UNDERWOOD

Mercer Board of Trustees unanimously elects William D. Underwood as the University’s 18th president during a meeting on the historic Penfield campus.

President Underwood takes office.

The Townsend School of Music is established, absorbing the former Department of Music in the College of Liberal Arts, and the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings is founded as a special institute within the School of Music.

Mercer and the City of Macon announce establishment of the College Hill Corridor Commission, formalizing a student-designed initiative to revitalize the two-mile corridor that connects the Macon campus to downtown Macon.

Mercer On Mission is launched, with 38 students and seven faculty members deployed to Kenya, Guatemala and Brazil.

Mercer Athletic Foundation is established to generate additional funds to support Mercer athletic programs.

The new Science and Engineering Building is dedicated on the Macon campus.

The School of Medicine expands its two-year clinical campus in Savannah to a full, four-year M.D. program.

University begins a year-long celebration of the 175th anniversary of its founding.

University enrollment surpasses 8,000 students.

The University Center Arena, home to Mercer basketball and volleyball, was renamed Hawkins Arena after a $1 million gift from Dr. Chuck Hawkins, a Macon cardiologist, and his wife, Kathy, funded upgrades to the 3,200-seat facility.

The Reg Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism is established with $4.6 million in funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and $1 million in funding from the Peyton Anderson Foundation.

School of Medicine establishes third- and fourth-year M.D. clinical program in Columbus.

The Mercer Health Sciences Center, a multi-campus academic health center incorporating the School of Medicine, College of Pharmacy and College of Nursing, is established.

The Eula Mae and John Baugh Center for Baptist Leadership is established on the Atlanta campus.

Emily Parker Myers Admissions and Welcome Center is dedicated.

Homer and Ruth Drake Field House is dedicated.

The College of Health Professions, the University’s 12th academic unit, established as part of the Mercer Health Sciences Center.

Mercer resumes competition in intercollegiate football after a 72-year hiatus and sets NCAA Division I record for most wins by a first-year program, finishing the season with a 10-2 record and a perfect 8-0 home record.

Mercer dedicates Cruz Plaza, a major improvement project that transformed the center of the Macon campus.

University kicks off a year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of its integration with a keynote address by former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.

Men’s basketball wins the Atlantic Sun Conference championship and goes on to defeat Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Mercer joins the prestigious Southern Conference, one of the nation’s oldest collegiate athletic conferences.

After a major renovation, Mercer Medicine opens a new clinical facility in downtown Macon’s former Georgia Music Hall of Fame building.

The McDuffie Center for Strings moves into the newly renovated Bell House on College Street in Macon. The house was donated to the University in 2008 by the family of trustee Gus Bell and was renovated in 2013 with a $1.5 million grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation.

On the strength of its growing research profile, Mercer is admitted to the Georgia Research Alliance.

During Homecoming, Mercer launches the $400 million Aspire fund-raising campaign.

Mercer’s two-year-old, 10,000-seat stadium, home of Mercer Bears football and lacrosse, renamed Five Star Stadium in recognition of a multi-million dollar commitment, the largest-ever for Mercer athletics and one of the largest in the University’s history, from Five Star Automotive Group.

A $10 million commitment from Macon resident Jo Phelps Fabian establishes the Jo Phelps Fabian Center for Musical Excellence in the Townsend School of Music.

First Mercer Theatre performances are held in the renovated Tattnall Square Center for the Arts on the Macon campus.

Mercer awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society.

Mercer baseball outfielder Kyle Lewis wins the Golden Spikes Award, collegiate baseball’s most prestigious honor, in addition to being named Baseball America’s National Player of the Year. Lewis would go on to be a first-round draft choice of the Seattle Mariners and earned unanimous American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2020.

Legacy Hall, a new freshman residence hall on the Macon campus, is dedicated.

The Mercer Innovation Center/Smisson Complex is dedicated.

Mercer baseball christens its new home, OrthoGeorgia Park, with a walk-off 6-5 win over the Georgia Bulldogs before an overflow crowd of thousands.

