Kennesaw State Owls

Kennesaw State University fields 17 varsity athletics teams which are called the Owls. After spending ten years in Division II's Peach Belt Conference, the university fully transitioned to Division I status in the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the beginning of the 2009–10 season. All of Kennesaw State's sports teams compete in the Atlantic Sun Conference, except for the football team, which is an associate member of the Big South Conference. The school mascot is Scrappy the Owl.

Kennesaw State's athletic department was founded in 1983, and initially offered nine sports: women’s basketball, men’s soccer, men’s & women’s cross country, and men’s & women’s track and field. The program first began competition in the Georgia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, part of the NAIA. In just 23 years, the school has transitioned to a full NCAA Division I program.

Sports teams

A member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, Kennesaw State sponsors teams in eight men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports:

Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public, coeducational, comprehensive university located in Kennesaw, Georgia, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of Atlanta. KSU also holds classes at the Cobb Galleria Centre, Dalton State College, Appalachian Technical College and Dallas. Current enrollment is over 32,000 students.

KSU is part of the University System of Georgia. The university has academic programs in business, education, nursing, criminal justice and sports management. The campus is in a suburban area on 384 acres (155 ha) of land.

History

The university has undergone a number of changes in name (and mission) over its relatively short existence.

1963

The university was officially founded on October 9, 1963, when the Georgia Board of Regents approved the establishment of a junior college tentatively to be named Cobb County Junior College. In December 1964, Horace Sturgis was designated to serve as the future college's first president. When the school opened in fall of 1966, it was named Kennesaw Junior College and had an initial enrollment of 1,014 students.