Ferrum College

Ferrum College is a private college in Ferrum, Virginia. Ferrum College has the second-oldest environmental science program in the nation and was ranked 41st by U.S. News & World Report in Comprehensive Colleges–Bachelor's (South) for 2006. The college itself is on the Virginia Historic Register. Roberts Hall and Beckham Hall are part of the Ferrum College Historic District and listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Ferrum's sports teams participate in the NCAA's Division III in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, formerly having played in the USA South Athletic Conference from 1998 through 2018. Its football team played in the Atlantic Central Football Conference from 1998 to 2000. Ferrum joined the NCAA Division III in 1985 after being previously classified as a junior college. Under head coach W. H. "Hank" Norton, Ferrum won the National Junior College Athletic Association national football championship four times (1965, 1968, 1974, 1977). Norton's last great team, in 1989, finished third overall in NCAA Division III, losing in the national semifinal to Dayton. This team featured the double-threat backfield of future AFC leading rusher Chris Warren and Freddie Stovall. Seven members of the Panthers' 1968 championship team—all of whom had transferred to Marshall University—died in the 1970 plane crash which also claimed the lives of 37 Marshall University Thundering Herd players and 30 others, including the team's coaches, 25 boosters and the entire flight crew.

In June 2017, the school announced that it would be leaving USA South to join the more Virginia-centric Old Dominion Athletic Conference, starting with the 2018-2019 school year. This will provide the Panthers with a better travelling situation and hopefully deepen traditional rivalries with Emory & Henry and Roanoke.