APSU - The Overview

(Overhead shot of APSU. Photo credit to Randy Walker Photography, Murray, KY)

First of all, you can probably get all the general information you could ever want from the university's official home page, which you can access by clicking here.

If not, here's my own look at Austin Peay:

     Austin Peay State University is a traditional liberal arts university nestled away in Clarksville, Tennessee. The current enrollment at the Peay (including grad students) is just over 8,000, and the population of Clarksville is roughly 85,000 with the Clarksville-Montgomery County community probably numbering 120,000. The university was founded as a normal school for teacher development in 1927. It is not surprising that teacher education (as well as nursing, agriculture and fine arts) is still one of APSU's strongest educational programs. It is an remarkably easy school for students to adjust to, and is located in an interesting locale (40 minutes from Nashville, with Clarksville being adjoined to a major military base, Ft. Campbell, KY...). The nicest facilities on campus in my opinion are the mass communications building (which houses a multi-million dollar concert hall), and the baseball field, Raymond C. Hand Park (which houses a minor league baseball team in the summer). The university is scheduled to undergo some serious renovation over the next couple of years, as the ground has been broken for a massive new science building (that is supposed to be the pride of the southeast) and for an annexation onto the Morgan University Center. So things should stay interesting around the "Peay" for a while. The funniest thing to the casual observer is when we occasionally make it onto national TV to play basketball (our most popular sport here), the throngs of Peay fans standing and chanting "Let's Go Peay! Let's Go Peay!". They look at us like we are about to make a mass processional to the restrooms, but it's just a traditional cheer for fans of a school that were named after a fine Tennessee governor named...Austin Peay. Which also explains our mascot, the "Governor". Enough of history lessons, here are the pertinent athletic details:

• National Affiliation: NCAA Division I (in everything but football, which is independent)

• Conference: Ohio Valley Conference (Which has expanded to these ten schools: Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Murray State, Southeast Missouri State, Eastern Illinois, Tennessee State, Tennessee Martin, Tennessee Tech, Middle Tennessee State and of course, the Peay)

• President: Dr. Sal Rinella                                        

• Athletic Director: Dave Loos

• Athletic Trainer: Chuck Kimmel

• Athletic-Academic Coordinator: Joe Luckey

• Sports Information Director: Brad Kirtley

Phone Numbers (that may be of interest....)

• Cross Country and Track Office: (931)-648-7211
• Sports Information Office: (931)-648-7561
• Sports Information FAX: (931)-648-756                                                                                                    

This page was last updated on March 9, 1998.