Worcester State University

Worcester State University is an American liberal arts and sciences university located in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Founded in 1874 as the Massachusetts State Normal School at Worcester, WSU was the fifth of nine teachers training colleges in the state. In the late 19th century Worcester had become a major industrial centre and Worcester city officials created a training school for teachers to serve the city's burgeoning public school system.

Spurred by the success of this city-run normal school, the Worcester School Committee successfully petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a state-sponsored teacher training institution in the city. The original campus was located on St. Ann's Hill near the city's downtown where the school's gothic stone classroom building was built in 1874.

By 1900, the campus also included a president's house, a women's dormitory called "Stoddard Terrace" and a distinctive turreted gymnasium annexe to the main building. This campus would serve WSU for nearly sixty years until the current Chandler Street campus opened in 1932.

The Worcester State University athletic department currently sponsors men's intercollegiate baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey, indoor and outdoor track and field, and soccer, and women's intercollegiate basketball, cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, indoor and outdoor track and field, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. Intramural sports offered at WSU include coed soccer, coed flag football, street hockey, dodgeball, wiffleball, floor hockey, stickball, indoor soccer, ultimate, and softball.