245 Fun Facts About College Sports

Which president's White House conferences led to the founding of the NCAA?

Theodore Roosevelt summoned college football leaders to the White House in 1905 after a season of deaths and injuries; the body founded in 1906 was renamed the NCAA in 1910.

Which NCAA tier may not offer athletic scholarships at all?

Division III, the NCAA's largest division with about 450 schools, bars athletic scholarships, so its athletes receive no financial aid tied to their sporting ability.

Roughly how many student-athletes compete in NCAA sports each year?

About 500,000 is the NCAA's own count: more than half a million athletes at over 1,000 colleges, 98 percent of whom, it says, will go pro in something other than sport.

Where is the NCAA headquartered?

Indianapolis has housed the NCAA since 1999, and the men's Final Four is often played nearby.

What did the Supreme Court's 2021 Alston ruling against the NCAA allow?

Unlimited education-related compensation followed because a unanimous court held that NCAA caps on such benefits broke antitrust law; the NCAA dropped its ban on name, image and likeness pay days later.

Which team won the first NCAA men's basketball tournament in 1939?

Oregon's 'Tall Firs' beat Ohio State 46-33 in the 1939 final at Evanston, Illinois, to win the first NCAA men's basketball tournament, then an eight-team event.

Which eighth seed won the first 64-team NCAA men's basketball tournament, in 1985?

Villanova made 22 of 28 shots, 78.6 percent, to beat defending champion Georgetown 66-64 in what became known as 'The Perfect Game'; no lower seed has won the title.

Which university has won the most men's basketball championships?

UCLA has won 11 NCAA men's basketball titles, the first in 1964 and the most recent in 1995; Kentucky is second with eight.

Which round of the men's NCAA basketball tournament is made up of the regional semifinals?

The Sweet Sixteen is the regional semifinal round, named for the teams left; Kentucky's high school association holds a trademark on the phrase, which it uses for its state tournament.

How many NCAA championships did John Wooden win at UCLA?

John Wooden won ten NCAA titles at UCLA between 1964 and 1975, including seven straight from 1967 to 1973; he retired immediately after the 1975 championship game.

How long was UCLA's record winning streak under John Wooden?

88 games: the run began in January 1971 and ended with a 71-70 loss at Notre Dame in January 1974; two months later NC State also ended UCLA's seven-year hold on the national title.

What did John Wooden call his framework of motivational principles?

Wooden's Pyramid of Success stacks 15 building blocks, from industriousness and enthusiasm at the base to competitive greatness at the top; he defined success not as winning but as the peace of mind of knowing you gave your best effort.

What is John Wooden's well-known nickname?

The Wizard of Westwood was named for Westwood, the Los Angeles district around the UCLA campus; Wooden himself disliked the nickname.

John Heisman coached which school to a record 222-0 win over Cumberland in 1916?

Georgia Tech won 222-0, the most lopsided score in college football history, because Cumberland had dropped football yet faced a $3,000 forfeit if it failed to turn up.

Who won the first Heisman Trophy, in 1935?

Jay Berwanger, a Chicago Maroons halfback, won the first award in 1935 and was the first pick of the first NFL draft in 1936, yet never played a professional game after a salary dispute.

Who is the only player to win the Heisman Trophy twice?

Archie Griffin won in 1974 and 1975 for Ohio State, where he fumbled on his only carry of his first game, then ran for a school-record 239 yards in his second.

Who is the youngest Heisman winner?

Lamar Jackson was 19 when he won the 2016 Heisman for Louisville, a few days younger than the previous youngest winner, Jameis Winston; he later won two NFL MVP awards.

Who was the model for the figure on the Heisman Trophy?

A 1934 NYU football player, Ed Smith, posed for the sculptor, an old high-school classmate, and did not learn the statue had become the Heisman until 1982.

Whose 246 yards won the first College Football Playoff final?

Ezekiel Elliott ran for 246 yards and four touchdowns as Ohio State, the fourth and last seed, beat Oregon 42-20 in January 2015 to win the first playoff.

How many teams did the College Football Playoff expand to for the 2024 season?

The playoff grew from four teams to twelve for the 2024 season, with first-round byes for the top four seeds; Ohio State won the first twelve-team title in January 2025.

Which system did the College Football Playoff replace?

The Bowl Championship Series ran from 1998 to 2013, using polls and computer rankings to pair the top two teams in one title game; the four-team playoff replaced it.

Which postseason game is nicknamed 'The Granddaddy of Them All'?

Broadcaster Keith Jackson dubbed the Rose Bowl 'The Granddaddy of Them All' because, first played in 1902, it is the oldest college bowl game.

What replaced football in Pasadena after a 1902 rout?

Chariot races replaced football after Michigan beat Stanford 49-0, a game Stanford's captain asked to stop with eight minutes left.

On which date is the Pasadena bowl game traditionally played?

1 January, New Year's Day, is the game's traditional date, except when that falls on a Sunday: then both the game and the parade move to Monday 2 January.

Which conferences traditionally supplied Pasadena's bowl teams from 1947 to 2024?

The Big Ten and the Pac-12 were paired by an exclusive agreement struck in 1946 and first played out in the 1947 game; the playoff era and the Pac-12's 2024 breakup ended it.

Which city has hosted the Army-Navy game most often?

Philadelphia is the usual host because it lies about halfway between West Point and Annapolis; the game first went there in 1899, when the series resumed after a five-year break.

What happens at the end of every Army-Navy game?

Both academies' alma maters are sung: the winning team first stands alongside the losers and faces the losing academy's students.

Under which official brand name is the annual Army-Navy football meeting promoted?

America's Game is the Army-Navy brand; since 2009 it has been played on the second Saturday of December, a week after the conference title games have closed the season elsewhere.

Which trophy goes to the winner of the yearly football series among Army, Navy and Air Force?

The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, first awarded in 1972 by President Nixon, goes to the academy with the best record in the three games; if they split, the holder keeps it.

Which school won five College World Series titles in ten seasons under coach Skip Bertman?

LSU won in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 2000; the 1996 title came on Warren Morris's two-out home run in the bottom of the ninth, which turned an 8-7 deficit into a 9-8 win.

How is the College World Series decided?

Two brackets, then a best-of-three: eight teams play two double-elimination brackets of four and the winners meet in a final series, which in 2003 replaced a single title game made for television.

In which year was the first NCAA women's basketball tournament held?

The first NCAA women's basketball tournament was held in 1982 with a 32-team field; Louisiana Tech beat Cheyney State 76-62 in the final.

Which programme has won the most NCAA women's basketball championships?

UConn has won 12 NCAA women's titles, all under Geno Auriemma, who arrived in 1985 at a program with a single winning season in its history.

