IPFW
Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons became a member of what organization or association in Jul 2007?
Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons , formerly known as the IPFW Mastodons and Fort Wayne Mastodons , are the athletic teams of Purdue University Fort Wayne ( PFW ) . The schools athletic program includes 16 varsity sports teams . Their mascot is a Mastodon named Don , and the school colors are black and gold . The university participates in the NCAAs Division I as members of the Horizon League in all varsity sports except for mens volleyball , which competes in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association . Purdue Fort Wayne offers 8 varsity sports for men and 8 for women . History . IPFW . At the start of athletics competition , the school was known as the abbreviation for Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne ( IPFW ) . In 1968 a large bone was discovered during the installation of a farm pond near Angola , Indiana , about 40 miles ( 65 km ) north of Fort Wayne . The farmer contacted professors in the IPFW geology department , who identified his discovery as the leg bone of a mastodon . Faculty and students from the geology department excavated the greater part of an adult mastodon , including the skull and tusks . The bones were cleaned , preserved , and placed on permanent display at IPFW . In 1970 members of the geology club , led by professors who oversaw the excavation , successfully lobbied the student government committee charged with choosing a name for the university mascot to select the mastodon . And thus , the IPFW Mastodons were born [ 9 ] . In addition to serving as a mascot , “Mastodon” is used as the athletic moniker for team members and school-spirited references to the student body . The selection of the mastodon as mascot—as well as a tongue-in-cheek borrowing of the term “Don” from its academic British English use—lends itself to be a suffix to refer to the athletics teams as well , such as Volleydons for the volleyball teams . In a related reference , the Mastodon STOMP pep band instills school spirit among the fans during home matches and games . By using the nickname Mastodons , Purdue Fort Wayne is one of the few schools to use an extinct organism as a nickname , along with the Amherst Mammoths and the Maranatha Baptist Sabercats . When the school first fielding athletics , they competed as an NCAA Division III Independent . In the summer of 1981 , the Mastodons made a jump to NCAA Division II where they remained independent . Prior to the 1984–85 school year , the Mastodons joined the Great Lakes Valley Conference , their first ever conference affiliation . At the start of the 2001–02 academic year , the Mastodons joined NCAA Division I as an independent . IPFW joined their first Division I conference in July , 2007 , joining The Summit League . Fort Wayne . On August 8 , 2016 , shortly before the start of the 2016–17 school year , IPFW athletic director Kelley Hartley Hutton announced that effective immediately , Fort Wayne would be the universitys exclusive athletic brand . The schools IPFW academic branding was not affected . The Summit League has called the athletic program Fort Wayne since 2012 , in line with a conference initiative to use geographic names to describe metropolitan campuses such as IPFW . When the school announced the athletic brand change , it noted,Some Mastodon teams have already been using Fort Wayne on uniforms since this recommendation , but the use has been limited and resulted in some confusion . Outside of northeast Indiana , there is also considerable confusion about the IPFW acronym , with misnomers being common—even among those involved in Division I athletics . Purdue Fort Wayne . Indiana University and Purdue University in Fort Wayne officially separated on July 1 , 2018 , with IU taking responsibility for IPFWs degree programs in health sciences and Purdue retaining all other academic programs . Thereafter , the Mastodons will represent Purdue University Fort Wayne . With the name change , the schools colors will change from Royal Blue and White to the Old Gold and Black used by the other three Purdue University campuses . On June 18 , 2018 , the school announced that beginning July 1 , 2018 all NCAA sports teams will be known as the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastadons . In addition , a new logo was revealed where the color blue has been incorporated as a secondary color to the universitys official school colors of gold and black . Because NCAA rules bar players from two different schools from competing on the same team , future IU Fort Wayne students will not be eligible for Mastodons athletics . At the time the separation was announced , five of the roughly 240 Fort Wayne varsity athletes were in academic majors that would become part of the new IU Fort Wayne campus , with three possibly requiring NCAA waivers to remain athletically eligible . It joined the Horizon League from the Summit League in July 2020 . The official announcement of this move noted that PFW would be near the geographic center of its new league , with an average distance of from the other members . At that time , media also noted that PFWs longest road trip in the Horizon League ( 344 miles to Green Bay ) would be shorter than its shortest Summit League trip ( 367 miles to Western Illinois ) . Sports sponsored . Purdue Fort Wayne has 16 NCAA Division I-A varsity teams : 8 varsity sports for men and 8 for women . The mens volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association . The newest Mastodons sports are mens indoor and outdoor track & field , reinstated in 2019–20 after having been dropped by IPFW in 2005 . Mens basketball . Before joining NCAA Division I athletics , Fort Wayne competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in some sports in the NCAA Division II , where in 1993 , the mens basketball team led , by brothers Sean and Shane Gibson , achieved the ranking of No . 4 in the country in NCAA Division II competition . Dane Fife was named the IPFW mens basketball head coach during summer 2005 . Fife , who left after the 2010–11 season , was the youngest NCAA Division I head coach at the time of his appointment , at the age of 26 . Tony Jasick replaced Fife as the head coach . Jon Coffman is the current head coach of the program , announced on April 10 , 2014 . Venues . Purdue Fort Wayne has no football team . During its existence as IPFW , it hosted the 2000 NCAA Mens Volleyball Championship matches at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum , which is adjacent to the campus . Most athletic events are held in the Hilliard Gates Sports Center or the Athletics Center Fieldhouse on the PFW campus . Club sports . Mens ice hockey . The IPFW Club Mens Ice Hockey Team is in its sixth season as a program and competes in the ACHAs North Region . IPFW has had recent success finishing in the top 20 in the nation the last three seasons . This past season the Mastodons won the Big Ten Club Tournament championship hosted by Northwestern University . This was a huge win for the program with bigger schools such as Iowa , Nebraska , Northwestern , Northern Illinois and No . 3 ranked University of Michigan-Flint also in the tournament . The Dons play their home games at Lutheran Health SportCenter and have for the past 2 seasons . IPFW used to play their games at the old McMillan Ice Arena .