Fort Wayne Mastodons
| Fort Wayne Mastodons | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne |
| Conference |
Summit League MIVA Conference |
| NCAA | Division I |
| Athletic director | Kelley Hartley Hutton |
| Location | Fort Wayne, Indiana |
| Varsity teams | 14 |
| Basketball arena | Hilliard Gates Sports Center |
| Baseball stadium | Mastodon Field |
| Mascot | Don the Mastodon |
| Nickname | Mastodons |
| Fight song | Go 'Dons! |
| Colors | Royal Blue and White |
| Website | gomastodons |
The Fort Wayne Mastodons, formerly known as the IPFW Mastodons, are the athletic teams of Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne. The Mastodons compete as a NCAA Division I school in the Summit League for most sports and in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association for men's volleyball. The university participates in 14 men’s and women’s sports. Before joining NCAA Division I athletics, IPFW competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in the NCAA Division II.
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 university's exclusive athletic brand. The school's "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.
A member of The Summit League, IPFW sponsors teams in six men's and eight women's NCAA sanctioned sports:
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 men’s 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 men’s 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.
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