Twenty-five Mercer M.D. students are awarded the inaugural Physicians for Rural Georgia Scholarships, which cover 85 to 100 percent of Medical School tuition. The program is later named for Mercer alumnus and then-Gov. Nathan Deal, who advocated for $35 million in state funding to endow the program.

Classes begin in the new Spearman C. Godsey Science Center on the Macon campus, the largest academic facility project in the University’s history.

Mercer women’s basketball has its best season in program history, compiling a 30-3 record, winning both the Southern Conference regular season and tournament championships, going undefeated in conference play, earning a national Top 25 ranking and coming within five points of knocking off No. 4 seed Georgia in the NCAA tournament.

Mercer undergraduate debaters Jaz Buckley and Kyle Bligen win the National Parliamentary Debate Association championship, becoming the first African-American team to win a national debate championship.

Mercer Medicine opens its first rural medicine clinic, in Plains, and in the ensuing years opens six additional clinics around Central and South Georgia.

Mercer is classified as a Doctoral University with High Research Activity (R2) following an adjustment to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. R2 is the second-highest level of doctoral research universities in the country.

Mercer dedicates the McEachern Art Center on Second Street in downtown Macon. The center, housing an art gallery and student art studios, was made possible by a grant from the Griffith Family Foundation.

Mercer Music at Capricorn celebrates the grand re-opening of the historic Capricorn Sound Studios in downtown Macon.

Annual research expenditures surpass $50 million.

University enrollment surpasses 9,000 students in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Macon-based Phil J. and Alice S. Sheridan Foundation commits $10 million to endow The Sheridan Center at Mercer University to support the work of Mercer On Mission throughout the globe.

University endowment surpasses $500 million.

The School of Medicine’s new state-of-the-art facility opens on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in downtown Columbus, enabling Mercer to expand its total M.D. enrollment on three campuses to 720 students.

A Mercer Law School team wins the Allstar National Mock Trial challenge, knocking off Harvard in the semifinals and UCLA in the finals. It is the largest invitational law school mock trial competition in the country.

Trustees vote to increase the Aspire Campaign goal from $400 million to $500 million.

Mercer School of Medicine and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta launch a major initiative focused on improving pediatric health care in rural Georgia, supported by a dedicated and long-term sustainable fund of $200 million allocated by the Children’s Board of Trustees.

During Homecoming, Mercer celebrates the conclusion of its highly successful Aspire fund-raising campaign, booking more than $506 million in gifts and pledges against an original campaign goal of $400 million.

Mercer Law School begins year-long celebration of its 150th year.

The Tony and Nancy Moye Pharmacy and Health Sciences Center opens on the Atlanta campus.

College Street Plaza, a landscaped green space between Connell Student Center and Plunkett Hall, opens on the Macon campus, replacing an abandoned section of College Street and the Connell parking lot.

Total University assets surpass $1 billion.

School of Medicine establishes third- and fourth-year M.D. clinical program in Valdosta.

Roberts Academy at Mercer University, Georgia’s only school for dyslexic students outside metro Atlanta, opens two blocks from the Macon campus. The school was built and endowed with the largest gift in the University’s history from Hal and Marjorie Roberts of Lakeland, Florida.

Mercer football wins its first outright Southern Conference championship and advances to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I FCS Championships, finishing the season as the No. 7-ranked team in the nation.

University announces plans to relocate the School of Medicine’s Macon campus to downtown as part of a $350 million multi-use, public-private development along the Ocmulgee River and Riverside Drive. Commitments of $5 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, $10 million from the Peyton Anderson Foundation, $25 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and $25 million from the State of Georgia will help fund the Medical School’s flagship facility.

President Underwood informs the Board of Trustees of his intention to return to full-time teaching in the Law School in 2026.

President Underwood presides over his final commencement. More than 44,000 graduates – about half of the University’s living alumni – were presented diplomas during his tenure as president.

The total number of students and faculty participating in Mercer on Mission projects around the world approaches 3,000.

Mercer enrolls its largest and most credentialed freshman class in history on the Macon campus.