What was notable about the 2024 women's basketball championship game?

It outdrew the men's final for the first time: nearly 19 million watched South Carolina beat Iowa to finish 38-0, against under 15 million for the men's title game a day later.

Which programme has appeared in every women's tournament since 1982?

Tennessee has played in every NCAA women's tournament since the first in 1982 and won eight titles under Pat Summitt, though none since 2008.

Which two universities played the first intercollegiate football game in 1869?

Rutgers and Princeton, then the College of New Jersey, met at New Brunswick with 25 players a side and no running with the ball; Rutgers won 6-4.

Which Yale man is known as the 'Father of American Football'?

Walter Camp reshaped rugby into a new game on the rules committee in the early 1880s, pushing through the line of scrimmage, the snap from center and eleven-man sides.

Which university plays its home football games at Beaver Stadium?

Beaver Stadium is Penn State's home, named for James Beaver, a Civil War general and Pennsylvania governor who chaired the university's trustees, not for a mascot; it opened on its current site in 1960.

At which NASCAR track did Tennessee and Virginia Tech draw a record 156,990 fans?

Bristol Motor Speedway staged the 2016 'Battle at Bristol' to break college football's attendance record: Tennessee won 45-24 before a crowd that beat the old mark of 115,109 by more than 40,000.

How is the field for the College Football Playoff chosen?

A selection committee: its 13 members rank and seed the teams themselves, a break from the earlier system, which fed polls and computer rankings into a formula.

What sport did the first intercollegiate contest in the US involve, between Harvard and Yale in 1852?

Rowing came first: Harvard beat Yale over two miles on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire, in a race suggested by a railroad superintendent and modelled on the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

What was the NCAA called at its founding in 1906?

The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was formed by 62 colleges to reform football after a 1905 season of deaths and serious injuries; it took the NCAA name in 1910.

What was the first NCAA national championship, held in 1921?

The first NCAA championship was the 1921 outdoor track and field meet at Stagg Field in Chicago, won by Illinois; basketball did not get a championship until 1939.

Who became the NCAA's first executive director in 1951?

Walter Byers ran the NCAA until 1988 and coined the term 'student-athlete' after a widow's compensation claim; his later book Unsportsmanlike Conduct turned on the system he had built.

Where did the NCAA move its national office from Chicago in 1952?

Kansas City, Missouri, was the home town of the NCAA's new executive director, who moved the office out of a Chicago hotel it shared with the Big Ten to keep it clear of any one conference.

Which split did the NCAA's three divisions replace in 1973?

University and College divisions gave way to Divisions I, II and III in 1973, when a special convention regrouped the schools so that like-minded campuses could compete with one another.

What was Division I-A, college football's top tier, renamed in 2006?

Football Bowl Subdivision became I-A's name because the NCAA runs no playoff at that level and its seasons ended in bowl games; I-AA, which does settle its title in an NCAA playoff, took the other name.

Which event's TV rights supplied most of the NCAA's revenue in 2022-23?

March Madness rights brought in roughly $900 million of the NCAA's $1.28 billion that year; the NCAA does not run top-level football's championship, the College Football Playoff.

Which body governed women's college sports before the NCAA took over in the early 1980s?

The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women had nearly 1,000 members.

What did the NCAA's failed post-war 'Sanity Code' attempt to regulate?

The 1948 Sanity Code tried to limit recruiting inducements and restrict athletes' financial aid to need-based grants; seven schools defied it, enforcement collapsed by 1951, and the NCAA hired full-time leadership.

Which Ohio city is the traditional host of the men's NCAA basketball tournament's opening games?

Dayton became the home of the tournament's opening games in 2001; after a May 2026 vote to grow the field from 68 to 76 teams, Wichita, Kansas, shares the job from 2027.

In which state was the entire 2021 men's tournament played as a pandemic precaution?

The entire 2021 men's tournament was played in Indiana to reduce travel during the pandemic, with Baylor beating Gonzaga in the final; the 2020 event had been cancelled outright.

Which song traditionally closes CBS's broadcast of the men's championship game?

'One Shining Moment', written by David Barrett, was meant to follow the 1987 Super Bowl; when that broadcast ran long, CBS held it for the basketball final, and it has closed the tournament ever since.

Which team won both the NIT and NCAA tournament in 1950, before that was banned?

City College of New York beat Bradley in both the 1950 NIT and NCAA finals; a point-shaving scandal engulfed the program the next year, and the NCAA later barred teams from entering both events.

What did the men's NCAA basketball tournament add in 1975 after Maryland missed out?

Two bids per conference became possible in 1975, when the field grew to 32, a year after Maryland lost the ACC final 103-100 in overtime to NC State and had to stay home.

How many brackets did Sports Illustrated estimate in 2023 are filled out each March Madness?

Sports Illustrated put it at 60 to 100 million brackets a year, yet the odds of picking every game right by chance are about one in 9.2 quintillion.

Which school has won the most Heisman Trophies, with eight?

USC has eight Heisman winners, from Mike Garrett in 1965 to Caleb Williams in 2022, including Reggie Bush's 2005 award, which was reinstated in 2024.

Who is the only Heisman winner to have played for a team with a losing record?

Paul Hornung won in 1956 although Notre Dame went 2-8; Oklahoma's Tom McDonald collected more first-place votes, but Hornung led on points.

Which two players fought out the closest Heisman vote ever, in 2009?

Mark Ingram II and Toby Gerhart produced the closest vote in the award's 75 years; Ingram's narrow win made him the first Heisman winner Alabama had ever had.

Which Heisman winner became an Army brigadier general instead of playing pro sports?

Pete Dawkins, Army's 1958 winner, was a Rhodes Scholar and rose to brigadier general; Doc Blanchard, Army's 1945 winner, became an Air Force fighter pilot instead of turning pro.

Which Michigan star struck the Heisman pose after a punt-return touchdown against Ohio State in 1991?

Desmond Howard took a punt 93 yards and copied the trophy's stiff-arm in the end zone; he said later he had wanted to do a backflip but 'chickened out'.

The Heisman Trophy is cast in which metal?

Bronze: the trophy is cast by the ancient lost-wax method, and its makers set out to create 'the bronze embodiment of a muscular footballer driving for yardage'.

Which quarterback, a redshirt freshman, became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, in 2012?

Johnny Manziel, 'Johnny Football', broke the freshman barrier after leading Texas A&M to a 29-24 upset of top-ranked Alabama; Jameis Winston, also a redshirt freshman, won a year later.

Which two primarily defensive players have won the Heisman?

