Jarvis Christian University#Athletics

Although formal instructional programs at Jarvis began on January 13, 1913, with an enrollment of 12 students, all in the elementary grades, the school began as early as 1904, when the Negro Disciples of Christ of Texas began to plan for a school for Black youth. A white couple whose families had owned slaves—Major James Jarvis and his wife Ida Van Zandt Jarvis—donated land upon which the school could be built; the Jarvis family deeded {{convert|456|acres}} to the Christian Women's Board of Missions on the condition it be maintained as a school for Blacks. Jarvis opened its doors as Jarvis Christian Institute, modeled after the Southern Christian Institute located west of Jackson in Edwards, Mississippi.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jarvis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Handbook-2014-15-September-10-2014.pdf|title=Jarvis Christian College Student Handbook 2014-2015|date=September 2014|website=Jarvis Christian University|access-date=2016-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305012234/http://www.jarvis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Handbook-2014-15-September-10-2014.pdf|archive-date=2017-03-05|url-status=dead}}

Jarvis is the only historically black college which remains of the twelve founded by the Disciples of Christ Church.

Jarvis' first students were educated in the remains of an old logging camp and later in a cabin which became the school's first multi-purpose building.

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File:J.N. Ervin Center, Jarvis Christian College IMG_0305.JPG

Thomas Buchanan Frost came to the school as superintendent in 1912. Charles Albert Berry joined him as the principal. In 1914, James Nelson Ervin became the first president of Jarvis and served in that capacity until 1938. During the first year of Ervin's tenure, high school classes were added to the curriculum. It became one of the few places at the time at which blacks in East Texas could complete a high school education. Some college work was offered as early as 1916.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jarvis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Handbook-2014-15-September-10-2014.pdf|title=Jarvis Christian College Student Handbook, 2014-15|date=September 2014|website=Jarvis Christian College|access-date=2016-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305012234/http://www.jarvis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Student-Handbook-2014-15-September-10-2014.pdf|archive-date=2017-03-05|url-status=dead}}

The executive committee of the National Women's Board voted in May 1915, to appropriate {{US$|1,000|1915}} for a sawmill that was purchased and installed on campus. The sawmill was operated from the 1920s through the 1940s by male students in the summer. They cut wood for structures on campus and to fire furnaces and stoves used during winter months around campus. Most of the buildings on the Jarvis Campus built during the 1920s–1940s were made with wood from this mill. Most of those buildings burned.

In 1927, junior college courses were integrated into the curriculum. In 1928, the school incorporated as a college.

Senior College course offerings were introduced at Jarvis in 1937. The Emma B. Smith Building, used to house administration offices, was built in 1936 and is the only campus structure surviving from the Ervin presidency.

In 1938, Peter Clarence Washington began his tenure as the second president of Jarvis Christian College. High school work was eliminated from the curriculum the same year.

In 1939, the state of Texas granted a formal charter to Jarvis Christian College.

John B. Eubanks became Executive Vice President of Jarvis in 1949 and is credited with introducing the general education program and helping the school earn recognition from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. This recognition came in 1950.

Eubanks became the fourth president of Jarvis Christian College in 1951. In 1953, Cleo Walter Blackburn became college president.

Blackburn ensured an affiliation between Jarvis and Texas Christian University in 1964 that was renewed twice and terminated in 1976. In 1964, Agro-Industrial offerings were eliminated from the curriculum. The Olin Library and Communication Center was opened to students in 1965. In 1966, Perpener became the fifth president of Jarvis and the first alumni appointed to the office. That same year, Jarvis was granted membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Jarvis is affiliated with the Texas Association of Developing Colleges, a six-college consortium of historically Black colleges the next year. In 1969, the Charles A. Meyer Science and Mathematics Center opened.

Four additional residence halls were opened on campus in the 1970s.

Sebetha Lee Jenkins became the 10th president of Jarvis Christian College in 1991, and the first woman to hold that position.{{Cite web |title=History of the College |url=https://catalog.jarvis.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=84 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240910162658/https://catalog.jarvis.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=84 |archive-date=2024-09-10 |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=Jarvis Christian University |language=en}}

In May 2017, it was announced that Jarvis Christian College will open a satellite campus in Dallas at the Redbird Mall beginning August 2017. Courses available are in criminal justice, business management, religion, data analytics, and cybersecurity.

