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One of the smallest colleges in America started a football team in 2024. It is now getting ready for its second season as part of the NCAA Division III Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Centenary College of Louisiana is located in Shreveport.
This liberal arts private college is currently celebrating 200 years after being founded in 1825.
The Gents (actually, the school’s official nickname is “Gentlemen”) once fielded a rather successful college football team until the advent of World War II in late 1941. A brief resurrection of the football program was attempted (and failed) during the 1960’s.
November 10, 2021 brought the official announcement of Centenary’s decision to once again return to the college gridiron by the fall of 2024.
Centenary College President Dr. Christopher Holoman proudly announced the decision to move forward.
“We haven’t played football here for quite some time, but the wait is over”, he said. “Today, I am so excited and proud to announce that Centenary will be bringing college football back to Shreveport-Bossier City.”
Why would a college with only 540 students attempt to field a football team?
Enrollment at Centenary College has been in a slow decline for decades. The school’s primary emphasis on liberal arts also contributed to a campus imbalance of 55% female students to 45% males.
Centenary College is a private university and rather expensive.
Tuition in 2025 is listed as $43,450 per year. Add another $8,000 for a dorm room, $7,200 for a meal plan, $1,300 for books/supplies, and another $6,000 to cover transportation and personal items.
The total comes to $63,850 per year according to the Centenary College website “Estimated Cost of Attendance.” A number of financial aid options are available. Most students at the school receive financial aid based on their academic achievements and demonstrated financial need.
Shreveport-area high school students have found more economic college options at local public 4-year universities such as LSU-Shreveport and Southern University-Shreveport. Others choose to attend LSU or Southern University (Baton Rouge) or regional favorites such as Grambling State, Louisiana Tech, Northwestern State, or UL-Monroe.
There is one good way to increase the number of men on the Centenary campus!
Adding a football team comprised of about 80 players has provided a dramatic rise in the number of men on the Centenary College campus over the past two years.
Up-to-date enrollment figures have been hard to find, but most publications believe that Centenary has risen to 650 or more students by late 2024.
A significant improvement, but the school is seeking a higher goal.
Page 18 of Centenary’s 2023/2024 Year 1 “Bold at the Bicentennial” strategic plan revealed a lofty goal of having 800 students on campus in the coming years.
That plan also mentioned a desire to grow the college’s endowment fund by $2 million in Year 1 with a total of $10 million attained after four years.
Step 3 of the Centenary strategic plan is to “Be Shreveport-Bossier’s College.”
The school will try to gain positive goodwill by showcasing its new football team. Centenary’s action plan calls for increasing contact with local and regional high schools to encourage future students to stay closer to home for their college experience.
The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area is home to about 390,000 people.
The two local 4-year public universities (LSU-Shreveport and Southern University-Shreveport) do not have a college football program. The closest college football competition is at Grambling State (65 miles from Shreveport), Louisiana Tech (70 miles) and Northwestern State (75 miles).
Centenary is trying to carve its own local niche and pilfer a few top high school football prospects and non-football playing students away from its regional competitors.
Meet Centenary’s “Wizard Against All Odds” – Coach Byron Dawson
The Centenary College athletics program is best known for producing basketball Hall-of-Famer Robert Parish of the Boston Celtics, PGA golfer and Ryder Cup Captain Hal Sutton, and 2-time Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson Clark.
Former (Shreveport) Evangel High School and LSU defensive lineman Byron Dawson was tasked with creating Centenary’s new football program from the bottom-up just three years ago.
The hiring of this Shreveport native to become Centenary’s head football coach has been the key to making this local football miracle happen. Byron Dawson’s Shreveport roots and success in college football in Louisiana made him the perfect man to sell the new Centenary story to high school athletes, parents, and guardians.
Coach Dawson was recently named by the Shreveport Chamber of Commerce as its “Minority Business Person of the Year” in June.
He was selected for “contributions driving economic growth and community enhancement across the Shreveport-Bossier region.”
The first year for Centenary’s head coach Byron Dawson was very much like being Professor Harold Hill from “The Music Man” musical.
The football coach had to use his version of the famed “Think Method” to get prospective football players and financial supporters to envision future success for Centenary College football.