Charles Woodson and Travis Hunter both won as cornerbacks who also caught passes: Woodson beat Peyton Manning to the 1997 award, and Hunter added more than 90 catches to his four interceptions in 2024.

Which accounting firm tabulates the Heisman vote?

Accounting firm Deloitte tabulates the Heisman ballots, cast almost entirely online since 2007; each voter names three players, who score three, two and one points.

Besides the media, who automatically gets a Heisman vote?

Former winners each keep a ballot for life, beside 145 media voters from each of six regions, so past Heisman men help choose their successors.

Who won the 2025 Heisman Trophy and then went first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft?

Fernando Mendoza, a transfer from California, became Indiana's first Heisman winner, led the Hoosiers to the national title and was then drafted first by the Las Vegas Raiders.

Which Oklahoma State back won the 1988 Heisman after rushing for a record 2,628 yards in 11 games?

Barry Sanders ran for 2,628 yards and 37 touchdowns a year after backing up Thurman Thomas; Ashton Jeanty's 2,601 yards in 2024 fell just short of the mark.

Which carmaker's fan survey counted as one Heisman vote as of the 2025 ballot?

Nissan, sponsor of the long-running 'Heisman House' adverts, ran the fan poll; its overall result is entered as one ballot, so every fan's click together weighs the same as a single media voter.

Which bowl joined the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton and Fiesta in college football's 'New Year's Six'?

The Peach Bowl was the newcomer among five long-established games: it began in 1968 as a Lions Clubs fundraiser for the blind and joined the top tier when the playoff started.

Which conference did Army's football program join in 2024 after years as an independent?

Army joined the American Athletic Conference for football in 2024, ending nearly two decades as an independent, and beat Tulane 35-14 to win the league title in its first season.

Which team won college football's January 2014 title game with 13 seconds left?

Florida State beat Auburn 34-31 in Pasadena after trailing 21-3, with Heisman winner Jameis Winston finding Kelvin Benjamin for the winning score.

After injuries to two starters, which third-string quarterback led Ohio State to the first College Football Playoff title?

Cardale Jones began the season third on the depth chart behind Braxton Miller and J.T. Barrett, made his first college start in the Big Ten title game and then beat top-ranked Alabama.

In the 12-team CFP used in 2024 and 2025, which seeds met in the first round?

Seeds 5 through 12 played the first round as 5-12, 6-11, 7-10 and 8-9 at the higher seeds' home stadiums, while the top four seeds had byes to the quarterfinals.

Which sport's NCAA championship weekend is branded the 'Frozen Four'?

Ice hockey's national semifinals and final have carried the Frozen Four name since 1999, a play on the Final Four brand the NCAA had long used for basketball.

Under what name was the Big Ten founded in 1896?

The Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives stayed the league's official name until 1987, though fans had long called it the Western Conference and then the Big Ten.

Which two schools took the Big Ten to 14 members in 2014?

Maryland and Rutgers joined in July 2014, stretching a Midwestern league to the East Coast and into the Washington and New York television markets.

Which is the only full member ever to permanently leave the Big Ten?

The University of Chicago, a founding member, dropped football in 1939 when president Robert Hutchins de-emphasised varsity sport, and withdrew from the conference in 1946.

Which two Big Ten universities are private?

Northwestern and USC are the only private members: Northwestern, a founder, was for decades the league's lone private school until USC arrived from the Pac-12 in 2024.

Where is the Big Ten headquartered?

The Big Ten's offices are in Rosemont, Illinois, near O'Hare Airport, where the conference moved in 2013 from nearby Park Ridge.

The SEC was established in 1932 by 13 members of which older league?

The Southern Conference was a sprawling league in 1932, when its 13 members west and south of the Appalachians, Alabama and Georgia among them, broke away to form the SEC.

Which is the only private university in the SEC?

Vanderbilt is the SEC's only private school and by far its smallest; two other private founders, Sewanee and Tulane, left long ago.

Where is the SEC headquartered?

Birmingham, Alabama, has been the SEC's home since 1948, yet none of the league's 16 universities is in the city; the nearest, Alabama, is about 60 miles away in Tuscaloosa.

Which two schools joined the SEC in 2024, taking it to 16 members?

Oklahoma and Texas left the Big 12 for the SEC in July 2024 under a buyout agreed with their old league in 2023; Missouri and Texas A&M had made the same move in 2012.

Where is the ACC headquartered?

The ACC is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, though the league now reaches the Pacific: Stanford and California joined in 2024, along with SMU in Texas.

Which original ACC member left the conference in 1971?

South Carolina, a charter member, left the ACC in 1971 in a dispute over the league's 800 SAT minimum for athletes, and reached the SEC two decades later; Georgia Tech joined the ACC in 1979.

On what date was the ACC founded by seven universities?

Seven schools left the Southern Conference to form the ACC on May 8, 1953, meeting at the Sedgefield Inn in Greensboro; Virginia joined that December as the eighth member.

The Big 12 was formed in 1994 from the Big Eight and half of which dissolved league?

Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech left the Southwest Conference to join the Big Eight's members, and the old league folded in 1996, leaving Houston, Rice, SMU and TCU to find new homes.

Where is the Big 12 headquartered?

The Big 12 is based in Irving, Texas, in the Dallas suburbs; under Brett Yormark, its commissioner since 2022, eight schools joined the league in two years.

Which four schools joined the Big 12 for the 2023-24 season?

BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF joined for 2023-24; Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado followed a year later, making up for the loss of two founder members.

What is the Pac-12's nickname?

Conference of Champions is the Pac-12's own billing: its schools have won more than 500 NCAA team titles, more than those of any other league.

Which two schools were the Pac-12's only full members in 2024-25 and 2025-26?

Oregon State and Washington State were the only full Pac-12 members for two seasons after ten schools departed in 2024; seven schools, including Boise State and Gonzaga, joined for 2026-27.

Which school of 'Boys in the Boat' fame won the Pac-12's 500th NCAA title in 2017?

Washington, whose men's eight beat the Italian and German crews to Olympic gold in Berlin in 1936, took the 2017 women's rowing title, which made the Pac-12 the first league to reach 500.

What was the Pac-12 called immediately before its expansion in 2011?

The Pacific-10 became the Pac-12 when Colorado and Utah joined in 2011; it had been the Pacific-8 until Arizona and Arizona State arrived in 1978.

At which level of NCAA football do Ivy League teams compete?

Ivy League football plays in the FCS, but until the 2025 season the league turned down every playoff place; its previous postseason game was a bowl won by Columbia in 1934.

In which year did the Ivy League officially form as an athletic conference?

The eight schools signed the Ivy Group Agreement in 1954, making the league a formal conference from the 1956 season; the term had been used informally since 1933.

