Wayne State University - Athletics

Athletics

Main article: Wayne State Warriors See also: Wayne State Warriors football and Wayne State Warriors women's ice hockey

The school's intercollegiate athletic program was established in 1917 by director of athletics David L. Holmes. Revered by his athletes, Holmes initially coached all sports. His track teams were nationally known into the 1950s; in his first ten years, he produced two Olympians from the school's Victorian-era gym. Although he had major ambitions for Wayne and scheduled such teams as Notre Dame and Penn State in the 1920s, the lack of facilities and money for athletics kept the athletic program small.

A student poll selected the name of "Tartars" for the school's teams in 1927. In 1999, the university changed the name to the "Warriors," due to the general feeling that the Tartar name was dated and most people were not familiar with the historical significance of the Tartars. Wayne State competes in men's baseball, basketball, cross country, fencing, football, golf, swimming and tennis, and women's basketball, cross country, fencing, ice hockey, softball, swimming, tennis, volleyball, and rugby.

WSU participates in NCAA Division II in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) for all sports.

Wayne State previously competed in men's and women's NCAA Division I ice hockey as a member of College Hockey America (CHA). The university dropped their men's program at the end of the 2007-08 season, followed in 2011 by ending the women's hockey program.

National Championships:

• 1975: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1979: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1980: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1982: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1982: Women's Fencing - NCAA
• 1983: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1984: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1985: Men's Fencing - NCAA
• 1988: Women's Fencing - NCAA
• 1989: Women's Fencing - NCAA
• 2012: Women's Swimming and Diving - NCAA

Although Wayne State plays Division II in fencing, the NCAA combines all three divisions for its National Championship tournaments.