| New York University Violets | |
|---|---|
 | |
| University | New York University |
| Conference | UAA |
| NCAA | Division III |
| Location | New York,New York |
| Varsity teams | 23[1] |
| Basketball arena | John A. Paulson Center |
| Baseball stadium | SIUH Community Park |
| Soccer stadium | Home games usually played atGaelic Park |
| Mascot | Bobcat[2] |
| Nickname | Violets[2] |
| Colors | Purple and white[3] |
| Website | gonyuathletics |
 | |
NYU Violets is thenickname of the sports teams and other competitive teams atNew York University.[2] Theschool colors are purple and white.[4] Although officially known as the Violets, the schoolmascot is abobcat.[2] The Violets compete as a member ofNCAA Division III in theUniversity Athletic Association conference. The university sponsors 23 varsity sports, as well as club teams andintramural sports.
| Men's sports | Women's sports |
|---|---|
| Baseball | Basketball |
| Basketball | Cross Country |
| Cross Country | Fencing |
| Fencing | Golf |
| Golf | Soccer |
| Soccer | Softball |
| Swimming & Diving | Swimming & Diving |
| Tennis | Tennis |
| Track & Field† | Track & Field† |
| Volleyball | Volleyball |
| Wrestling | |
| † – Track and field includes both indoor and outdoor | |
For more than a century, NYU athletes have wornviolet and white colors in competition, which is the root of the nickname Violets.[2] In the 1980s, after briefly using a student dressed as aviolet for a mascot, the school instead adopted thebobcat as its mascot, from the abbreviation then being used by NYU'sBobst Library computerized catalog.[2]
NYU long offered a full athletic program, and was in fact a pioneer in the area of intercollegiate sports. When NYU began playingcollege football in 1873 it was one of thefirst football teams established in the United States (followingPrinceton,Rutgers,Columbia andYale).[5][6] Additionally, the current governing body for collegiate sports, theNCAA, was formed as the direct result of a meeting convened in New York City by NYU ChancellorHenry MacCracken in December 1905 to improve the safety of football.[5]
However, in a process somewhat similar to what occurred with NYU's current conference rivalChicago Maroons, athletics were gradually deemphasized at NYU over the passing decades. The school terminated its intercollegiate football program in 1953.[7] In 1971 the basketball program was abruptly dropped.[8] In 1981, at the urging of then presidentJohn Brademas, NYU removed its remaining sports fromNCAA Division I to Division III. Still, NYU maintains a significant history of athletic success.
Intercollegiate sports at NYU also had moments of importance beyond anything shown by a scoreboard. In the1940 season, before a football game between NYU andMissouri inColumbia, Missouri, 2,000 NYU students protested against the "gentlemen's agreement" to excludeAfrican-American athletes (at theUniversity of Missouri's request).[9] At the time, it was the largest protest ever against this practice.[9]
Since beginning play in 1873, NYU football has had many football players earn recognition for their achievements, most notably 1928All-American and future Hall-of-FamerKen Strong.[7] The Violets played their games at Ohio Field, which still exists on NYU's formerUniversity Heights campus atBronx Community College.[5] The most successful football coach in NYU history wasChick Meehan, who coached the team to seven successful seasons from 1925 to 1931. In 1939, head coachMal Stevens led NYU to a 5–1 start and the program's only appearance in theAP Poll, before fading to a 5–4 final record. Additionally, the model for theHeisman Trophy is based on 1930s NYU football starEd Smith.[5] Despite some shining moments, however,Time magazine characterized NYU's overall football history as mostly "lean" in 1942,[10] and NYU permanently dropped the sport as a varsity program after the 1952 season.[5][7]
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While a member of Division I, theViolets' men's basketball program achieved far greater success than the school's football team. Its bestNCAA tournament result was finishing as national runner-up to Oklahoma State (coached by the legendaryHenry Iba) in the1945 NCAA tournament, with future NBA Hall of FamerDolph Schayes playing for NYU. NYU returned to the Final Four in1960, losing to Ohio State, whose roster featured legendsJerry Lucas andJohn Havlicek. NYU was even more successful in the years before the advent of theNIT tournament (in 1938) or theNCAA tournament (in 1939). In1920 NYU won theAmateur Athletic Unionnational championship tournament, led by theHelms Athletic FoundationPlayer of the Year,Howard Cann, and the 19–1NYU team of 1935 was named (retrospectively) by the Helms Foundation and thePremo-Porretta Power Poll as the best team in the nation.[11][12] The Violets' most recent post-season accomplishment as a Division I school was finishing as the runner-up toBYU in the1966 National Invitation Tournament. Their six appearances in the NCAA basketball tournament are the second-most among teams no longer in Division I (afterOklahoma City University's 11), and their nine wins are the most among those teams.
