Athletics
When the school was still known as Fenn College, the sports teams' nickname was the Foxes. When the University was renamed Cleveland State, the nickname changed as well, and CSU's sports teams became the "Vikings". That nickname stands to this day. The school colors are forest green and white. For many years the school mascot was the comic strip character Hägar the Horrible along with his wife Helga, and the couple appeared at sporting events as well as on University literature. A new mascot, "Vike" was introduced in 1997 and Hagar was gradually phased out by 1998. Another new mascot named "Magnus" was introduced in August 2007.
Cleveland State fields varsity teams in seventeen sports. Most of the teams compete in the Horizon League. The men's basketball team was noteworthy in 1986 when seeded 14th in the NCAA tournament, it upset heavily favored 3-seed Indiana and St. Joseph's before being beaten by Navy by one point, an unprecedented achievement for such a low seed. The Vikes made yet another NCAA tournament appearance in 2009, upsetting the highly favored 4th seeded Wake Forest before falling to the University of Arizona in the second round.
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