Coach Dawson was tasked with overseeing the building of the first football field and athletics fieldhouse on the Centenary campus.
He had to find and hire a small staff of coaches willing to build a new football program from the ground-up.
Coining the motivational phrase “Now, we go!”, Coach Byron Dawson placed his foot onto the accelerator.
The former defensive lineman powered through each obstacle in order to get his new team onto the football field to play its first official game last September.
The 2024 opening season for Centenary Gents football team concluded with a 4-6 overall record but 4-4 in SCAC conference play.
An overflow crowd of 1,978 fans jammed into and surrounded the new (but small) on-campus football stadium to watch the Gents play their first game last September.
“So many people have worked for years to make this dream happen,” said Coach Byron Dawson afterwards. “I am so grateful and happy that we had college football in this city tonight and we are going to keep pushing forward!”
The decision to start a college football program comes with some hefty costs
The initial financial outlays required to start a new college football program at Centenary were steep.
Centenary College had to construct a new football field, lighting, grandstands, and a new athletics fieldhouse.
Those expenditures required significant up-front capital outlays.
Most NCAA Division III schools like Centenary must come up with at least $500,000 per year to pay for recurring annual expenses. This includes coaches salaries, equipment, uniforms, travel, and various game day expenses (referees, concession staff, etc.).
Football ticket revenues at the school will not cover the program’s annual expenses. Last year’s estimated 8,000 total tickets sold (covering five home games) would generate about $160,000 if the average ticket was sold for $20.
Don’t forget that most of the 80 or so college football players need financial assistance for their tuition, food, books, and a place to bunk, too. Centenary’s relatively expensive tuition and other costs has likely stretched the school’s financial resources.
The school’s academic staff may have been able to absorb many of the incoming footballers as some of Centenary’s classrooms have likely been at less than full capacity in recent years.
You’ll find a new “Sport Management” major available through Centenary’s Frost School of Business. A new Kinesiology degree program has been added. Centenary already had a very strong degree plan for education majors at the school.
Those three academic fields may be the primary choice for many of Centenary’s football players who stick around four years in pursuit of their degree.
But…will this new football program lure new non-football students to Centenary?
The leadership and financial supporters of Centenary College appear to be placing their (financial) chips on that bet.
Having a college football team with a significant local number of local and regional players gives Centenary increased visibility within the area. The school’s new degree offerings might help draw some new students to the school, too.
It’s time to do some basic math!
Every 25 new non-football playing students coming to Centenary College (at the school’s current $43,450 annual tuition) will bring more than $1 million in new revenue (either directly or from some combination of state and federal educational financial support programs).
Adding 100 non-football students would add over $4 million in new tuition fees. That could easily cover the initial costs of Centenary’s new football-related facilities and offset the annual costs associated with the football program.
That’s the good news. However…
There is no guarantee that additional non-football playing students (men or women) will flock (or even trickle) to Centenary College simply because the school now fields a football team.
An updated set of enrollment figures would help this analysis. The current goal is 800 students.
Centenary is pointing toward more growth and improvements during 2025
The school is continuing to celebrate its 200th year of existence.
Centenary College will debut a new 84-room dormitory facility for the fall semester.
It will be called (of course) Bicentennial Village.
It has been decades since any new dorm rooms have been needed and constructed at Centenary’s Kings Highway campus in Shreveport.
Former University of Kentucky head football coach Hal Mumme was added to the Centenary football staff last week as the team’s offensive coordinator.
The innovative 73-year old coach is credited with developing the pass-happy “Air Raid” offensive schemes more than 30 years ago.
Perhaps the team should offer a free “Hal Mumme Calculator” with each ticket purchased to keep track of the score this fall!
Centenary College will once again wear the name “Shreveport” on the front of the team’s football jerseys. That is very savvy marketing!
This year’s Season Two has Shreveport’s Gents opening at home against Westgate Christian University of Houston. The Saturday, September 6 game will kick-off at 6PM CDT at Atkins Field on the Centenary campus.
Here’s hoping that Centenary’s “Hail Mary” new football strategy scores a financial touchdown in the coming years to propel this Shreveport institution into a third century of service to the region.