Campbell Fighting Camels

From Hoopedia

Campbell University is a university in Buies Creek, North Carolina founded in 1887. Campbell is a coeducational, church-related (Baptist) university, and has an approximately equal number of male and female students. Campbell became a four-year college in 1961 and began competing athletically in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). In 1977, the Fighting Camels program joined the NCAA Division I level. Campbell was a charter member of the Big South Conference in 1983, before leaving to join the Trans-America Athletic Conference, which is now the Atlantic Sun Conference, in 1994.

Campbell's basketball teams play their home games in 947-seat Carter Gymnasium which opened in 1953. Campbell is currently constructing a new 3,000-seat multipurpose arena on campus that will replace Carter Gymnasium as the campus' primary arena for basketball and other indoor sports.

Team colors are orange and black. Gaylord the Camel is Campbell's mascot.

The Fighting Camels

Many stories exist as to the origin of the nickname "Fighting Camels" and the adoption of a camel as the mascot of Campbell University athletic teams. To date, there is still uncertainty as to why the unique mascot (only one other school in the United States -- and none in Division I -- has the nickname "Camels") was chosen.

According to historian J. Winston Pearce, author of "Campbell College, Big Miracle in Little Buies Creek," the nickname's origin perhaps stretches back to the turn of the century when all but one of the school's original buildings were destroyed by fire. In the aftermath, Z.T. Kivett visited the school's founder and president, Dr. James Archibald Campbell, at his residence.

As Dr. Campbell bemoaned the fate of the institution he had worked 13 years to build, Mr. Kivett encouraged him, "Your name's Campbell; then get a hump on you! We've got work to do." Dr. Campbell thought that Mr. Kivett said, "You're a camel, get a hump on you." Hence the nomadic nickname.

Campbell's athletic teams were originally named the "Hornets." Copies of Creek Pebbles, the school newspaper, in the 1920s and 1930s described the teams as "Hornets." Other references to the athletic teams were "The Campbells" or the "Campbellites."

Although an official date is unknown, the changing of the mascot to a camel came in late 1933 or early 1934. There is no explanation why the nickname was changed to Camels, only this one sentence was printed in the Jan. 13, 1934 issue of Creek Pebbles: "Eight new men were recently initiated into Campbell's monogram club, which has changed its name from 'Hornets' to 'Camels.'"

From that point on, all Campbell athletic teams have proudly worn the Camel mascot.

Men's Basketball

Campbell's only conference championship at the Division I level occurred in 1992 when the Fighting Camels won the Big South Conference tournament held that year at the Civic Center of Anderson in Anderson, S.C.. This win placed Campbell in the 1992 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and 1992 is still the school's only NCAA appearance. The 16th seeded Fighting Camels were defeated by the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils in Greensboro, N.C. 82-56.

Women's Basketball

The Lady Camels have two conference championship seasons. Campbell won the Big South Conference tournament in 1989 defeating Radford University 58-53 in Radford, Virginia. Campbell also won the 2000 Atlantic Sun Conference championship, held in Pelham, Alabama by defeating Georgia State University 66-49, which earned the Lady Camels a 15th seed in the 2000 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship East Regional. However, Campbell lost in the opening round to the 2nd seeded Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C.