Which Ivy League school is the only one founded after the American Revolution?

Cornell was founded in 1865, after the Civil War; the other seven Ivies are among the nine colonial colleges, the remaining two being Rutgers and William & Mary.

Where is the Ivy League headquartered?

Princeton, New Jersey, is home to the Ivy League office; unlike nearly every other Division I conference, its eight schools ban athletic scholarships and give only need-based aid.

Which senator wrote the 37 opening words of Title IX?

Birch Bayh wrote the 37-word sentence at the heart of Title IX; it never mentions sports, yet the law is best known for transforming women's college athletics.

After whom was Title IX renamed following her death in 2002?

Patsy Mink of Hawaii became a lawyer after every medical school she applied to turned her down; she co-wrote Title IX, and Congress renamed it for her after her death in 2002.

Which president signed Title IX into law?

Richard Nixon signed Title IX on 23 June 1972 as part of a wider education bill; his signing statement dwelt on school busing and never mentioned the ban on sex discrimination.

Which 2019 California law let college athletes profit from their name, image and likeness?

California's Fair Pay to Play Act, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2019, barred schools from punishing athletes for NIL earnings, prompting similar laws nationwide and the NCAA's interim NIL policy in 2021.

Which settlement allowed schools to share revenue directly with athletes?

House v. NCAA began in 2020 when Arizona State swimmer Grant House sued; the settlement approved in June 2025 lets schools share about $20.5 million a year with athletes and pays $2.8 billion in back damages.

Which city hosted the first College World Series in 1947, on Western Michigan University's home field?

Kalamazoo staged the first two series at Western Michigan's Hyames Field; California won in 1947 by beating a Yale team whose first baseman was future president George Bush senior.

At which venue was the College World Series played from 1950 to 2010?

Rosenblatt Stadium took its name in 1964 from Johnny Rosenblatt, the former mayor who had chaired the committee that built it; it was demolished after the 2010 series and the zoo next door now owns the site.

Which round of three-game series, added in 1999, sends its eight winners to the College World Series?

Super regionals arrived in 1999, when the field grew to 64 teams: the sixteen regional winners pair off, usually at the higher seed's ballpark, for the eight places in the series.

The NCAA licenses the name 'College World Series' from which organisation, the owner of the trademark?

Major League Baseball owns the 'World Series' family of trademarks, the college version included, so the NCAA stages its championship under a licence from the professional game.

Which school won the Division I Directors' Cup 25 straight years until 2020-21?

Stanford won the Division I Directors' Cup 25 years running, from 1994-95 through 2018-19; no cup was awarded in the pandemic year, and Texas ended the run by winning in 2020-21.

What was the Directors' Cup called under its original sponsor before 2003?

The Sears Cup took the retailer's name from 1993-94 until 2003; when Sears withdrew, the prize, a Waterford crystal trophy, carried on under new sponsors and is now the Learfield Directors' Cup.

What does the annual Directors' Cup reward a college athletic department for?

Success across a wide range of sports is the test: a school scores points for national finishes in up to 19 sports, 100 for each title, so depth beats one great team.

Which city hosts softball's Women's College World Series each year?

Oklahoma City stages the event at Devon Park, inside the USA Softball Hall of Fame complex; home-state Oklahoma won four straight titles there from 2021 to 2024.

Which Philadelphia school's Owls won the first National Invitation Tournament in 1938?

Temple beat a Colorado team in the first NIT final whose star was Byron 'Whizzer' White, a football All-American who later sat on the US Supreme Court.

Which organisation founded the NIT in 1938?

The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association launched the NIT in 1938, a year before the NCAA tournament; in 2005 the NCAA bought its older rival to settle an antitrust lawsuit.

Until 2022, which arena traditionally hosted the NIT semifinals and finals?

Madison Square Garden hosted the NIT's final rounds from 1938 through 2022, except in the 2021 pandemic year, when the event moved to Texas; from 2023 the final site was chosen annually.

Which of these schools was one of the 'Catholic Seven' that kept the Big East name in 2013?

Georgetown and six other Catholic schools without top-level football bought the Big East name in 2013; Notre Dame and Boston College, Catholic but not among the seven, play in the ACC.

Which Providence coach and athletic director founded the original Big East Conference in 1979?

Dave Gavitt built the Big East in 1979 and ran it until 1990; as president of USA Basketball he then helped put together the 1992 Olympic 'Dream Team' of NBA stars.

Which founding president of the WNBA became commissioner of the Big East Conference in 2013?

Val Ackerman ran the WNBA from its 1996 launch until 2005; in 2013 the seven schools that had just split from the old Big East hired her to lead the reborn conference.

Which coach won seven claimed national titles, the most in college football history?

Nick Saban won one title at LSU and six at Alabama, one more than Bear Bryant; his 2011 champions never won their own division, losing to LSU before shutting them out in the title-game rematch.

Which NFL team did Alabama's future coach lead before returning to college in 2007?

The Miami Dolphins went 15-17 in two seasons under him; in December 2006 he said flatly, 'I'm not going to be the Alabama coach', and within weeks he had taken the job.

How did Paul Bryant earn his famous nickname?

Agreeing to wrestle a captive bear at 13 earned Bryant the name: a travelling show at the Lyric Theater in Fordyce, Arkansas, offered a dollar a minute to anyone who would try.

What headwear was Bear Bryant's trademark on the Alabama sideline?

A houndstooth hat: the black-and-white check became so tied to Bryant that Alabama fans still wear the pattern to games decades after his death.

Whose record for major-college football wins did Bear Bryant break in November 1981?

Amos Alonzo Stagg had won 314 games; Bryant passed him with his 315th, retired a year later with 323, and died four weeks after coaching his last game.

Which team did Duke beat in the 2015 final for Mike Krzyzewski's fifth and last national title?

Wisconsin led by nine in the second half before Duke's freshmen turned the game, winning 68-63; guard Tyus Jones was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.

Under which coach did Krzyzewski play point guard at Army?

Bob Knight coached Krzyzewski at Army and later hired him as an assistant; in 2011 the pupil passed his old coach's record for Division I wins as Knight watched from the broadcast table.

Which Tom Izzo-coached team did Duke beat in November 2011 for Coach K's record 903rd Division I win?

Michigan State lost 74-69 in New York on 15 November 2011; the win was Krzyzewski's 903rd, a new Division I men's record, and he crossed the floor to embrace the mentor he had just passed.

Which Stanford coach passed Pat Summitt's record of 1,098 career wins in December 2020?

Tara VanDerveer won her 1,099th game in December 2020 at Pacific, during the pandemic season; Summitt had set the old mark over 38 seasons without a single losing year.

