Butler University is a private liberal arts university in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It was founded by abolitionist and attorney Ovid Butler in 1855. It serves over 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students in 60 degree programs through five colleges: Business, Education, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the Jordan College of Fine Arts.

On November 1, 1855, Butler was opened and was originally known as the North Western Christian University. In 1875, the university moved to a 25-acre campus in Irvington. It was there that the school was renamed Butler University "in recognition of Ovid Butler's inspirational vision, determined leadership, and financial support." At the dawn of the twentieth century, the thriving young university counted Edgar W. Abbott and Clara McIntyre among their distinguished faculty. McIntyre came to Indianapolis’s prestigious institution from Lexington, Massachusetts while Abbott had been formerly connected with the University of Chicago. After brief tenures at Butler, the two became engaged to be married. They were living rather happily until the night of July 24, 1901. On that mid summer’s evening, Abbott, who had been at Butler for just two years, decided to take a bath in nearby Broad Ripple Creek. Somehow, while in the process of bathing, the thirty-five year old professor of languages tragically drowned. The incident garnered national attention.Over two decades later in 1922, Butler purchased Fairview Park, and in 1928, moved their campus to the current Fairview location. The campus consists of thirty-one buildings covering an area of 290 acres.

Butler University's athletic teams, known as the Bulldogs, compete in the NCAA Division I Horizon League and the Pioneer Football League. Butler's basketball arena, Hinkle Fieldhouse, was the largest basketball arena in the US for several decades. It is considered a Hoosier Hysteria icon: from its opening in 1928 until 1971, it was the site of the final rounds of the Indiana state high school basketball tournament and was the site for the championship game in the movie Hoosiers. Butler holds two national championships in men's basketball; one from 1924, and one from 1929.

Of note, Butler has the best winning percentage and most wins of all D-I men's basketball programs in the state of Indiana over the last decade (21.6 wins per year through 2006), while having won the last six meetings with in-state rival Notre Dame and two of the last four against Indiana University. Butler defeated both Notre Dame and Indiana during the 2006-07 regular season, while also defeating in-state rival Purdue to move to 2-0 against the Boilermakers this decade. Butler has also been the defending champion of the Hoosier Classic men's basketball tournament since the 2001-02 season, and has advanced to postseason play eight of the last ten years (5 NCAA's, 3 NIT's). Butler has been to six NCAA Tournaments since 1997.