Columbia Lions
Encyclopedia
The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, an Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 institution in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The current director of athletics is M. Dianne Murphy.

Ivy League athletics

The eight-institution athletic league to which Columbia University belongs, the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

, also includes Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. The Ivy League conference sponsors championships in 33 men's and women's sports and averages 35 varsity teams at each of its eight universities. The League provides intercollegiate athletic opportunities for more men and women than any other conference in the United States. All eight Ivy schools are listed in the top 20 NCAA Division I schools in number of sports offered for both men and women.

The Lions

Columbia University was founded in 1754 and currently fields 29 co-ed, men’s, and women’s teams. Women's teams are cooperatively organized with the affiliated Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

. All Columbia teams compete at the Division I level in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The school's football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 team competes at the NCAA Division I FCS level.

It is believed that the school adopted the nickname "Lions" as a reference to the institution's royal past. The University was originally named King's College since its charter in 1754 by King George II of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The lion is the animal depicted on the English coat of arms. Only after the American Revolution was King's finally renamed Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.

History

Intercollegiate sports at Columbia date to the foundation of the baseball team in 1867. Men's association football (i.e. soccer) followed in 1870, and men's crew in 1873. Men's Crew
Sport rowing
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...

 was one of Columbia's best early sports, and in 1878 the Columbia College Boat Club was the first non-English school to win a race at the Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held every year on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. The Royal Regatta is sometimes referred to as Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage...

. The third ever men's intercollegiate soccer match was played between Columbia and Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

, with Rutgers winning 6 to 3. Columbia joined the American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 movement soon after Harvard and Yale played their first game in 1875—in 1876, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton University formed the Intercollegiate Football Association. In addition, the Lions' wrestling
Collegiate wrestling
Collegiate wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the collegiate and university level in the United States. Collegiate wrestling emerged from the folk wrestling styles practised in the early history of the United States...

 team is the nation's oldest.

The Columbia football team won the Rose Bowl in 1934, upsetting Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 7-0. Columbia also hosted the first televised sporting event: on May 17, 1939, the fledgling NBC network filmed the baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 double-header of the Light Blue versus the Princeton University Tigers at Columbia's Baker Field at the northernmost point in Manhattan.

Men’s teams

Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Lacrosse, Heavyweight Rowing, Lightweight Rowing, Soccer, Swimming and Diving, Tennis, Track and Field, Football and Wrestling.

Women’s teams (Columbia-Barnard)

Archery,
Women's Basketball,
Cross Country,
Fencing,
Field Hockey,
Women's Golf,
Lacrosse,
Women's Rowing,
Women's Soccer, Softball,
Women's Swimming and Diving,
Women's Tennis,
Track and Field, and
Volleyball,

Achievements

Columbia University hosts one of the oldest and most storied traditions of athletics in the United States.

Football

Columbia was one of the first schools to take up the game; Columbia's 1870 contest with Rutgers
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 was the second intercollegiate football game ever played.

The Lions compete in the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

, which is part of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA).

The football program unfortunately is best known for its record of futility set during the 1980s: between 1983 and 1988, the team lost 44 games in a row, which is still the record for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. The streak was broken on October 8, 1988, with a 16-13 victory over archrival Princeton
Princeton Tigers
The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 31 varsity sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, six in men's lacrosse, three in women's lacrosse, and eight in men's golf...

. That was the Lions' first victory at Wien Stadium (which was already four years old, having been opened during the streak). Even before the streak, the Lions had long been regarded as one of the worst football teams in the country.

The program was much more successful in the first half of the 20th century, and was at times a national power. The 1915 squad went undefeated and untied. The 1933 edition of the Lions won an unofficial national championship by upsetting the top-ranked Stanford Indians
Stanford Cardinal
The Stanford Cardinal is the nickname of the athletic teams at Stanford University.-Nickname and mascot history:Following its win over Cal in the first-ever Big Game in 1892, the color cardinal was picked as the primary color of Stanford's athletic teams...

 7-0 in the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl Game
The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2...

 on New Years Day 1934. Lou Little
Lou Little
Lou "Luigi Piccolo" Little was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Georgetown College, now Georgetown University, from 1924 to 1929 and at Columbia University from 1930 to 1956, compiling a career college football record of 151–128–13...