What honour did Pat Summitt receive from President Obama in 2012?

President Obama awarded Summitt the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2012, shortly after early-onset Alzheimer's disease forced her to step down at Tennessee.

In which city did Pat Summitt coach the US women to their first Olympic basketball gold?

Los Angeles 1984 completed a circle: Summitt had won silver as a player in Montreal in 1976, the first Olympics with women's basketball, and returned eight years later as head coach.

Which player won four straight Final Four Most Outstanding Player awards in the women's tournament from 2013 to 2016?

Breanna Stewart won the title and the Most Outstanding Player award in all four of her seasons; in the 2016 WNBA draft she went first and two college teammates took the next two picks.

From which Italian town did Geno Auriemma emigrate as a boy?

Geno Auriemma was born in Montella, a hill town in Campania, and his family settled in Norristown, Pennsylvania, when he was seven.

Which quarterback won the Heisman while leading Bobby Bowden's Florida State to its first national title in 1993?

Charlie Ward won the 1993 Heisman and the title, then passed up the NFL; the Knicks drafted him instead, and he remains the only Heisman winner to have played in the NBA.

Which team did Bobby Bowden beat in the 2010 Gator Bowl to end his coaching career?

West Virginia lost 33-21 in the January 2010 Gator Bowl to the man who had been its own head coach in the early 1970s, before his 34 seasons with the Seminoles.

At which Ivy League school did Joe Paterno play quarterback and cornerback?

Brown gave Paterno his start as a quarterback and cornerback; he planned on law school until his coach, Rip Engle, changed jobs in 1950 and took him along as an assistant.

Which HBCU did Eddie Robinson coach for 56 years?

Grambling State hired Robinson in 1941; his second team went 9-0 without conceding a point, and he retired in 1997 with 408 wins.

Which quarterback coached by Eddie Robinson became the first Black quarterback to start and win a Super Bowl?

Doug Williams threw four touchdown passes in one quarter of Super Bowl XXII; ten years later he joined his old coach for the coin toss at Super Bowl XXXII.

At which university did Bo Jackson play football and baseball, winning the 1985 Heisman?

Auburn's Bo Jackson was the first pick of the 1986 NFL draft but chose baseball's Royals instead, after a visit to Tampa Bay's facilities cost him his final college baseball season.

Which musician co-starred with Bo Jackson in Nike's 'Bo Knows' campaign?

Blues pioneer Bo Diddley appeared in the 1989 'Bo Knows' spots, telling Jackson 'Bo, you don't know Diddley' after his guitar attempt; the ads sold Nike's cross-trainer.

For which university did Caitlin Clark become Division I's all-time leading scorer?

Iowa moved a 2023 preseason game outdoors to its football stadium and drew 55,646, a women's basketball record; Clark finished with 3,951 points, more than any Division I player, male or female.

Which team drafted Caitlin Clark first overall in 2024?

The Indiana Fever took Clark first overall in April 2024; with her arrival the team drew 340,715 fans at home that season, a WNBA single-season record at the time.

As a sophomore, Caitlin Clark became the first Division I women's player to lead the nation in scoring and which other category?

Assists: Clark led Division I in both points and assists per game in 2021-22, yet her second-seeded team went out of the NCAA tournament in the second round to tenth seed Creighton.

What Heisman milestone did Tim Tebow achieve in 2007?

The trophy's first underclassman winner was a sophomore: Tebow had just become the first major-college player to run for 20 touchdowns and pass for 20 in the same season.

What did Tim Tebow pursue in the New York Mets organisation from 2016 to 2021?

Minor league ball in the Mets system took Tebow as far as Triple-A Syracuse in 2019; he retired from baseball in 2021 and went back to the NFL as a Jaguars tight end, lasting one preseason game.

Which university's basketball program did James Naismith found in 1898?

Naismith started the Kansas program in 1898 and coached the Jayhawks until 1907 with a 55-60 record, the only losing mark in program history; his player Phog Allen later coached Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith.

In which city did James Naismith invent basketball at a YMCA training school in 1891?

Springfield, Massachusetts: asked to keep a rowdy class busy indoors through a New England winter, Naismith hung up two peach baskets and wrote out 13 rules.

In which unique way did Stagg enter the College Football Hall of Fame's 1951 charter class?

As both player and coach: Stagg was honoured for his playing days at Yale and his decades on the sideline, and nobody else was inducted in both roles until the 1990s.

In which country was Knute Rockne born?

Norway was home until he was five, when the family emigrated to Chicago; he spent four years working for the post office before enrolling at Notre Dame, where he later won 105 games and lost only 12 as coach.

How did Knute Rockne die in 1931?

A plane crash killed Rockne at 43 on his way to California to help make a film; outrage over the failure of the airliner's wooden wing pushed American airlines to switch to all-metal aircraft.

What is the famous nickname of Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor?

The Big House held 72,000 when it opened in 1927 and was built to be enlarged; it now lists 107,601 seats and once squeezed in 115,109 for a game against Notre Dame.

Which president outlined his signature domestic programme in a commencement speech at Michigan Stadium?

Lyndon B. Johnson laid out the Great Society in his 22 May 1964 commencement address; four years earlier candidate John Kennedy had floated the Peace Corps idea on the same campus, on the steps of the student union.

Which annual NHL outdoor game drew a league-record 105,491 fans to Michigan Stadium on New Year's Day 2014?

The Winter Classic was meant for Michigan Stadium a year earlier but was lost to the NHL lockout; when it finally came, Toronto beat Detroit in a shootout before 105,491.

Why was the 1942 Rose Bowl moved from Pasadena to Durham, North Carolina?

Fears of a West Coast attack after Pearl Harbor ruled out big crowds in California, so Duke offered its own stadium, borrowed bleachers from two rival schools and lost 20-16 to Oregon State.

What prize do Rose Bowl winners receive?

Rose Bowl winners receive the Leishman Trophy, named for William and Lathrop Leishman, a father and son who each served as Tournament of Roses president.

Which coach of the Buckeyes fought Bo Schembechler's Michigan in the 'Ten Year War' from 1969 to 1978?

Woody Hayes went 4-5-1 against Schembechler, his former assistant, in the Ten Year War; he so disliked the rival that he would not say its name, calling it 'that team up north'.

Which Auburn coach is credited with coining the name Iron Bowl?

Shug Jordan is credited with the name: he spoke of the yearly game against Alabama as his team's own bowl, the Iron Bowl, after the iron and steel industry of the city where it was then played.

At which Birmingham stadium was the Iron Bowl played for many years?

