HISTORY
From its inception, the institution always had a mission centered around physical well-being and organized sports. This has been represented for more than 100 years on the school seal, listing the four essential aspects to a well-rounded life: mental, spiritual, social and physical.
The Oklahoma College for Women held this belief and students were required to take a certain number of physical education hours. Throughout the school’s history, the students participated in any number of intramural and even intercollegiate sports, competing against both each other and neighboring colleges.
But it was 1972 when the institution embraced the competitiveness of modern-day intercollegiate sports. On Nov. 16, 1972, the USAO Board of Regents unanimously voted to allow participation in intercollegiate sports such as baseball, basketball, tennis, golf and other sports. Today, the Drovers compete in 13 NAIA sports.
Drovers
When USAO’s (then the Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts) first teams took to the field, they had an identification problem. The teams were ready to play, however they were nameless. To find the right name, the school sponsored a contest. A few weeks and 240 entries later, OCLA’s teams had a name — the “Drovers.” The name was influenced by the juxtaposition of the famed Chisholm Trail near the city of Chickasha. The Trail came through Grady County just east of town. On it traveled thousands of cattle and their drovers — the cowboys who led them.