, who coached the team from 1930 to 1956, is in the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...

.

Pro Football Hall of Fame
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...

r Sid Luckman
Sid Luckman
Sidney Luckman, known as Sid Luckman, was an American football quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League from 1939 to 1950...

 played his college ball at Columbia, graduating in 1938. Luckman is also in the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...

. Other Lions to have success in the NFL include offensive lineman George Starke
George Starke
George Lawrence Starke is a former American football offensive lineman who played for the Washington Redskins in the National Football League from 1972-84....

, the Washington Redskins
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins are a professional American football team and members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team plays at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, while its headquarters and training facility are at Redskin Park in Ashburn,...

' "Head Hog
The Hogs (American football)
The Hogs was the nickname for the offensive line of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League during the 1980s and early 1990s. Renowned for their ability to control the line of scrimmage, the Hogs helped the Redskins win three Super Bowl championships under head coach Joe Gibbs...

," during the 1970s and 1980s, quarterback John Witkowski
John Witkowski
-Football career:John Witkowski was the winner of the 1982 Asa A. Bushnell Cup for leadership, competitive spirit, contribution to the team, and accomplishments on the field, Witkowski holds 12 Columbia Lions passing records, six total offense marks, and five Ivy League records...

 in the 1980s, and defensive lineman Marcellus Wiley
Marcellus Wiley
Marcellus Vernon Wiley, is a retired American football defensive end who played 10 seasons in the National Football League for four different teams. He was selected with the 22nd pick of the second round of the 1997 NFL Draft out of Columbia University by the Buffalo Bills...

 in the 1990s. Perhaps the most famous personality associated with Lions football was a running back who had limited success on the field: the writer Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...

 left school and went on the road after one injury-marred season at Columbia. Another Lions back who became legendary for his accomplishments off the gridiron was baseball great Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...

, who was a two-sport star at Columbia.

The current head coach, Norries Wilson
Norries Wilson
Norries Wilson was the 18th head coach of the Columbia University football team, and the first African-American head football coach in the Ivy League...

, is the first African-American head coach in the history of Ivy League football. He has served as the Lions' head coach since 2005.

Bowl Games

Season Bowl Champion Runner-Up
1934 Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl Game
The Rose Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2...

 
Columbia 7 Stanford 0

Baseball

Lou Gehrig
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...

 played college baseball at Columbia (he joined the New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

 in 1923, after his sophomore season) as well as Hall of Fame
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...

 inductee Eddie Collins
Eddie Collins
Edward Trowbridge Collins, Sr. , nicknamed "Cocky", was an American Major League Baseball second baseman, manager and executive...

. In 1939 the first live televised
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 sporting event in the United States, was a Columbia Vs Princeton
Princeton Tigers
The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 31 varsity sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, six in men's lacrosse, three in women's lacrosse, and eight in men's golf...

 baseball game, broadcast from Baker Field in New York City.
Other Columbia Lions who have gone on to play in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 include Gene Larkin
Gene Larkin
Eugene Thomas Larkin is a former switch-hitting first baseman, designated hitter and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire seven-season career with the Minnesota Twins. During his playing career he wore #9 for Minnesota, and was a member of both the 1987 and 1991 World...

 and Fernando Perez
Fernando Perez (baseball)
Fernando Perez is an outfielder is an American professional baseball outfielder for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball.-Early life:...

.

Men's basketball

Columbia was one of the first schools to take up basketball. The Lions' rivalry with the Yale Bulldogs
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 is the longest continuous rivalry in NCAA college basketball (tied with the Yale-Princeton rivalry): the two teams have played each other for 108 seasons in a row, going back to the 1901-1902 season. The Lions were the unofficial national collegiate champions in 1904, 1905, and 1910, based on the Helms Foundation rankings. The 1903-1904 and 1904-1905 teams went undefeated.