NYU maintained a nationally ranked basketball team through the sixties with such stars asBarry Kramer andSatch Sanders going to the NBA. The Violets played most of their games inMadison Square Garden, most notably their duels with UCLA led byKareem Abdul-Jabbar, but games against less exalted local opponents like Fordham were played in the field house on the NYU campus inUniversity Heights.
NYU continues to compete at the Division I level in fencing, and the program boasts 30 national championships. The university's men's fencing team won the mostNCAA Division I championships or co-championships prior to the NCAA's establishment of coed team competition in 1990. NYU men won 12 NCAA titles between 1947 and 1976, plus an additional eight titlesprior to NCAA sponsorship.
Gilbert Eisner, a future national champion, went undefeated in the three years of 1959, 1960, and 1961, and won the NCAA épée championship in 1960 while fencing for NYU.[13][14] Also in 1960, future OlympianEugene Glazer won the NCAA National Championship in foil.[15] SingerNeil Diamond was a member of the 1960NCAA men's championship team.[16]Herb Cohen (class of 1962), a future Olympian, went undefeated in 1961 and won both the NCAA foil championship and the NCAA saber championship, and then in 1962 won his second straight NCAA Championship in foil, while being named national Fencer of the Year.[17][18][19] In 1965, Howard Goodman was the NCAA saber champion.[20] In 1967, future OlympianGeorge Masin won the NCAA épée championship.Martin Lang, a future Olympic fencer, was 55-5 for the team, graduating in 1972.[21]Risto Hurme, a future Olympian, won the NCAA épée championship in 1973, 1974, and 1975.[22] In 1977, OlympianHans Wieselgren won the NCAA épée championship.[23]
The women's fencing team has been national champions ten times, winning theNational Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) Mildred Stuyvesant-Fish Trophy from 1929 to 1933, in 1938, from 1949 to 1951, and in 1971 when coached by future Olympic coachMichel Sebastiani.[24][25][26] NIWFA was co-founded by NYU freshmenJulia Jones and Dorothy Hafner in 1928.[27][28]
NYU, in its relatively short history in NCAA Division III, has won two national team championships (and many league championships). The basketball program has enjoyed a good deal of success since being reinstated on the Division III level in 1983.[8] In 1997, the women's basketball team, led by head coachJanice Quinn, won a championship title over theUniversity of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four. NYU men's basketball and head coachJoe Nesci appeared in the Division III National Championship game in 1994.
In 2007, the men's cross country team, led by head coach Nick McDonough, captured the NCAA Division III team championship at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
NYU added varsity baseball and softball teams for the 2014–2015 school year.[1] NYU had not sponsored varsity baseball since 1974, but it previously produced several major-league players, includingRalph Branca andEddie Yost.[1] Home games were played atMaimonides Park, home of the Minor LeagueBrooklyn Cyclones, and are now played atSIUH Community Park, the home of the Staten Island FerryHawks professional baseball team of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Softball was an entirely new varsity sport for NYU.[1]
NYU has won five teamDivision III NCAA national championships:
NYU athletes have won four individual NCAA Division III national championship:
NYU had won 37Division I national championships, prior to its move to Division III:
TheColes Sports and Recreation Center served as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams, includingbasketball,wrestling, andvolleyball for over three decades starting in 1981. Coles was closed in February 2016 to make way for NYU's new $1 Billion mixed use development: the John A. Paulson Center, located at 181 Mercer.[31] Unlike Coles, Mercer Street will host a combination of expanded athletic facilities, classroom and residential space.[32]
Many of NYU's varsity teams sometimes play their games at various facilities and fields throughout Manhattan because of the scarcity of space for playing fields in that borough. The soccer teams play their home games atVan Cortlandt Park, and the track and field teams have their home meets at the New Balance Track and Field Center. The golf team does not have a home golf course in Manhattan, but they often practice at theChelsea Piers Athletic Facility and at various country club courses that have a relationship with the team and university in New York City. The rowing team travels on a daily basis to their boathouse in New Jersey, roughly 10 miles from Washington Square. The tennis team practices and plays home matches at theStadium Tennis Center, located in the Bronx.
