Lubbock Christian began in 1954 as part of a grade school affiliated with Churches of Christ and opened as a junior college in 1957, holding its first classes partly in surplus military barracks. It has since grown into a university on a 155-acre campus on Lubbock's west side. This short walk follows the school's daily chapel tradition from its first home to its current one, visits a fieldhouse that was trucked in from Los Alamos, New Mexico, and ends at the arena that now hosts a national women's basketball tournament every year.
About this site
Lubbock Christian University is a private college or university in Lubbock, Lubbock County. It is one of 3 degree-granting colleges and universities TexasRoam maps in Lubbock County.
The site sits at 33.5763, -101.9351 near Lubbock. The nearest cataloged historic site is Resthaven Memorial Park (cemetery), about 0.4 miles away. Others within a short drive include Bledsoe Santa Fe Depot, Isham and Texana Tubbs House, and Tubbs--Carlisle House.
Lubbock Christian University grew from a 1954 state charter for a private school, affiliated with the Churches of Christ, meant to educate students from kindergarten through college; it began that year as a kindergarten connected to Lubbock's Broadway Church of Christ. The junior-college division, Lubbock Christian College, opened on September 24, 1957, with 115 students under founding president F. W. Mattox, holding classes in surplus military barracks on the west side of the city. Over the following years the campus replaced those barracks with permanent brick buildings, and its athletic fieldhouse was famously reassembled from a surplus hangar bought from the Los Alamos atomic research site. The college earned accreditation as a four-year institution and graduated its first senior class in 1972, then marked its thirtieth anniversary in 1987 by becoming Lubbock Christian University. Its sports teams, the Chaparrals and Lady Chaps, moved from the NAIA into NCAA Division II, and in 2016, in their first year of postseason eligibility, the Lady Chaps finished an unbeaten season with the Division II women's basketball championship. Today LCU enrolls roughly 1,600 students in undergraduate and graduate programs and maintains cross-enrollment ties with nearby Texas Tech.
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