Athletics
The Bowdoin College Polar Bears (the college mascot) competes in the NCAA Division III New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), which also includes Amherst, Conn College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams, and Maine rivals Bates and Colby in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB). The College's official colors are white and black.
Bowdoin offers thirty varsity teams, including men's teams in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic skiing, sailing, soccer, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, and track and field, and women's teams in field hockey, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, Nordic skiing, sailing, soccer, softball, squash, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and rugby.
Men's ice hockey is the most popular spectator sport, with hundreds of students turning out for games against arch-rival Colby. In 2004, Bowdoin became the second college in the United States to elevate the women's rugby team to varsity status. While technically still varsity, the women's rugby team competes in New England Rugby Football Union, rather than NESCAC. The sailing team, which competes in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) is co-ed and was considered in 2006 to be one of the top 20 sailing teams in the nation by Sailing World magazine. There are also intercollegiate and club teams in men's and women's fencing, men's and women's rowing, men's rugby, water polo, men's volleyball and men's and women's Ultimate.
Recent NESCAC champions include men's ice hockey (2011, albeit officially forfeited), men's tennis (2008), women's volleyball (2011) men's cross country (2001, 2002), women's basketball (2001–2007, 2009), women's ice hockey (2002, 2004) and women's field hockey (2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011); recent NCAA tournament appearances include women's basketball (Elite Eight, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007; Final Four, 2004), women's field hockey (Final Four, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010) men's rugby (sweet 16, 2001), women's ice hockey (Final Four, 2002, 2003; Elite Eight, 2004, 2005), men's soccer (Final Four, 2010) and women's lacrosse (Final Four, 2011.) In 2012, the women's rugby team, which is one of only eight varsity programs in the country, won the first championship of the recently formed NESCRC conference.
Women's basketball and field hockey have been Bowdoin's most successful teams. The women's basketball team are 8-time NESCAC champions, holding an astonishing 7-year streak. The field hockey team are three-time NCAA National Champions; winning the title in 2007 (defeating Middlebury College), 2008 (defeating Tufts University) and 2010 (defeating Messiah College). Head coach Nicky Pearson has been NESCAC coach of the year a record 7 times; no other coach in any NESCAC sport has won the award more than twice. In 2007, 2008 and 2010, Pearson was also honored as the NCAA's Division III coach of the year.
2011 also saw Bowdoin's 4th NCAA National Championship, with a win in the Men's Tennis doubles. Field Hockey holds the other 3 NCAA titles.
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