[5] A member of the NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas, its sports teams compete as the Mount Olive Trojans.

After a catastrophic fire destroyed the administration building in 1931, Eureka College ceased operations, and the Free Will Baptist church's efforts to fulfill its educational vision were reinvested in the founding of what is today the University of Mount Olive.

The institution was chartered in 1951 and opened in 1952 at Cragmont Assembly, the Free Will Baptist summer retreat grounds near Black Mountain, North Carolina, under the direction of the Reverend Lloyd Vernon.

In September 1953, the college moved to Mount Olive, North Carolina, nearer the center of denominational strength in the eastern region of the state.

Under the leadership of the Reverend David W. Hansley, chairman of the board of directors, plans were made to develop a junior college offering programs in arts and sciences and business.

The Reverend W. Burkette Raper was elected president in the summer of 1954, and in September the college began its first collegiate year with an enrollment of twenty-two students.

In addition to the satellite campuses at New Bern and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, the college expanded operations to reach non-traditional students at four other locations in North Carolina (Wilmington, Research Triangle Park, Washington, and Smithfield).

[citation needed] In July 2009, an additional location was opened in Jacksonville, North Carolina in 2009, and academic delivery of some of the college's programs became available online in 2012.