Fairmont State Fighting Falcons football

Fairmont State University is a public university located in Fairmont, West Virginia, United States with regional campuses in nearby Harrison County - the Gaston Caperton Center in Clarksburg and the Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace Education Center in Bridgeport. Since 1928, Fairmont State has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) which recently merged with the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Fairmont State was founded as a private institution in 1865 by John N. Boyd, the school’s first principal, in the basement of the Methodist Protestant Church at 418 Quincy Street. It was known as the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont and was dedicated to educating teachers. On February 27, 1867 it was purchased by the State from the Regency of the West Virginia Normal School and became a branch of the State Normal School at Marshall College.

From 1867 to 1892 the school was known variously as Fairmont Normal School, the Fairmont Branch of the West Virginia Normal School, the Branch of the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont, a branch of the West Virginia State Normal School at Marshall College, but most commonly as Fairmont State Normal School (FSNS).

By 1892 the designation of "branch" had fallen into disuse by FSNS. In 1893, the school moved into a new building on Second Street and, in 1917, to its current location in the building (now known as Hardway Hall in honor of former president Wendell G. Hardway) which sits on a hill overlooking Locust Avenue. Hardway Hall, originally known as Fairmont Normal School Administration Building, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

In 1923, Fairmont State Normal School first offered a four-year bachelor's degree program in education, making the school a college. It was renamed Fairmont State Teachers College in 1931 and Fairmont State College in 1943. On April 7, 2004, Governor Bob Wise signed legislation changing its name to Fairmont State University.