During the years just before the Ivy League formally became a sports conference, the Lions made it to "March Madness" on two occasions. In 1948, they were one of eight teams in the tournament, losing in the East regional semifinal to the eventual champion Kentucky. The 1951 team went undefeated in the regular season and were one of the 16 teams invited to the championship. The Lions lost 79-71 to eventual semi-finalist Illinois
Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at Assembly Hall, located on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's campus in Champaign....

 for a final record of 21-1 (best record in the nation that year with win-loss percentage of .956) The 1951 team is, however, sadly best known for the tragic story of its brilliant but troubled star forward Jack Molinas
Jack Molinas
Jacob "Jack" L. Molinas was an American professional basketball player and one of the key figures in the point shaving scandal that almost destroyed NCAA basketball...

, who eventually ended up in prison for crimes related his longtime involvement with gambling and who was murdered in 1975 in what appeared to be an organized-crime related assassination. Molinas still holds several school scoring records.

In 1957 Chet Forte
Chet Forte
Fulvio Chester "Chet" Forte, Jr. was an American television director and sports radio talk show host.-Early life:...

 was a consensus All-American and UPI player of the year for NCAA Division I; he averaged 28.9 points (fifth in the nation.) He is even more famous for his later work as a producer for ABC Sports, especially on the program Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...

. The 1957 team had 2,016 rebounds, fourth highest in NCAA Division I history, even though they played only 24 games.

The Lions have only won the official Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...

 championship once, in 1968, when they reached the "Sweet Sixteen" in the NCAA national tournament. Two members of the 1968 team went on to play professional basketball: Jim McMillian
Jim McMillian
James M. "Jim" McMillian is a retired American professional basketball player. After starring at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, McMillian played college basketball at Columbia University. He led Columbia to a three-year mark of 63-14, and their last NCAA Tournament appearance in 1968,...

 and Dave Newmark
Dave Newmark
Dave Newmark is an American former professional basketball player. A 7'0" center from Columbia University, he played in the NBA from 1968 to 1970 as a member of the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks. He then spent the 1970-71 season in the ABA as a member of the Carolina Cougars...

. (NFL great George Starke
George Starke
George Lawrence Starke is a former American football offensive lineman who played for the Washington Redskins in the National Football League from 1972-84....

 was also a member of the Lions' basketball team in that era.) Jack Rohan
Jack Rohan
John Patrick "Jack" Rohan was an American college basketball player and coach. The Bellerose, New York native was men's head basketball coach at Columbia University between 1962 and 1974, and returned in 1991 to coach until 1995. He is the most successful coach in Columbia basketball history...

 was voted Coach of the Year in 1968.

The Lions had a powerful squad in the late 1970s, even though they never won the Ivy League championship or made it to post-season play. In 1979, the diminutive point guard
Point guard
Point guard , also called the play maker or "the ball-handler", is one of the standard positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position – essentially, he is expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that...

 Alton Byrd
Alton Byrd
Joseph Alton Byrd is an American basketball player who also holds British citizenship. He grew up in the San Francisco area, where he was a high school basketball star. He continued to be a basketball star at Columbia University, where he was one of the best point guards in the country in spite...

 won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award
Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award
The Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award is an annual college basketball award in the United States intended to honor shorter–than–average players who excel on the court despite their size. The award, named in honor of James Naismith's daughter–in–law, was established for men in 1969 and for women in 1984...

, given to the best player under 6 feet in height. Byrd never made it to the NBA, but he moved on to a legendary career in European pro basketball.

Women's basketball

Until the 1980s, the women's basketball team (like the other women's teams) was known as the Barnard Bears, playing under the aegis of Columbia's affiliated undergraduate women's college, Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

. When Columbia College went co-ed in 1983, the schools formed the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, and today all Barnard athletes compete on Columbia teams.

The women's basketball team joined the Ivy League in 1986-1987, and for many years were a perennial cellar dweller, reaching their low point in 1994-1995, when they went 0-26. They had never finished higher than fourth in the league standings in their first 23 seasons. In 2009-2010, however, they finished third, putting together a 9-5 record in the Ivy League, and, at 18-10 overall, their first winning season.

