College at Southwestern renamed ‘Scarborough College’

The College at Southwestern has officially been renamed The L.R. Scarborough College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in honor of the seminary’s second president, L.R. Scarborough. Continuing the school’s original vision from its initial launch in 2005, Scarborough College will lay a foundation on which God-called men and women can build a lifetime of ministry by equipping them to think biblically, reason truthfully, and share God’s Word effectively.

Lee Rutland Scarborough was born on July 4, 1870, and he went on to become a cowboy preacher, a fiery evangelist, one of the founding faculty of Southwestern Seminary, the first occupant and namesake for the first-ever chair of evangelism in a seminary (“the Chair of Fire”), and the institution’s second president, serving from 1914-1942. Though B.H. Carroll, Southwestern’s first president, was the seminary’s visionary and founder, Scarborough was its architect and steward.

Current president Paige Patterson, speaking of the college’s new name at the spring trustee meeting, April 12, said he was initially hesitant to name the college after Scarborough for fear that he was not a well-known name. But when Patterson considered the monumental contributions Scarborough made to the seminary, he realized this was undeniably the best choice.

“We are happy about the faithfulness and the example that Lee Scarborough left to us that we can now follow,” Patterson said. Patterson added that this is the appropriate time to rename the college, as it will move this fall into the Fort Worth campus’ newest building, Mathena Hall. “They are getting ready, and it’s going to be an exciting time,” he said.

Along with the new name, the college also boasts a new mascot—the lions—and a new logo—a gold “S” over a blue background. As explained on the college’s website, the “S” stands for Scarborough, and just as he left his mark on Southwestern, “so our students will leave their mark in the world as they bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth and impact the Kingdom for eternity.”

The color blue, meanwhile, ties Scarborough College to Southwestern Seminary and its legacy of preparing God-called men and women for ministry for more than 100 years. “By sharing this color with the seminary,” the site explains, “Scarborough College’s students stand on the shoulders of 45,000 graduates who have come before them, enabling them to steward the institution’s ongoing legacy of reaching the world for Christ.”

Finally, the color gold resembles a flame, “emphasizing that the flames of soul-winning have continued to burn brightly at Southwestern from the time of Scarborough until today.” The image also evokes the pages of a book—which, especially in antiquity, were often gilded with gold leaf—indicating the college’s commitment to rigorous academic preparation.

“The mission of Scarborough College is to create effective witnesses for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of the student’s academic pursuit,” the website declares. The college thus prepares students to follow in the footsteps of L.R. Scarborough, who lived “with a heart on fire with evangelistic zeal and a head filled with the wisdom of God.”

For more information, visit scarboroughcollege.com.