During the 2022–2023 academic year, Jarvis Christian College was renamed Jarvis Christian University with the unveiling of the new signage and logos on May 6, 2022, the day before the first graduating class of Jarvis Christian University received the first-ever diplomas with the school's new name. Jarvis was approved to begin offering graduate degrees. The Jarvis Board of Trustees approved the name change, the rebranding as JCU began. The first JCU graduate programs are an MBA and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice, both programs are set to begin classes online in January 2023.{{r|NameChange2022}}

The Jarvis Christian athletic teams are called the Bulldogs. The institution is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) since the 1998–99 academic year.

Jarvis Christian competes in 15 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, track and field (outdoor) and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, track & field (outdoor), volleyball and wrestling. The following sports will be added, effective in the 2022–23 school year: men's & women's wrestling, and co-ed competitive cheerleading called the "J Squad".

Jarvis Christian had a college football team which competed from the 1910s until being discontinued in 1964.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117162686/corpus-christi-caller-times/|newspaper=Corpus Christi Caller-Times|via=Newspapers.com|date=July 12, 1964|page=50|agency=Associated Press|title=1 Less College Team in Texas}} {{Open access}} Notable coaches of the team included Ace Mumford (1924–1926) and Louis Crews (1957–1959).

Jarvis Christian has appeared in the NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament three times: 2003, 2008, and 2009. Jarvis women's track & field team won the RRAC conference championship for track & field in 2021.

Jarvis houses a regional collection of biological specimens in its 10,000 square foot Frost Hall. The collections are concentrated on the herbarium and entomology collections, but also houses minor holdings in other natural history areas of study and historical materials that are related to natural history or land use history.

• Shirley J. Allen (born 1941), Jarvis alumna who became the first black and deaf woman to earn a doctorate{{Cite news |date=October 1995 |title=Dr. Shirley J. Allen, the first Deaf Black woman to earn a doctorate |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nu8mAQAAMAAJ |access-date=2025-03-16 |work=Deaf Life}}
• Christine Benton Cash (1889–1988), one of the first Black women in Texas to hold a doctorate, education reformer, taught at Jarvis from 1958 to 1965, chaired the divisions of social sciences and teacher education{{Cite web |last=Monsho |first=Kharen |date=1994 |title=Cash, Christine Benton |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cash-christine-benton |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Texas State Historical Association |language=en}}
• "Ace" Mumford (1898 –1962) an American football coach, head coach at Jarvis from 1924 to 1926, head football coach at historically black colleges and universities in Texas and Louisiana from 1924 to 1961, inducted into at least eight halls of fame for his coaching accomplishments.
• David "Fathead" Newman (1933–2009), jazz and rhythm-and-blues saxophonist best known for his work with Ray Charles. Attended for three years before leaving to play professionally.
• Roena Muckelroy Savage (1904–1991), American concert soprano, musical theater director, playwright, associate professor of voice and chair of the humanities department.{{Cite news |date=August 11, 1961 |title=Roena Savage Visits in Muckelroy Home |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SBS19610811.1.19&srpos=9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Roena+Muckelroy-------1 |access-date=April 27, 2020 |work=San Bernardino Sun |page=B-8 |via=California Digital Newspaper Collection}}
• W. Sherman Savage (1890–1981), an American historian, first black graduate of University of Oregon, author of Blacks in the West, professor and chair of the department of history and social sciences from 1960 to 1970.{{Cite journal |last=Greene |first=Lorenzo J. |date=April 1981 |title=W. Sherman Savage |url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/JNHv66n1p80 |journal=The Journal of Negro History |language=en |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=80–84 |doi=10.1086/JNHv66n1p80 |issn=0022-2992}}
• Olujimi Brown, Jarvis alumnus, Atlanta pastor, author, 2026 candidate for governor of Georgia.{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2024-09-08 |title=Pastor Olu Brown announces bid for Georgia Governor in 2026 |url=https://spotlightsouthcobbnews.com/pastor-olu-brown-announces-bid-for-georgia-governor-im-2026/ |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=SPOTLIGHT South Cobb News |language=en-US}}

