Gonzaga University - Athletics

Athletics

Gonzaga University, whose official mascot is the Bulldog and whose players are nicknamed the Zags, is part of the NCAA Division I West Coast Conference.

Basketball games are held in the McCarthey Athletic Center. The university's men's basketball team, which did not make its first appearance in the NCAA tournament until 1995 (more than a decade after NBA Hall of Fame player and Gonzaga alum John Stockton graduated), has made the regional finals of the NCAA tournament ("Elite Eight") in 1999, re-appearing in the tournament every year since. The Ladies basketball made it to the sweet sixteen in 2010.

Three of Gonzaga's most recent notable athletes are basketball players—former center Ronny Turiaf (now playing for the Los Angeles Clippers); third overall 2006 NBA Draft pick and Red Star Belgrade Adam Morrison (who was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats), regarded for his likeness to Hall of Famer Larry Bird; and Courtney Vandersloot, 2011 winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the leading Division I women's point guard and women's Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the top Division I player no taller than 5'8" (1.73 m), selected third overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2011 WNBA Draft. Men's head coach Mark Few was the West Coast Conference coach of the year from 2001 to 2006, and again in 2008. Women's head coach Kelly Graves, a six-time WCC coach of the year, has led the Zags to seven consecutive WCC regular-season titles and four WCC tournament titles. The 2010–11 women's team, a #11 seed in that year's NCAA Tournament, became the lowest seed ever to advance to a regional final in the history of the women's tournament.

Like some other smaller colleges, Gonzaga's football program ended in the Fall of 1941, just before the U.S. entry into World War II, but not before producing two Pro Football Hall of Famers: Tony Canadeo '41 of the Green Bay Packers, and Ray Flaherty '26, head coach of the Washington Redskins. In addition, Flaherty recruited former Bulldog football stars, Ed Justice, George "Automatic" Karamatic and Max Krause to play in the Redskin backfield. Gonzaga football ended due to declining enrollment of young male athletes. Efforts to restart the program in 1946 were unsuccessful, and the football stadium was razed in 1949.