UC Davis Aggies

UC Davis Aggies
University University of California, Davis
Conference Big West Conference
Big Sky Conference
NCAA Division I
Athletic director Kevin Blue[1]
Location Davis, California
Varsity teams 23[2][3]
Football stadium Aggie Stadium
Basketball arena The Pavilion at ARC
Baseball stadium Dobbins Stadium
Softball stadium La Rue Field
Soccer stadium Aggie Soccer Field
Other arenas Aggie Field Hockey Facility
Marya Welch Tennis Center
Schaal Aquatics Center
Toomey Field
Mascot Mustang
Nickname Gunrock
Fight song Aggie Fight
Colors Yale Blue and Gold[4]
         
Website www.ucdavisaggies.com

The UC Davis Aggies (also referred to Ags, Aggies or Cal Aggies) are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Davis. For football, the Aggies compete in Division I FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA), and are members of the Big Sky Conference, granting UC Davis the distinction of being one of only three UC campuses to field a football team (Cal and UCLA being the other two). The Aggies are also members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in women's gymnastics and women's lacrosse, the America East Conference in field hockey,[5] and the Western Water Polo Association for Men's Water Polo.

The Aggies' achievements in Division II motivated a decision (following a year of heavy discussion by campus administrators, faculty, staff, students, alumni and the local community) in 2003 for the athletics program to reclassify to Division I.[6][7]

Sports sponsored

Men's sports Women's sports
BaseballBasketball
BasketballCross country
Cross countryField hockey
FootballGolf
GolfGymnastics
SoccerLacrosse
TennisSoccer
Track and fieldSoftball
Water poloSwimming and diving
Tennis
Track and field†
Volleyball
Water polo
† – Women's programs includes both indoor and outdoor

Soccer

The UC Davis Aggies men's soccer team have an NCAA Division I Tournament record of 1–2 through two appearances.[8]

Water polo

The UC Davis Aggies men's water polo team have an NCAA Division I Tournament record of 0–6 through six appearances.[9]

Former sports

On April 20, 2010, the school announced that effective July 1, 2010, four sports would be eliminated due to a financial crisis and cuts in state funding.[10] The sports were women’s rowing, men’s swimming and diving, men’s indoor track and field, and wrestling.[3][11]

Prior to 2010, the last time UC Davis had discontinued a sport was men's gymnastics in 1987.[12]

Championships

Team championships

UC Davis has never won a national championship at the NCAA Division I level.[13] UC Davis won 8 national championships at the NCAA Division II level.[13]

NCAA Division II National Championships

  • Men's basketball (1): 1998
  • Men's golf (1): 1979
  • Rowing (2): 2002, 2003
  • Softball (1): 2003
  • Men's tennis (1): 1992
  • Women's tennis (2): 1990, 1993

National championships that were not bestowed by the NCAA

  • Women's gymnastics – Division III: 1981 (AIAW)
  • Women's tennis – Division III: 1980, 1981 (AIAW)

Club national team championships

  • Co-ed archery (1): 2015 (USA Archery)
  • Men's archery (1): 2016 (USA Archery)
  • Women's archery (1): 2016 (USA Archery)
  • Men's boxing (1): 2013 (USIBA)
  • Co-ed cycling (4): 1994, 2001, 2006, 2009 (USA Cycling)
  • Men's polo (1): 1979 (USPA)
  • Men's rugby (2) – Division I-AA: 2015, 2016 (USA Rugby)
  • Women's rugby (2): 2016, 2017 (USA Rugby)
  • Women's ultimate (2): 1989, 2004 (USA Ultimate)
  • Co-ed water skiing – Division II (1): 2013 (NCWSA)

Note: Those with no denoted division is assumed that the institution earned a national championship at the highest level.

Team Tournament Appearances

The UC Davis Aggies competed in the NCAA Tournament across 11 active sports (5 men's and 6 women's) 28 times at the Division I level.[14]

NCAA Tournament Appearances

  • Baseball (1): 2008
  • Men's basketball (1): 2017
  • Women's basketball (1): 2011
  • Women's golf (4): 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015
  • Women's gymnastics (2): 1998, 2014
  • Men's soccer (2): 2007, 2008
  • Softball (1): 2010
  • Men's outdoor track and field (2): 1941, 1974
  • Women's outdoor track and field (5): 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018
  • Men's water polo (6): 1974, 1975, 1996, 1997, 2016, 2017
  • Women's water polo (3): 2006, 2008, 2015

Individual Championships

UC Davis had 2 Aggies win NCAA individual championships at the Division I level.[13]

At the NCAA Division II level, UC Davis garnered 72 individual championships.[13]

Athletic facilities

Colors, mascot, and spirit

The official school colors are blue and gold. The blue is due to the UC's early connection to Yale[17] and as a result is often referred to as "Yale Blue",[18] and[19] although UC Davis' official blue, usually called "Aggie Blue", Pantone 295[20] differs from Yale Blue (approximately Pantone 289[21]).

