Utah State Aggies
Encyclopedia
The Utah State Aggies are the athletics teams of Utah State University
. The school fields men's varsity teams in basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and track and field. Women's varsity teams include basketball, cross country, gymnastics, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. All teams compete in the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference
(WAC). USU has a number of club teams as well.
, 12-0. The football
program has a rich history (Merlin Olsen
and Phil Olsen
are alumni) throughout the mid-20th century, but has struggled lately, following two ill-fated stints as an independent program and two more years in the geographically distant Sun Belt Conference
, after the Big West Conference
, which had housed the Aggies since 1978, elected to stop sponsoring football in 2001. USU's other teams remained in that conference until the school was finally invited to join the Western Athletic Conference
(WAC) in 2005. USU had lobbied to join its in-state rivals Utah
and BYU
in the WAC for many decades prior to 2005, and were only allowed in after the two other schools had left to form the Mountain West Conference
.
Recently, the men's basketball team, under coach Stew Morrill
, has become a nationally respected program, with several conference championships and trips to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
. The basketball program has been one of the most successful programs in the country since 2000, winning at least 23 games in each season, many conference championships, and appearing in the NCAA tournament numerous times. In fact, many Aggie sports have been extremely successful for many years, though this is often overlooked due to the recent futility of the football team.
Following the great heights of the 1960s and 70's, Aggie football has fallen upon hard times in recent decades, leading to a disproportionate lack of USU sports coverage in statewide and national media. Many of the Aggie faithful attribute the decline to administrators at both Utah
and BYU
freezing then-superior USU out of the newly-formed WAC. However, other factors cited as leading to the decline include a failure to upgrade facilities until recently, a lack of donors to athletics, and the complacency of past athletics directors. The decline of the football program has had an extremely negative effect on the perception of the university as a whole, and it is something that the Aggies are only now recovering from.
However, new athletic director Scott Barnes
has recently inked deals with TV stations, replaced the head football coach, raised funds, and accomplished numerous necessary reorganizations, despite the athletics department's dismal budget in comparison with other state and WAC schools. In large part due to his efforts, USU Athletics was crowned the 2009 National Champion of the Excellence in Management Cup, which seeks to identify the university that wins the most championships with the lowest expenses. The Aggies brought in WAC championships in five sports during the 2008-09 academic year, tied for the most in school history.
Overall, the Aggies have a record of 487–501–31 (.493) in their history.
The Aggies are currently coached by Gary Andersen
, who replaced Brent Guy
after the 2008 season. Andersen was previously the defensive coordinator at the University of Utah, and a part of the 2008 Utes team
that went undefeated and won a BCS bowl victory in the 2009 Sugar Bowl
.
The Aggies have played in five bowl games, in which they have won one. Most recently, in 1997, the team lost to Cincinnati
in the Humanitarian Bowl. The lone victory came in the Las Vegas Bowl
, where they defeated Ball State
.
The crown jewel of Aggie athletics has long been the men's basketball team, which plays in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, which has been called one of the nation's top five loudest and toughest places for opposing teams to play. The Spectrum seats 10,270 and features seats for students and other fans that are at court level and extremely close to the players. USU basketball is 157-12 at home during the Stew Morrill
era, has received 6 NCAA Tournament
berths in the last ten years, and has amassed more wins than any team in the nation except Duke, Kansas, and Gonzaga during that time. During the 2008-09 season, USU's ranking in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll rose as high as #17.
Utah State has won the Old Oquirrh Bucket
nine times, including both of the last two seasons. The Bucket is the award given each year to the best college basketball team in Utah, based on records against in-state opponents.
Golf has spent many years attempting to return to the heights achieved in the early 1980s by alum Jay Don Blake
. As a member of the Aggie golf squad, Blake won the NCAA Championship
in 1980 and was named NCAA Player of the Year in 1981. He turned pro that year, and in 1987 joined the PGA Tour, where he has earned one victory and several Top 10 finishes, mostly in the early '90s.
The tennis team has a difficult time attracting major recruits due to the lack of indoor on-campus facilities. The team trains and plays its home matches at an upscale local gym. Despite this deficiency, the team has produced a number of athletes who have won all-conference honors in recent years, drawing from both local and international talent pools.
has probably been most successful historically, heading to the postseason 26 times, including five trips to the national championships. The soccer team has been successful as of late, finishing the 2008 season with a perfect record in conference play, as well as a WAC title. Despite falling in the conference tournament in 2009, Aggie soccer landed three players on the All-WAC first team.
Women's volleyball and softball are the two sports at USU which can boast national championships in their history. Neither team has returned to such heights in recent years, though each has been consistently good. The women's tennis team struggles with the same disadvantages as the men's.
The women's basketball program began rebuilding in 2003 after a fifteen-year absence. At the time, USU was the only Division I school that did not have a women's basketball program besides the mostly male Virginia Military Institute
and The Citadel
. The women's team has yet to produce a winning season since the hiatus. It has, however, been steadily improving since 2003, and boasted a winning record for much of the 2009-10 season.
at Duke University
. It is a tradition that near the beginning of games the crowd chooses one player from the other team who commits a blatant foul, taunts the crowd, etc., and every time that player touches the ball the entire crowd boos loudly until he passes the ball. This pressure on opposing players created by this tradition has cut many outstanding players down to below average while at the Spectrum.
