Organized as Abilene Baptist College by cattlemen, preachers, and the Sweetwater Baptist Association in 1891, the school was named for New York pastor James B. Simmons after his donation helped complete its first building, which housed the president, classes, and women students in the early years, while men lived in a nearby barn-like structure called "Valhalla." Early presidents included missionary-editor O.C. Pope, renowned educator Oscar Henry Cooper, and Jefferson Davis Sandefer, during whose tenure from 1909 to 1940 the institution grew extensively. Approximately 44,000 students have enrolled and 10,000 degrees have been conferred, with former students entering business and professions such as medicine, law, teaching, and engineering, while ministers and lay workers served in hundreds of pulpits and on all continents. Students have come from many states and foreign countries. Its athletic teams are the Cowboys, and the nationally known Cowboy Band has played in 45 states and on 3 continents. The school was renamed Simmons University in 1925 and Hardin-Simmons in 1934 after generous benefactions by John G. and Mary Hardin. Since 1940 it has been guided by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and most extant buildings have been constructed since 1945.