Legion Field staged every Iron Bowl from 1948 to 1988 with the tickets split evenly; Auburn first hosted the game on campus in 1989, and Alabama moved its home games to Tuscaloosa in 2000.

What trophy goes to the winner of the Red River Rivalry?

The Golden Hat was bronze in colour when it was created in 1941 and was known as the Bronze Hat or Brass Hat; today's ten-gallon trophy is gold.

Where has the Red River Rivalry been played since 1932?

The Cotton Bowl in Dallas was picked as neutral ground about halfway between the two campuses; the stadium is split at the 50-yard line during the State Fair of Texas, one half for each school's fans.

Why was 'Red River Shootout' renamed 'Red River Rivalry' in 2005?

To avoid condoning gun violence, the schools retired 'Shootout' in 2005, when SBC Communications put its name on the 100th meeting; many fans still use the old name.

Which nickname for North Carolina's college basketball heartland is shorthand for the Duke-North Carolina rivalry?

Tobacco Road covers four old ACC rivals: Duke, North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest, which were all neighbours in the Raleigh-Durham area until Wake Forest moved to Winston-Salem in 1956.

By what name is the Harvard-Yale football rivalry, first played in 1875, simply known?

The Game produced a famous headline in 1968, when Harvard scored 16 points in the last 42 seconds to tie unbeaten Yale: 'Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29'.

Whose buzzer-beating jump shot beat Kentucky 104-103 and sent Duke to the 1992 Final Four?

Christian Laettner caught Grant Hill's length-of-the-court pass with two seconds left in overtime, dribbled once, turned and hit the jumper still known simply as The Shot.

What are the student fans at Duke's home basketball games known as?

The Cameron Crazies fill Cameron Indoor Stadium, designed by the Black architect Julian Abele; his part in shaping Duke's campus went largely unrecognised there until the 1980s.

In which city is Rupp Arena, the downtown home of Kentucky's basketball team?

Lexington's arena opened in November 1976 and was named for Adolph Rupp, the retired coach of four Kentucky title teams; he died barely a year later, in December 1977.

Which network has televised the Fighting Irish's home football games since 1991?

NBC has carried Notre Dame's home games since 1991; the school signed the deal alone in 1990, breaking away from the association through which dozens of colleges sold their TV rights together.

Which coach led Notre Dame to the 1988 national title with a perfect 12-0 season?

Lou Holtz's third Notre Dame team beat top-ranked Miami 31-30, ending the Hurricanes' 36-game regular-season winning streak, on its way to the eleventh title the school claims.

Which coach's 'Point-a-Minute' Michigan teams began a 56-game unbeaten streak in 1901?

Fielding H. Yost's first Michigan team outscored its opponents 550-0 in 1901; the unbeaten run reached 56 games before a loss to Chicago ended it in the last game of 1905.

Who set the SEC single-season rushing record with 2,219 yards for Alabama in 2015?

Derrick Henry carried the ball 90 times in the two games before the Heisman vote; his 2,219 yards broke Herschel Walker's long-standing SEC record.

Which school's Memorial Stadium has sold out every home football game since 1962?

Nebraska's streak began in 1962, the first season under Bob Devaney, who revived a program that had struggled since the war; it has passed 400 games, an NCAA record in any sport.

Which three Nebraska players have won the Heisman?

Johnny Rodgers (1972), Mike Rozier (1983) and Eric Crouch (2001) are the three; Crouch, a quarterback, sealed his with a 63-yard touchdown catch on a trick play against Oklahoma.

Which organisation presents the Wooden Award?

The Los Angeles Athletic Club set out in 1976 to give basketball its own Heisman; reflecting Wooden's values, candidates must be full-time students with at least a C average.

At which university was John Wooden the 1932 national player of the year?

Purdue's Wooden was a three-time All-American guard known as the 'Indiana Rubber Man' for the way he threw himself to the floor; his 1932 team was later recognised as national champions.

In which city did the College Football Hall of Fame open in August 2014?

Atlanta got the hall in August 2014 after its years in South Bend; Rutgers was chosen as the first home in 1949, but nothing was built there and the hall had no building at all until 1978.

Which organisation founded the sport's Hall of Fame in 1951?

The National Football Foundation, established in 1947, created the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951; eligible players must have been first-team All-Americans.

Where was the Sugar Bowl temporarily moved after Hurricane Katrina?

The Georgia Dome in Atlanta took the January 2006 game after Hurricane Katrina left the Superdome unfit for use; Georgia, playing what amounted to a home game, fell 21-0 behind in the first quarter and lost 38-35.

Which conference's champion was tied to the Orange Bowl from the 1950s until the mid-1990s?

The Big Eight champion's berth produced an oddity in January 1979: the bowl paired the league champion with Oklahoma, a conference rival it had already beaten, and the Sooners won the rematch 31-24.

Which stadium has been the regular home of the Orange Bowl game since 1996?

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens took the game from the old Miami Orange Bowl, which got one last turn in January 1999 because an NFL playoff game was booked into the newer venue that day.

Where did the Cotton Bowl Classic move in 2010?

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, then called Cowboys Stadium, took the game in 2010 as part of the bowl's bid to rejoin college football's top tier, which it did when the playoff rotation began in 2014.

Which team, quarterbacked by Sammy Baugh, won the first Cotton Bowl Classic on New Year's Day 1937?

TCU beat Marquette 16-6 before about 17,000 fans; Dallas oilman J. Curtis Sanford paid for the game himself and lost money on it, but tried again and turned a profit a year later.

Where was the Fiesta Bowl played from 1971 to 2006?

Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe hosted every Fiesta Bowl from 1971 to 2006; the game was created after WAC champions, among them an unbeaten Arizona State team, kept being passed over by the major bowls.

Which snack brand sponsored the Fiesta Bowl from 1996 to 2014?

Tostitos, a Frito-Lay brand, kept its name on the Fiesta Bowl for 18 years; its successors proved less durable, with Vizio and BattleFrog each lasting a single game.

Which school began its long run of NCAA tournament appearances with an Elite Eight trip as a 10 seed in 1999?

Gonzaga has made every tournament since that 1999 run under Dan Monson; he left that summer, and his assistant Mark Few has coached the team ever since.

Which Gonzaga player was co-national player of the year in 2006, averaging 28.1 points?

Adam Morrison shared the 2006 honours with Duke's J.J. Redick while managing type 1 diabetes, diagnosed when he was 13; his 28.1 points a game led the nation.

Which Kentucky coach won the NCAA title in 1998, his first season at the school?

Tubby Smith's first Kentucky team was nicknamed the 'Comeback Cats' for erasing double-digit deficits in each of its last three tournament games, the final against Utah included.

