NYU Violets

NYU Violets is the name of the sports teams and other competitive teams at New York University. The colors are the trademarked hue "NYU Violet", and white. The school mascot represents a bobcat. The Violets compete as NCAA Division III teams in the University Athletic Association conference. The university sponsors varsity sports as well as several intramural and club teams.

History
NYU formerly competed in Division I athletics. NYU left NCAA Division I athletics in 1981 at the urging of then president John Brademas. Exceptions are men’s volleyball, which competes in the Division I Eastern Collegiate Volleyball Association, and the fencing team, which also participates in Division I. The National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) was founded by NYU freshmen Julia Jones and Dorothy Hafner.

While a member of Division I, the Violets' basketball team achieved prominence by finishing as the runner-up to Oklahoma State (coached by the legendary Henry Iba) in the 1945 NCAA tournament and making it to the Final Four in 1960 (won by Ohio State, whose roster featured legends Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek). The Violets' most recent post season accomplishments as a Division I school was finishing as the runner up in the 1966 National Invitational Tournament, in which they lost to BYU.

Although the nickname for the university’s sports teams has always been "The Violets", the need was felt for a mascot to appear at athletic competitions. In the 1980s, the Department of Athletics began using a Bobcat as the mascot. The choice was derived from the abbreviation then being used by the Bobst Library computerized catalog — short: Bobcat.

While NYU had many All American football players (most outstanding among them Hall of Famer Ken Strong '56), NYU has not had a varsity football team since the 1960s. In fact, NYU gave up varsity football after 69 "lean" years in 1942 (see Time Magazine, Mar. 2 1942) However they maintained a nationally ranked basketball team through the sixties with such stars as Barry Kramer and Satch Sanders, sending them to the NBA They played most of their games in Madison Square Garden, most notably their duels with UCLA led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Less exalted local opponents like Fordham played in the field house on the Heights campus. The sale of the University Heights campus in 1971 further hampered attempts to create a football team, due to scant recreational space downtown. Several other valiant but ill-fated attempts have been made to revive football at NYU at club level, both as an intramural activity and as an intercollegiate sport. From 1964-1966, NYU participated with Georgetown in NYU’s first attempt to play non-division I football, reviving Georgetown football but not doing the same for NYU. The same fate was met after club "competitions" with Fordham about two decades later. 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 the East River Park football fields at 6th and FDR.)

Intercollegiate sports at NYU had moments of importance beyond anything shown by a scoreboard. In the 1940 season, before a football game between NYU and Missouri, students protested against the "gentlemen's agreement" to exclude Black athletes (at Missouri's request). The protest against this practice is the first time such protests were recorded to have occurred

The university's men's fencing team won the most NCAA Division I championships or co-championships prior to the NCAA's establishment of coed team competition in 1990. The twelve titles were earned between 1947 and 1976. The women's fencing team has been national champions ten times—the women's foil team won the NIWFA's Mildred Stuyvesant-Fish Trophy from 1929 to 1933, in 1938, from 1949 to 1951, and in 1971.

NYU, in its 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 its return to intercollegiate competition. In 1997, the women’s basketball team, led by head coach Janice Quinn, won a championship title over the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four. NYU men's basketball and head coach Joe 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, MN.

NYU men's and women's swimming teams, under head coaches Bob Sorensen and Lauren Smith respectively, have done well in recent years capturing consecutive (2004-2005) Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. The women and men’s track and field teams, under coach Nick McDonough, practice at both Coles and the 168th St Armory. Christian Majdick of the men’s track and field team captured the NCAA Division III championship for the triple jump in 2003. Lauren Henkel, one of the most successful athletes in NYU track and field history, and the current assistant coach of the men's & women's track and field teams, acquired All-American status three times in the High Jump. The men's and women's soccer teams, under their respective coaches Joe Behan and Werner T. Dasbach practice at Pier 40 on the Hudson River. (Intramural clubs also practice at the East River Park soccer fields.) In 2003, the women's soccer team competed in the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen (top 16). The men’s soccer team won its league ECAC championship in the 2005-2006 season. However, the men’s soccer team’s most successful campaign came in the 2006 season, as the team set many records including total wins and longest streak without conceding a goal. Further, the team qualified for the Division III NCAA tournament for the first time in more than 30 years, reaching their first Final Four before losing to eventual champions Messiah College. They followed that up with a second consecutive NCAA appearance in 2007.

Many NYU students also compete in several "club" (which may or may not compete on an unofficial intercollegiate basis) and intramural sports, including lacrosse, crew, squash, rugby union, badminton, ice hockey, baseball, softball, equestrian, martial arts, ultimate, and triathlon. The Coles Sports and Recreation Center serves as the home base of several of NYU's intercollegiate athletic teams, including basketball, wrestling, and volleyball. Coles is considered the center of recreational and athletic needs for the university's students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Coles has plenty facilities, such as weight rooms, squash courts, tennis courts, 25 meter swimming pool, basketball courts, and a rooftop running track. It also offers nearly 130 classes, serving about 10,000 members of the university community.

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 at Van 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 the Chelsea Piers Athletic Facility and at various country club courses that have a relationship with the team and university in New York City.

In 2002, NYU opened the Palladium Athletic Facility as the second on-campus recreational facility. This facility's amenities include a rock-climbing wall, a natatorium with a 25-yard by 25-meter swimming pool, basketball courts, weight training, cardiovascular rooms, and a spinning room. The Palladium, erected on the site of the famous New York nightclub bearing the same name, is home to the university's swimming and diving teams and water polo teams.

Rivalries
NYU’s rival, dictated by history and geography has been Columbia University, though it appears from older fight songs that Rutgers University were also NYU’s rivals at some point. NYU's annual football game against Fordham University was known as the Manhattan Subway classic. Currently, the University of Chicago, which, similar to NYU, is a member of the University Athletic Association, serves as a rival of sorts.