Men's and women's soccer

Columbia's soccer program traces its origins to the same Columbia-Rutgers game that the gridiron football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 program counts as its first contest. (The 1870 Columbia-Rutgers game was played by a set of rules which combined elements of present-day soccer and rugby.) The Lions soccer team has a long history of success, spanning three centuries, highlighted by national collegiate championships in 1909 and 1910 (Intercollegiate Soccer Football League), and a second-place finish in the 1983 NCAA championship. Dieter Ficken was named NSCAA
NSCAA
The National Soccer Coaches Association of America is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. The NSCAA has grown from a handful of college soccer coaches to more than 22,000 members, making it the largest coaching organization in the world. Its members coach at all levels of...

 Coach of the Year in 1983 after the Lions' 1-0 double-overtime finals loss to seven-time champion Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

. 18 Lions players have been first-team all-Americans, and Amr Aly
Amr Aly
Amr Aly is a retired American soccer forward. He attended Columbia University where he won the 1984 Hermann Trophy as the college player of the year....

 earned the 1984 Hermann Trophy
Hermann Trophy
The Hermann Trophy is awarded annually by the Missouri Athletic Club to the United States's top male and female college soccer players.-History:...

 national player of the year award.

The women's team was the 2006 Ivy League champions.

Women's cross-country

  • Caroline Bierbaum won the 2005 women's cross country Honda Sports Award (most outstanding NCAA women's cross country athlete of the year) and was NCAA Division I runner-up with a time of 19:46.0
  • Top-25 national finishes from 2000 through 2005
  • Five straight Heptagonal Ivy League Championships: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005

Fencing

  • Coed NCAA champions: 1992 and 1993
  • Coed NCAA runners-up: 1990 and 1991
  • 7 coed individual national championships
  • 6 coed weapon team national championships
  • 16 top-6 coed national finishes in 17 years, 1990-2006
  • Men's NCAA champions: 1951, 1952, 1954 (tied), 1955, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1971 (tied), 1987, 1988, and 1989
  • Men's NCAA runners-up: 1956, 1957, 1958, 1970, and 1986
  • 21 men's individual national champions
  • Women's NCAA runner-up: 1989
  • 2 women's individual national champions

Men's rowing

  • In 2008, the men's heavyweight crew had a regular season record of 10-1 and finished sixth in the nation at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship being the only Ivy League school in the Grand Final. They then went on to be the only American crew competing for The Ladies' Challenge Plate at the Henley Royal Regatta in Henley-on-Thames, UK.
  • In 2003 the men's lightweight crew team finished second in the nation by just two seconds
  • Won the Varsity 8s at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta at Poughkeepsie in 1895, 1914, 1927, and 1929
  • Won Varsity 4s at the 1879 Rowing Association of American Colleges regatta at Lake George
  • In 1878 the Columbia College Boat Club won the Visitor's Challenge Cup at the famed Henley Royal Regatta in the first-ever defeat for an English crew rowing in English waters (1st Race, defeated University College, Oxford; final, defeated Hertford College, Oxford)
  • Won Varsity 6s at the 1874 Rowing Association of American Colleges regatta at Lake Saratoga

Men's swimming and diving

  • Head Coach: Jim Bolster
  • 8 individual NCAA Division I championships

Women's swimming and diving

  • 4 individual NCAA Division I championships
  • Cristina Teuscher
    Cristina Teuscher
    Cristina Teuscher is a former freestyle and medley swimmer from the United States, who was a member of the Women's Relay Team that won the gold medal in the 4x200m Freestyle a the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Her winning teammates were Jenny Thompson, Trina Jackson, and Sheila...

    , 1999-2000 Honda-Broderick Cup
    Honda-Broderick Cup
    The Honda-Broderick Cup is a sports award for college-level female athletes. The awards are voted on by a national panel of more than 1000 collegiate athletic directors. It was first presented by the late Thomas Broderick, owner of a sports apparel company, in 1977, with the first award going to...

     winner (NCAA Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year)

Men's tennis

  • Ivy League Champions 2009
  • Ivy League Champions 2007
  • NCAA Division I tournament appearances, 1984, 1987, 1998, 2000
  • Robert LeRoy, two-time NCAA singles champion, 1904 and 1906
  • Oliver Campbell and A.E. Wright, NCAA doubles champions, 1889
  • Oliver Campbell and V.G. Hall, NCAA doubles champions, 1888

Men's track and field

  • 3 outdoor track and field individual NCAA Division I championships
  • Once sported the world's fastest man, Benjamin Washington Johnson, the Columbia Comet. The sprinting
    Sprint (race)
    Sprints are short running events in athletics and track and field. Races over short distances are among the oldest running competitions. The first 13 editions of the Ancient Olympic Games featured only one event—the stadion race, which was a race from one end of the stadium to the other...

     champion's most incredible achievement was at the 1938 Millrose Games
    Millrose Games
    The Millrose Games is an annual indoor athletics meet held on the first Friday in February in New York City. They will be held at the Armory in Washington Heights in 2012, after having taken place in Madison Square Garden from 1914 to 2011...