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite web | url = https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/jarvis-james-jones | title = Jarvis, James Jones (1831–1914) | last1 = Gilbreath | first1 = David W. | date = 2020-11-09 | orig-year = 1952 | department = | website = Handbook of Texas | series = | publisher = Texas State Historical Association | language = en-us | access-date = 2021-09-02 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210902200157/https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/jarvis-james-jones | archive-date = 2021-09-02 | quote = He helped establish Jarvis Institute, which later became Jarvis Christian College, by donating a grant of land he owned in Wood County. | df = dmy-all }}

{{Cite web | url=http://www.jarvis.edu/jcc-facts/|title=JCC Facts {{!}} Jarvis Christian College | website=Jarvis Christian College | access-date=2016-11-26 | quote = In turn, Mrs. Jarvis worked to persuade her husband, Major James Jones Jarvis, to donate land upon which a school could be built. In 1910, Major and Mrs. Jarvis deeded 456 acres of land near Hawkins, Texas, to the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions on the condition that it "keep up and maintain a school for the elevation and education of the Negro race… in which school there shall be efficient religious and industrial training." Inherent in the spirit of the donation was the idea that the land would be used to educate "head, heart, and hand" and to produce "useful citizens and earnest Christians." | df = dmy-all}}

{{cite web | url = https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/jarvis-christian-college | title = Jarvis Christian College | last1 = Jenkins | first1 = Rachel | date = 2020-09-16 | orig-year = 1976 | department = | website = Handbook of Texas | series = | publisher = Texas State Historical Association | language = en-us | access-date = 2021-09-02 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210902203220/https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/jarvis-christian-college | archive-date = 2021-09-02 | quote = It was originally known as Jarvis Christian Institute, and ever since the school's founding in 1912 it has been affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). | df = dmy-all }}

{{cite news | last1= Thurber | first1= Jon | date = 2009-01-23 | url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-newman23-2009jan23-story.html |title=David 'Fathead' Newman dies at 75; jazz saxophonist |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=2021-09-02 | quote = He went off to Jarvis Christian College on a music and theology scholarship but quit school after three years and began playing professionally, mostly jazz and blues, with a number of musicians, including Buster Smith, Lloyd Glenn, Lowell Fulson and T-Bone Walker. | df = dmy-all }}

{{Cite journal | url = https://www.jbhe.com/2017/05/jarvis-christian-college-to-open-a-satellite-campus-in-dallas/ | title = Jarvis Christian College to Open a Satellite Campus in Dallas | first = Rod | last = Cook | date = 2017-05-05 | journal = The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170505182930/https://www.jbhe.com/2017/05/jarvis-christian-college-to-open-a-satellite-campus-in-dallas/ | url-status = live | archive-date = 2017-05-05 | access-date = 2021-09-02 | issn = 1077-3711 | eissn = 2326-6023 | quote = Lester C. Newman, president of Jarvis Christian College, stated that "it is our goal to expand educational opportunities for adult learners interested in completing their college degree. I am honored that Jarvis Christian College has become part of the Dallas community." | df = dmy-all}}

{{cite news | last1 = Bonds | first1 = Sariah | date = 2022-05-06 | title = Jarvis Christian College announces name change, new graduate programs | url = https://www.kltv.com/2022/05/06/jarvis-christian-college-announces-name-change-new-graduate-programs/ | url-status = live | work = KLTV | language = en-US | location = Hawkins, Texas | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220506233122/https://www.kltv.com/2022/05/06/jarvis-christian-college-announces-name-change-new-graduate-programs/ | archive-date = 2022-05-06 | access-date = 2022-05-13 | quote = The school changed its name to Jarvis Christian University. The school is now considered an accredited university because it will start offering graduate programs in January. | df = dmy-all}}

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{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last1 = Robinson | first1 = Edward J. | date = 2008-04-15 | chapter = Chapter 10 THE BOOKER T. WASHINGTON OF TEXAS: J. N. Ervin and the Jarvis Christian Institute Experience | title = The Fight is on in Texas: A History of African American Churches of Christ in the Lone Star State, 1865-2000 | language = en-US | publisher = Abilene Christian University Press | pages = 137{{ndash}}154 | isbn = 978-0-89112-532-7 | jstor = j.ctv1k3npxd.1 | jstor-access = free | lccn = 2007942386 | oclc = 233536356 | ol = OL23826082M |df = dmy-all}}

{{refend}}

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• [https://www.jarvis.edu Official website]
• [https://jcubulldogs.com Official athletics website]

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