Which freshman, the 2012 national player of the year, led Kentucky to that season's NCAA title?

Anthony Davis was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player as Kentucky won the final 67-59, then left after one season to become the first pick of the 2012 NBA draft.

Which coach's Kansas teams won at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title every year from 2005 to 2017?

Bill Self's 13 straight titles match the Division I record; a 14th in a row, won in 2018, was struck from the books in 2023 because an ineligible player had taken part.

Who became Kentucky's men's basketball coach in 2024?

Mark Pope, a captain of Kentucky's 1996 champions, was hired from BYU in April 2024 after John Calipari left for Arkansas.

Which Stanford quarterback's go-ahead drive was undone by 'The Play' in the 1982 Big Game?

John Elway drove Stanford to a field goal and a 20-19 lead with four seconds left in his final college game, only for California's five-lateral kickoff return through the Stanford band to win 25-20.

Which rivalry trophy began as a water container Michigan left behind after a 1903 game at Minnesota?

The Little Brown Jug cost 30 cents: Michigan bought it because its coach feared the home crowd might tamper with the team's water, then left it behind; the schools have played for it since 1909.

Which two schools play for Floyd of Rosedale, a bronze pig that began as a governors' bet on a live hog?

Iowa and Minnesota's governors made the 1935 bet to cool tempers after rough play against Iowa's Black star Ozzie Simmons a year earlier; Minnesota won, and the prize hog was recast in bronze.

Which school's 12th Man tradition dates to a student leaving the stands to suit up in 1922?

Texas A&M's E. King Gill stood ready on the sideline for the rest of a 22-14 win over Centre College as injuries thinned the bench; Aggie students have stood through whole games ever since.

Which 16th seed became the first to beat a top seed in the men's NCAA tournament, routing Virginia in 2018?

UMBC won by 20, 74-54, after 16 seeds had lost all 135 previous meetings with top seeds; Virginia answered by winning the national title the very next season.

Which future NBA star beat Larry Bird's unbeaten Indiana State in the 1979 NCAA final?

Magic Johnson's Spartans won 75-64 in the highest-rated basketball telecast ever shown in the United States; he and Bird carried their rivalry into the NBA the following season.

Before Paul Bunyan's Axe, Minnesota and Wisconsin played for which trophy, which vanished in 1943?

The Slab of Bacon, a walnut plaque, vanished after the 1943 game and turned up in a Camp Randall storage room in 1994; Paul Bunyan's Axe replaced it in 1948.

Which nickname did a Jacksonville editor give the Florida-Georgia game in 1958?

Times-Union sports editor Bill Kastelz dubbed it 'The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party' after watching a tipsy fan cheerfully offer a drink to an on-duty police officer.

Which two schools play for the Old Oaken Bucket each football season?

Indiana and Purdue have played for the Old Oaken Bucket since 1925; the winner adds a bronze 'I' or 'P' link to its chain, and the first game's 0-0 tie produced an 'IP' link.

Georgia's oval 'G' helmet logo was cleared with which NFL team that already wore a similar one?

The Green Bay Packers hold the trademark on the oval 'G', which is why coach Vince Dooley asked the NFL club's blessing before putting his look-alike on Georgia's helmets.

Which school's paw-print logo was made in 1970 from a museum's mold of a real Bengal tiger?

Clemson's Tiger Paw even keeps a small hook at its base, copied from a scar on the real tiger and now treated as proof that merchandise is officially licensed.

Which school, known to fans as 'The U', uses that single orange-and-green letter as its logo?

Miami's Hurricanes, who play in Coral Gables, are informally called The U, and the school's logo is nothing more than that letter in team colours.

Which school shares its bucking horse and rider logo with its state's licence plates?

Wyoming trademarked the Bucking Horse and Rider for its licence plates in 1936, and the university's Cowboys and Cowgirls wear the same silhouette on their uniforms.

Which school's best-known symbol, an official logo since 1963, is called the Double T?

Texas Tech nearly became Texas State University in the 1960s, but the board and alumni who wanted to keep the Double T blocked that change of name.

Which school uses two crossed sabres as an official logo and a mounted swordsman as a mascot?

Virginia took the Cavaliers name from the Royalists of the English Civil War who were said to have fled to the colony, and its curved-sabres logo dates from 1994.

Which school's team colours of red, white, black and gold are all taken from its state flag?

Maryland's flag joins the black-and-gold Calvert arms to the red-and-white Crossland arms, and the football team has worn the flag itself on its jersey sleeves.

What is the name of the bird's-head logo that coach Hayden Fry had created for Iowa in 1979?

The Tigerhawk came from a marketing group Fry hired, and Iowa's players have taken it off their helmets on several occasions as a gesture of mourning.

Which pattern did designer Alexander Julian add to North Carolina's basketball uniforms in 1991?

Argyle became a Tar Heel trademark after coach Dean Smith asked Julian, who grew up in Chapel Hill and had already dressed an NBA team, to rework the uniforms.

Which coach brought the winged helmet to Michigan in 1938 after first ordering it at Princeton?

Fritz Crisler picked the design out of a Spalding catalogue in 1935, then added maize and blue because he thought Michigan's plain black helmet needed dressing up.

Which school held the national titles in football and men's basketball at the same time in 2007?

Florida is the only Division I school to manage that double, winning the football title in January 2007 in between back-to-back basketball championships.

Which school won a first men's basketball national title in 2003, led by freshman Carmelo Anthony?

Syracuse sealed that 2003 title when Hakim Warrick stretched out his long arms to block a tying three-point attempt in the final seconds.

Which Texas quarterback ran for the title-winning touchdown with 19 seconds left in January 2006?

Vince Young ran for three touchdowns that night, and ESPN later rated his fourth-down winner the fifth-greatest play in college football history.

Which Olympic gold medallist coached South Carolina to a first women's basketball title in 2017?

Dawn Staley won her three Olympic golds as a player between 1996 and 2004, then coached the United States team to another gold medal in 2021.

Which Jim Valvano team stunned Houston with a last-second dunk in the 1983 men's basketball final?

NC State won 54-52 when Lorenzo Charles caught a teammate's air ball and dunked it while Houston's Hakeem Olajuwon hesitated, fearing a goaltending call.

Which school's women's basketball team, led by Brittney Griner, became the first to go 40-0?

Baylor finished that 2012 run as the first college team, men's or women's, to end a season 40-0, a mark that was matched only two years later.

Which Jerry Tarkanian team beat Duke by 30 points in 1990, the widest margin in a men's final?

UNLV's Runnin' Rebels won 103-73, shattering a record margin of 23 points that had stood since 1968.

Which school nicknamed the Bison won five straight lower-tier football titles from 2011 to 2015?