    , in front of more than 17,000 fans at Madison Square Garden
    Madison Square Garden
    Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

    . His winning time in the 60 yard dash was 5.9 seconds, breaking the world record of 6.2 seconds for the third time in the same day. His final time of 5.9 seconds was rounded up to 6.0 seconds, because the referees claimed it must have been a timing error, arguing that no human being could ever break 6 seconds in the 60 yard dash.
  • In 2007, Columbia won the Championship of America 4x800m race at the prestigious Penn Relays. The team of Michael Mark, Jonah Rathbun, Erison Hurtalt
    Erison Hurtault
    Erison Hurtault is an American sprinter who has represented Dominica in international events. He specializes in the 400 metres....

    , and Liam Boylan-Pett ran 7:22.64, outkicking the anchor legs of national powerhouses Michigan, Villanova, and Oral Roberts. The team has finished no lower than fifth in the past three years.
  • In March 2010, Kyle Merber became the first Columbia athlete to break four minutes in the mile, running 3:58.52 at the Columbia Last Chance Meet at the 168th St. Armory. The mark is also an Ivy League indoor record.

Notable athletes

The Lions have produced such notable athletes as:
  • Lou Gehrig
    Lou Gehrig
    Henry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...

     - Baseball
  • Eddie Collins
    Eddie Collins
    Edward Trowbridge Collins, Sr. , nicknamed "Cocky", was an American Major League Baseball second baseman, manager and executive...

     - Baseball
  • Gene Larkin
    Gene Larkin
    Eugene Thomas Larkin is a former switch-hitting first baseman, designated hitter and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire seven-season career with the Minnesota Twins. During his playing career he wore #9 for Minnesota, and was a member of both the 1987 and 1991 World...

     - Baseball
  • Chris Gomez
    Chris Gomez
    Christopher Cory Gomez is a former Major League Baseball infielder. He bats and throws right-handed.-College career:...

     - Baseball
  • Chet Forte
    Chet Forte
    Fulvio Chester "Chet" Forte, Jr. was an American television director and sports radio talk show host.-Early life:...

     - Basketball
  • Jim McMillian
    Jim McMillian
    James M. "Jim" McMillian is a retired American professional basketball player. After starring at Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn, McMillian played college basketball at Columbia University. He led Columbia to a three-year mark of 63-14, and their last NCAA Tournament appearance in 1968,...

     - Basketball
  • Caroline Bierbaum - Cross Country
  • Sid Luckman
    Sid Luckman
    Sidney Luckman, known as Sid Luckman, was an American football quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League from 1939 to 1950...

     - Football
  • Paul Governali
    Paul Governali
    Paul Vincent "Pitchin' Paul" Governali was a professional American football quarterback in the National Football League. An All-American at Columbia University, he was the 1942 recipient of the Maxwell Award for College Player of the Year and the first runner-up for the Heisman Trophy...

     - Football
  • Marcellus Wiley
    Marcellus Wiley
    Marcellus Vernon Wiley, is a retired American football defensive end who played 10 seasons in the National Football League for four different teams. He was selected with the 22nd pick of the second round of the 1997 NFL Draft out of Columbia University by the Buffalo Bills...

     - Football
  • Mark Shepherd - Lacrosse
  • Amr Aly
    Amr Aly
    Amr Aly is a retired American soccer forward. He attended Columbia University where he won the 1984 Hermann Trophy as the college player of the year....

    - Soccer
  • Christina Teuscher - Swimming and Diving
  • Erison Hurtault - Track and Field
  • Lindsey Stephenson - Track and Field
  • Erinn Smart - Fencing

External links

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