The university was also home to the Enid-Phillips Symphony Orchestra, and its campus regularly hosted events for the Tri-State Music Festival.

Originally named Oklahoma Christian University, the school was founded by Ely Vaughn Zollars on October 9, 1906.

Though ultimately the university would base its teachings on the Disciples of Christ denomination, the committee to bring a university to Enid had a more diverse religious background: Edmund Frantz (Presbyterian), Frank Hamilton (United Brethren, Disciple), Al Loewen (Jewish), J.M.

[1] Funding for the operation of the university was supplied by Thomas Wharton Phillips of Butler, Pennsylvania and the Disciples of Christ Churches of Oklahoma.

[7] Phillips University also ran a graduate business school which awarded MBA degrees, and was well recognized in the states of Oklahoma and Texas.

Due to financial problems and decreasing enrollment,[8] Phillips filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 1, 1998, and closed its doors four months later.

[11] Maulbetsch was an All-American running back at the University of Michigan in 1914, where he earned the nickname the "Human Bullet".

Maulbetsch quickly turned Phillips into a major contender in the southwest, as his teams beat Oklahoma and Texas and lost only one game in the 1918 and 1919 seasons.

The 1919 team, known as "Mauley's Iron Men", was considered by many experts to be the finest football squad in the southwest that season.

In 1989 Phillips University opened a 12 acres (4.9 ha) branch campus at the Kyoto Institute of Technology and Science in Japan.