Where is Liberty located? What to know of Georgia's potential NCAA Softball Tournament opponent
Georgia softball's road to the 2024 Women’s College World Series begins Friday with a matchup against UNC Wilmington at Turner Softball Stadium in Athens.
On the heels of a 39-16 regular-season record, the Bulldogs enter the 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament as one of the dozen teams with the best chances of making it to Oklahoma City for the WCWS, with a No. 11 national seed and all of the advantages that come with hosting a regional.
One of the teams that stands in the Bulldogs’ way of making it to the super regional round (or further) has a familiar name.
In its relatively short history — the school is only about 50 years old — Liberty University has become a widely known entity across the country. The private Evangelical university is one of the largest in the country in terms of total enrollment. Founded by pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, Liberty was described in a 2015 Washington Post story as a "bastion of the Christian right” for the role its leadership has traditionally played in national Republican politics.
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Though the university has become a cultural and political lightning rod, its athletic teams have helped promote Liberty to a broader audience. Its football program embarked on an undefeated 2023 regular season and earned a spot in the Fiesta Bowl, where it was thumped by Oregon 45-6. Its basketball program has been consistently successful and even won an NCAA tournament game in 2019.
As Georgia prepares to potentially face it in the coming days, here’s what you need to know about Liberty, including its location, mascot, conference and more:
Where is Liberty located?
Location: Lynchburg, Va.
Total enrollment: 135,000, 15,800 (residential)
Liberty’s campus is located in Lynchburg, Virginia, a city of nearly 80,000 residents located about 115 miles west of Richmond and settled near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The university was founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College before adopting its current name in the mid-1980s. It has become known for its strict student code of conduct, The Liberty Way, which bans alcohol, tobacco products, media and entertainment that is “offensive to Liberty's standards and traditions,” and students of the opposite sex spending the night with one another. The document has received harsh criticism for prohibiting romantic relationships between individuals of the same sex, as well as “actions confirming denial of biological birth sex.”
Liberty’s on-campus enrollment has grown over the years, reaching a record 15,800 on-campus students in 2022. Much of its student body takes online courses, accounting for close to 90% of its total enrollment.
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What is Liberty’s mascot?
Liberty’s athletic teams are known as the Flames.
The moniker came from a student body vote in 1974, with Flames derived from the university’s motto of “Knowledge Aflame.” Though the university’s name and its colors have changed — it switched from green and gold to red, white and blue in 1976 — its nickname has remained in place.
Liberty’s mascot is Sparky, a bald eagle. In 1980, the eagle was designated as Liberty’s animal mascot because of “the patriotic symbolism connected with the school’s name.” Originally named Lou due to Liberty’s initials of “LU,” it was changed to Sparky to match the school’s Flames nickname.
What conference does Liberty play in?
Liberty competes in Conference USA, which it joined for the 2023-24 academic year.
Prior to that move, the Flames were an independent in football and were a member of the Atlantic Sun in all other sports.
Who is Liberty’s softball coach?
The Flames are led by head coach Dot Richardson, who is in her 11th season at the helm since being hired by the university in July 2013.
A two-time Olympic gold medalist, a five-time all-American and an NCAA champion as a player at UCLA, Richardson is considered one of the most accomplished figures in the history of American softball.
She’s decorated away from the field, as well, having earned a master’s degree in exercise physiology/health from Adelphi University in 1984 and a doctor of medicine from Louisville in 1993.
Since being hired, she has overseen a significant improvement in the Liberty program. After going just 11-46 in her first season, the Flames won 46 games in her fourth season. Liberty has at least 40 victories in each of the past six full seasons and could make it seven with four more wins in 2024.
In Richardson’s time at Liberty, the Flames have gone 382-253 overall and 159-66 in conference play.
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Liberty’s 2024 season rundown
2024 record: 36-23 overall, 19-5 in Conference USA play
After a strong regular season that included wins against nationally ranked LSU, Virginia, Penn State and Charlotte teams, Liberty defeated New Mexico State (twice), UTEP, Louisiana Tech and Western Kentucky to win the 2024 Conference USA Tournament and earn the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Softball Tournament.
The Flames defeated Western Kentucky 4-3 in nine innings in the championship, with a Savannah Jessee RBI double bringing home the winning run.
Liberty NCAA Tournament history
2002: Regionals
2011: Regionals
2018: Regionals
2021: Regionals
2022: Regionals
2023: Regionals
2024: TBD
The Flames have made the NCAA Tournament seven times in program history, including in five of the past six years in which the event was held. Once there, however, Liberty has never advanced past the regional round.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Liberty location, nickname more for Georgia's potential NCAA Softball Tournament opponent
