Common mistake. Ottawa University is in Ottawa, Kansas, a town along the Marais des Cygnes River with a population of 12,649. (Marais des Cynges means “Marsh of the Swans” in French.) Only 630 students attend Ottawa University, making it one of the smallest schools Kentucky has played, surely. The school was founded in 1865 as a Baptist missionary school to help children in the Ottawa Indian tribe. Eventually, it became a college.
Mitch Barnhart went there
…which is why we’re playing them tonight. Barnhart graduated from Ottawa in 1981, and is one of the most notable alumni, according to ye olde Wikipedia.