North Dakota State kept going, reaching ten titles in fourteen seasons and stringing together a 39-game winning streak between 2017 and 2021.

Which school, now called UTEP, won the 1966 basketball title with an all-Black starting five?

Texas Western's lineup was the first of its kind in a title game, and beating all-white Kentucky pushed major programs to recruit Black players far more actively.

Which school won the first NCAA women's basketball tournament, beating Cheyney State in the final?

Louisiana Tech's roster included guard Kim Mulkey, who later became the first woman to win Division I titles as both a player and a head coach.

Which US state has no full Division I member, though two of its schools play top-tier hockey?

Alaska's two state universities, in Fairbanks and Anchorage, compete mostly in Division II, but both send their men's ice hockey teams up to Division I.

Which service academy near Colorado Springs competes in Division I with teams called the Falcons?

Air Force's nickname was picked by a vote of the Class of 1959, the academy's first graduates, and each performing falcon is named by its cadet falconer.

Which school has played its home football games on a bright blue artificial field since 1986?

Boise State's field, nicknamed the Smurf Turf, spent nearly two decades as the only playing surface in top-division football that was not green.

Which school's teams became the Demon Deacons after a 1923 report said they fought like demons?

Wake Forest, based in Winston-Salem, had been plain Deacons until that newspaper story, written after a big win over the college that later became Duke.

Which lower-division school beat fifth-ranked Michigan at Michigan Stadium in a famous 2007 upset?

Appalachian State won 34-32 by blocking a last-second field goal, and Michigan became the first team to fall from the top five to unranked after a single game.

Which Brad Stevens-coached school reached back-to-back men's basketball finals in 2010 and 2011?

Butler lost the first of those finals 61-59 to Duke, yet studies valued the news coverage of the two runs at about $1.2 billion in publicity for the university.

Which Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire, fields Division I teams called the Big Green?

Dartmouth adopted a deep green as its official colour in 1866, and an earlier unofficial nickname, the Indians, was dropped in the early 1970s.

Which Jersey City school became the first 15th seed to reach the men's Elite Eight, in 2022?

Saint Peter's Peacocks, whose mascot nods to Pavonia, an early name for Jersey City meaning land of the peacock, opened that run by beating second-seeded Kentucky.

Which Texas university's stadium hosted President Kennedy's famous speech about going to the Moon?

Rice even features in the speech, in which Kennedy used the school's football team to make a point about taking on hard challenges, and the stadium later hosted Super Bowl VIII.

Which Ohio school's teams are the Zips, a name shortened from a local brand of rubber overshoes?

Akron's nickname comes from 'zippers', overshoes made in the city by BF Goodrich, and the freshman who suggested it in a campus contest won ten dollars.

Which cartoon character became Oregon's mascot through a handshake deal with Walt Disney himself?

Donald Duck's deal was so informal that when studio lawyers questioned it in the 1970s, Oregon produced a photo of Walt Disney wearing a jacket with the mascot on it.

Which animal became Alabama's symbol after 1930 sportswriters named its hulking team after it?

An elephant stuck after writer Everett Strupper's account of the 1930 team, and the university later hired live ones from passing circuses for homecoming.

What is the name of the live longhorn steer that has represented Texas at football games since 1916?

Bevo's name has two rival origin stories: one credits a near-beer of that name launched the same year, the other the word beeves, a plural of beef.

Stanford has no official mascot, so what does the marching band's unofficial mascot dress as?

A tree, specifically a sequoia, performs with the Stanford band, while the Cardinal nickname refers to a shade of red and not to the songbird.

Which animal has been Army's mascot since 1899, picked because it had long hauled military gear?

A mule was the idea of an officer at a Philadelphia supply depot, who decided that Army's football team needed a mascot to answer its great rival's goat.

UC Santa Cruz students voted in 1986 to make which slow-moving creature their official mascot?

A banana slug beat the administration's choice, the sea lion, in a student referendum, although the chancellor at first refused to honour the vote.

What name is shared by every bulldog that has served as Georgia's live mascot since 1956?

Uga has always been owned by the Seiler family of Savannah, and the dog travels with the football team and stays in the players' hotel in a room of his own.

Which collie mascot is the highest-ranking member of Texas A&M's Corps of Cadets?

Reveille outranks every cadet because she alone wears five silver diamonds, and cadets once raised money in wartime to have an earlier dog made a general.

What name has every Yale bulldog mascot carried since the first joined a student on campus in 1889?

Handsome Dan was reportedly chosen for tolerating bands and children while reacting badly to crimson and to tigers, the symbols of Harvard and Princeton.

Duke's Blue Devils are named after elite mountain troops of which country's army in World War I?

France's Chasseurs Alpins were nicknamed the blue devils for their blue jackets, and Duke students and alumni coming home from the war had been impressed by them.

Which school plays football as an independent while nearly all its other teams compete in the ACC?

Notre Dame makes one other exception to its league membership: the men's ice hockey team, which plays in the Big Ten.

Which conference's midweek football games, scheduled to win TV viewers, are nicknamed 'MACtion'?

Mid-American schools accepted the unusual weeknight slots because games played there face far less competition for viewers than they would on a Saturday.

Which school joined the SEC alongside Texas A&M in 2012 after both left the Big 12?

Missouri had been a charter member of the Big 12, and the SEC placed it in the East Division even though it sat farther west than most of the West Division.

Which Bay Area school joined Stanford in moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024?

California, known in sport simply as Cal, moved most of its teams to the league and kept a few in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

Which school quit a league of mostly Texas rivals for the SEC in 1991, sparking wider realignment?

Arkansas announced the switch in 1990, and its football team played one more season in the old league while every other sport moved straight away.

Which Massachusetts school, a founding member of the Big East, left for the ACC in 2005?

Boston College had until then been the only Catholic-affiliated school that played its football in the Big East.

What were the Big Ten's two football divisions called before an East-West split replaced them?

Legends and Leaders came about because the Big Ten had rejected a geographic split and so could not use place names, and the labels were met without enthusiasm.

Since 2015, the football champions of the MEAC and SWAC have met in which postseason game?

The Celebration Bowl falls during the national playoff tournament, so the MEAC gave up its automatic playoff place to send its champion to the bowl instead.

In which conference do Army and Navy compete in most sports other than football?

The Patriot League took in Army in 1990 and Navy a year later, placing the two academies alongside schools such as Bucknell, Colgate and Lehigh.

The Mountain West was formed by eight schools that broke away from which bloated 16-team league?

The Western Athletic Conference had swollen to 16 teams, and the presidents of five of its schools met at Denver's airport to plan the breakaway.