Varsity sports

2007-04-15T16:03:24Z

Filbert mcg:

Columbia fields 29 NCAA Division I '''varsity sports''' programs that compete in the [[Ivy League]]. The school's mascot is a [[Columbia Lion|lion]] named [[Roar-ee]] and its [[School colors|colors]] are Columbia Blue and white. The Athletics Director is [[M. Dianne Murphy]].

== Men's Teams ==

* [[Baseball]] 
* [[Basketball]] 
* [[Cross Country]] 
* [[Fencing]] 
* [[Golf]] 
* [[Lacrosse]] 
* [[Heavyweight Rowing]] 
* [[Lightweight Rowing]] 
* [[Soccer]] 
* [[Swimming and Diving]] 
* [[Tennis]] 
* [[Track and Field]] 
* [[Football]] 
* [[Wrestling]] 

== Women's Teams ==

* [[Archery]] 
* [[Women's Basketball]] 
* [[Cross Country]] 
* [[Fencing]] 
* [[Field Hockey]] 
* [[Women's Golf]] 
* [[Lacrosse]] 
* [[Women's Rowing]] 
* [[Women's Soccer]] 
* [[Softball]] 
* [[Women's Swimming and Diving]] 
* [[Women's Tennis]] 
* [[Track and Field]] 
* [[Volleyball]] 

== External Links ==

* [http://www.gocolumbialions.com/ Athletics Website]

[[Category:Athletics]]

Football Team

2007-04-15T00:50:15Z

Filbert mcg:

Columbia has had five graduates on NFL rosters in the last year – more than any other Ivy school. They are: Marcellus Wiley '97, Steve Cargile '04, Jeff Otis '05, Wade Fletcher '05 and Michael Quarshie '05.

During the first half of the 20th century, the Lions enjoyed consistent success on the gridiron. Under Hall of Fame coach Lou Little, the 1934 squad shut out heavily favored Stanford in the Rose Bowl winning what was the precursor to the national championship. Little’s 1947 edition beat defending national champion Army, then riding a 32-game win streak, in one of the most stunning upsets of the century. Greats of the era included the All-American Luckman, the quarterback who would lead the Chicago Bears to four NFL championships in the 1940s while ushering football into the modern era with the T formation.

Since sharing their only Ivy League title with Harvard in 1961, the football Lions have enjoyed just three winning seasons (6-3 in 1971, 5-4-1 in 1994 and 8-2 in 1996). The distance of practice facilities at Baker Athletics Complex from the main campus at Morningside Heights, competition for the attention of the student body with all the diversions that Manhattan has to offer, and the lack of a winning tradition sometimes are cited as challenges to recruiting at Columbia. Norries Wilson, a runner-up for national assistant coach of the year while at the University of Connecticut in 2004, is the latest head coach brought in to try to turn the program around. The vastly improved 2006 squad notched a 5-5 campaign (the program's first .500-or-better season in 10 years), with two victories to close out the year against Cornell and Brown. Wilson, along with his staff, have restored pride in the Columbia Football program and, by all indications, have the proverbial ship pointed in the right direction.

A bright spot in recent Columbia football history has been the Liberty Cup. Dedicated in 2002, the annual competition with crosstown rival Fordham University has proved popular among students at both schools, the only Division I-AA programs in New York. Columbia leads the series, 3-2.

==Facilities==

The team plays its home games at the beautiful, bucolic, bilateral, urbane, multicultural, eleemosynary, yet still iconoclastic [[Lawrence A. Wien Stadium]] at [[Baker Field]] on 218th Street in the [[Inwood]] section of [[Manhattan]].

==History==

[[Image:Columbiaharvard.jpg|thumb|Early football game between Columbia and [[Harvard]]. Characteristically, Harvard is winning.]]

[[Image:Yalevcolumbia.jpg|thumb|Early Columbia-[[Yale]] game]]

Columbia has a storied football history. The first college team was organized in [[1870]]. By the 1980s, the team was experiencing such glories as a record 44-game losing streak. The jubilation that ensued upon the end of this nightmare was possibly the largest outbreak of school spirit ever seen at Columbia.

At another illustrious moment, possibly in an effort to bolster fan enthusiasm, the players joined the [[Majority Coalition]] and beat up on some hippies during the [[1968 protests]].

This is not to mention the period from [[1905]] to [[1915]], when [[University President]] [[Nicholas Murray Butler]] banned the sport for being too rowdy. Recently, the administration has only tried (unwisely and unsuccessfully) to [[Bakergate|ban alcohol]] at games. They stopped when they realized that no one could rationally cheer for Columbia while sober.

Contrary to popular belief, the football team has occaisonally won games, most notably the [[1961]] Ivy League title, the [[1934]] Rose Bowl, and a [[1947]] match agains the cadets of [[Army]] who hadn't lost a game in four years.

The team has made history in other ways as well. One of the first intercollegiate football games was played between Columbia and [[Yale]] in [[1872]]. An early Columbia-[[Princeton]] game was the first live televised sporting event.

Heavily recruited football players sometimes come back to speak at [[Columbia College]] [[Class Day]].

== External links ==

* [http://www.gocolumbialions.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9600&KEY=&SPID=3885&SPSID=43660 Columbia Football]
* [http://roarlions.blogspot.com/ Roar Lions Roar: a Columbia football blog with far better coverage than Spec]

[[Category:Varsity sports]]

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Varsity sports

Football Team