The official school mascot is the mustang. Students at UC Davis are referred to as Aggies in honor of the school's agricultural heritage. Unlike most colleges, there is a distinction between the name for students and the mascot. There was a movement to change the school's mascot from the mustang to the cow, but despite student support this was turned down after opposition from alumni. Many people will call the mustang mascot of UC Davis an Aggie, but this is not its proper name; the mustang mascot is named Gunrock. The name dates to 1921 when the US Army brought a horse named Gun Rock to UC Davis to supply high-quality stock for cavalry horses. The mustang mascot was selected to honor that cavalry horse.

UC Davis students gather at sporting events to rally as the Aggie Pack, the largest student-run school spirit organization in the United States. The Aggie Pack cheers on the sports team to the music of the Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh! and its alumni band.

Rivalries

The highlight of the recent 4-year transition to Division I occurred on September 17, 2005, when the Aggies defeated the heavily favored Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium by a score of 20–17 on a TD pass with 8 seconds left in the game. The Aggies also pulled off an upset against Stanford in basketball just months later, beating the Cardinal 64–58 with a late rally at home on December 4, 2005. The win in these two major sports and the addition of the Aggies beating the Cardinal in soccer earlier in 2005 as well as a win in wrestling and two wins in baseball pulled the Aggies' win loss record with Stanford to 5–1 for men's sports the 05-06 year.

The Aggie football team plays Sacramento State in the annual Causeway Classic for a trophy made from Yolo Causeway cement (formerly the Causeway Carriage). The Classic is part of a larger competition, the Causeway Cup, that tracks head-to-head meetings between the schools in virtually all varsity sports.[22] The football team also plays Cal Poly in the annual Battle for the Golden Horseshoe.

Division II success: 1990–2003

The Aggies finished first in NCAA Division II six times in 2003 and won the NACDA Director's Cup 4 years in a row from 1999 to 2003. In 1998, the UC Davis men's basketball team won the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship despite being one of the few non-scholarship institutions in Division II at that time. They have also won NCAA Division II championships in Softball (2003), Men's Tennis (1992), and Women's Tennis (1990, 1993).

Notable non-varsity sports

Rugby

Colby "Babe" Slater, won gold medals with the U.S. rugby national team at the 1920 and 1924 Olympics, and was captain of the 1924 team. His gold medals are on display at the entrance to the Activities and Recreation Center.[23]

The UC Davis Aggies won the men’s 2015 DI-AA college rugby championship by defeating Central Florida in the final 18–15 at Kennesaw State University’s Fifth Third Bank Stadium.[24] The men repeated as the 2016 D1-AA as national champions by defeating the Notre Dame College of South Euclid, Ohio in the final by a score of 17–13.

The UC Davis Aggies won the women's 2016 D1 college rugby national championship by defeating the University of Virginia in the final 30–25 at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, CA.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Kevin Blue Named UC Davis Director of Athletics". Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  2. ↑ Archived July 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. 1 2 Archived May 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ "UC Davis Athletics Style Guide" (PDF). Retrieved May 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Cal, UC Davis, Pacific, Stanford Added As #AEFH Associate Members" (Press release). America East Conference. October 16, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  6. ↑ "UC Davis Takes to NCAA Division I Playing Field". UC Davis News & Information. Retrieved July 19, 2007.
  7. ↑ "UC Davis Timeline: The Road to Division I". UC Davis News & Information. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2007.
  8. ↑ "Division I Men's Soccer Championships Records Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
  9. ↑ "National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championships Records Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  10. ↑ "UC Davis to drop four teams due to financial crisis". Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  11. ↑ Historical Sports at UC Davis, http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/ot/discontinued-sports.html
  12. ↑ UC Davis to drop four teams due to financial crisis, April 16, 2010, http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=9432
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Championships Summary" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  14. ↑ "NCAA Championships Statistics". National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  15. ↑ "NCAA Championships Records (Discontinued Sports)" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  16. ↑ "Division I Wrestling Championships Records Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  17. ↑ "UC Davis Spotlight". Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  18. ↑ "UC Davis Football – Aggie Football General Information". Athletics.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  19. ↑ "California Davis Aggies - NCAA Basketball - CBSSports.com". Sportsline.com. 1996-08-19. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  20. ↑ "Publication Standards". University Communications. Archived from the original on July 9, 2007. Retrieved July 19, 2007.
  21. ↑ "Yale's Visual Identity: Yale Blue". Yale University. Retrieved July 19, 2007.
  22. ↑ "A Classic Rivalry". Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Olympic Rugby Book Author's Comments" Archived 2015-06-23 at the Wayback Machine., Mark Ryan, June 22, 2015.
  24. ↑ "The UC Davis Aggies are the Men's DIAA college champions". May 9, 2015.
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