In 2002, NYU opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility. This facility's amenities include a rock-climbing wall, anatatorium with a 25-yard by 25-meter swimming pool, basketball courts, weight training, cardiovascular rooms, and a spinning room. Palladium, erected on the site of the famous New York nightclub bearing the same name, is home to the university'sswimming anddiving teams andwater polo teams.
The Baseball team plays its home games atSIUH Community Park, home of theStaten Island FerryHawks.[citation needed] The Tennis team plays at the Stadium Tennis Center.[33]
NYU's rival, dictated by history and geography, has beenColumbia University, though it also had a rivalry withRutgers University, as shown by olderfight song lyrics. Rutgers and NYU played 43 times in football from 1890 to 1952, with Rutgers having a 23-18-2 record against the Violets. Eleven of the final 14 NYU home games were played at eitherYankee Stadium or thePolo Grounds.[34] Rutgers also played NYU 46 times in basketball between 1906 and 1971, though unlike the football rivalry, NYU had a decided edge on Rutgers, winning all but ten of the contests, including 18 straight between 1928 and 1966.[35] NYU's annual football game againstFordham University was known as the Manhattan Subway classic.[10]Currently, NYU's biggest rivals are in the UAA (University Athletic Association), including teams such as Emory University in Atlanta and Washington University in St. Louis.
NYU students also compete in several "club" teams (which may or may not compete on an intercollegiate basis) includinglacrosse,soccer,water polo,crew,squash,rugby union,table tennis,Quidditch,ice hockey,equestrian,TaeKwonDo,Kendo,ultimate,flag football,climbing,badminton, andEsports. NYU also offers intramural sport teams.
NYU's ice hockey team has been one of its most successful athletic programs, winning 2 National Championships at theACHA Division II level before making the move up to Division I ACHA in 2017. They currently compete in theEastern States Collegiate Hockey League, a conference which includes opponents such asSyracuse,Rutgers, and theUniversity of Delaware. Their head coach is Dustin Good.[36]
NYU's Taekwondo (TKD) team competes in theEastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (ECTC) and in theNational Collegiate Taekwondo Association (NCTA). Founded in 1987 by Master Lesly, the team has been a large presence in the Club Sports community at NYU.[37] As of 2020, NYU Sport TKD placed first in the ECTC Division II. The coaches for the team include Grandmaster Mark Lesly, MasterErica Linthorst, and MasterAndrew Park. The team has been part of the ECTC since 1990 and were represented in the first iteration of the now ECTC All-Star team.[38]
The first intercollegiate lacrosse game in the United States was played on November 22, 1877 between New York University andManhattan College. On May 7, 1924, NYU overwhelmed and shutout Harvard at Soldier's Field by a score of 7-0. Men's lacrosse at NYU was discontinued sometime after 1931 but was revived nearly 60 years later in 1990. Under head coach Chris Schreiber (Hopkins '86), the team went undefeated in its inaugural season and won its first four games to start the 1991 season, including wins against Rider, Iona and Columbia. The team currently competes in the NY Metro Conference of the National College Lacrosse League. In 2010, NYU defeated Columbia twice in the span of 24 hours at the Beltway Bash Tournament at the University of Maryland. In 2015 NYU made an NCLL sweet 16 appearance before falling to Quinnipiac.
NYU has hosted a crew team for over a century, tracing its beginnings back to 1902.[39] While initially the team was exclusively male, the sport would eventually expand to be coed decades later. Today, the team performs water practices on the Passaic River in Lyndhurst, New Jersey; while using NYU's three athletic facilities for its dry land workouts. They travel to multiple regattas in the fall and spring, including theHead of the Charles andDad Vails where NYU takes on varsity crews likeYale University,Columbia University, and theUniversity of Pennsylvania.
NYU Men's and Women's Water Polo Team compete in the New York Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association, National Collegiate Club/Division III.
Unsuccessful attempts have been made at reviving NYU football at club level, both as an intramural activity and as an intercollegiate sport. From 1964 to 1966, NYU participated with Georgetown and Fordham in NYU's first attempt to play non-Division I football, reviving Georgetown football but not doing the same for NYU.[40][41]
The sale of NYU's University Heights campus in 1973 hampered further attempts to create a football team, due to scant recreational space downtown. Nevertheless, as recently as 2003 several students created a football club but struggled to find extra funding to defray expenses, find supporters, or reliable participants for practices and games (held at theEast River Park football fields at 6th and FDR).
As of 2025, club football has been revived as a sport at NYU and currently competes in competitions against other east coast college’s flag football teams.
Gilbert Eisner epee.
Sports teams based inNew York State | ||
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