central College alum and former drum major Robert Earl Stepp.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.cmueagles.com/