The football team plays in Romney Stadium
, slightly north and west of the main campus. The stadium had natural grass until 2004, when artificial turf was installed. Romney Stadium is built on a hillside, and appears much smaller from outside than it actually is, as much of the seating and the field are below street level. In 2009, the field at Romney Stadium was named Merlin Olsen
field, in honor of the Hall of Fame alumnus.
During the late 1960s and early '70s, a movement began on campus to shed the Aggie name in favor of the Utah State Highlanders, but the movement met with widespread opposition and was abandoned. The name "Highlanders" was a nod to the university's historic ideological tie to Scotland, which came about very early on in the college's history, mostly due to the university's setting on a hill in a high mountain valley. In fact, for a brief period, USU's teams were indeed nicknamed the "Scotsmen" as well, and a remnant of this era lives on in the current and popular fight song "The Scotsman".
The term "Big Blue" came about in the 1960s simply to refer to the uniform color, as opposed to any particular mascot. The image of a bull first appeared on a football game program in 1975, and the following year it was adopted as USU's mascot.
For a few years, USU used an actual white bull, painted blue, which was brought to sporting events and corralled on the sidelines. However, when the Smith Spectrum
was built, there were concerns with the bull ruining the floor. For a short time, the bull was outfitted with rubber boots, which idea didn't pan out. The bull was retired, and a costume was designed in 1987.
The costume has since undergone at least one redesign, but is now one of the most active and recognized college mascots in the region. Possibly Big Blue's most well-known antic is his tradition of rappelling from the JumboTron to kick off team introductions for men's basketball games. He also enjoys crowdsurfing. As of 2003, four of the six people who had played the Big Blue role had gone onto become mascots for professional sports teams.
The true identity of Big Blues past and present have always been well-kept secrets on campus.
is known as "Hail the Utah Aggies" as well as simply "Fight Song". It was composed in 1933 by Mickey Hart, with words by Darwin Jepsen and Mark Hart. The main verse is sung twice, with the chant once in between.
Hail the Utah Aggies
We'll play the game
With all our might
See the colors flying
The Aggie blue
And fighting white
How they stir us onward
We'll win the victory all right,
Hail the Utah Aggies
We're out to win
So fight, fight, fight!
(Chant) Utah State, hey
Aggies all the way
Go Aggies
Go Aggies
Hey, hey, hey!!
Show me the Scotsman who doesn't love the thistle.
Show me the Englishman who doesn't love the rose.
Show me the true blooded Aggie from Utah
Who doesn't love the spot . . .
Where the sagebrush grows!
era (beginning 1978) to the present in the WAC
.
Men
Women
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
. The school fields men's varsity teams in basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis, and track and field. Women's varsity teams include basketball, cross country, gymnastics, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. All teams compete in the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
(WAC). USU has a number of club teams as well.
Background
The first intercollegiate athletic event in the school's history took place on November 25, 1892, when the Agriculturalists defeated the football team from the University of UtahUtah Utes
The Utah Utes are the athletics teams of the University of Utah. They are named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the "Runnin' Utes"; the women's basketball team, formerly known as the "Lady Utes," now prefers to be referred to as the "Utes"; and the...
, 12-0. The 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 has a rich history (Merlin Olsen
Merlin Olsen
Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...
and Phil Olsen
Phil Olsen
Phillip Vernor Olsen is a former center and defensive tackle in the National Football League for the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos and the son of Lynn Jay and Merle Olsen. He also was a member of the Buffalo Bills. He is the younger brother of Pro Football Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen.- High...
are alumni) throughout the mid-20th century, but has struggled lately, following two ill-fated stints as an independent program and two more years in the geographically distant Sun Belt Conference
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , the higher of two levels of Division I football competition . The Sun Belt has member institutions...
, after the Big West Conference
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference is an NCAA-affiliated Division I mid-major college athletic conference. When the conference began in 1969, its name was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association . After nineteen years, in 1988, its name was changed to the Big West Conference. The conference stopped...
, which had housed the Aggies since 1978, elected to stop sponsoring football in 2001. USU's other teams remained in that conference until the school was finally invited to join the Western Athletic Conference
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
(WAC) in 2005. USU had lobbied to join its in-state rivals Utah
Utah Utes
The Utah Utes are the athletics teams of the University of Utah. They are named after the Ute tribe of Native Americans. The men's basketball team is known as the "Runnin' Utes"; the women's basketball team, formerly known as the "Lady Utes," now prefers to be referred to as the "Utes"; and the...
and BYU
BYU Cougars
BYU Cougars is an American soccer team based in Provo, Utah, United States. The team plays in the USL Premier Development League , the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference....
in the WAC for many decades prior to 2005, and were only allowed in after the two other schools had left to form the Mountain West Conference
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference , popularly known as the Mountain West, is the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I FBS . The MWC officially began operations in July 1999...
.
Recently, the men's basketball team, under coach Stew Morrill
Stew Morrill
Stew Morrill is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Utah State University men's basketball team. Morrill was an All-American at Ricks College and a two-time All-Big Sky selection for Gonzaga University...
, has become a nationally respected program, with several conference championships and trips to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
. The basketball program has been one of the most successful programs in the country since 2000, winning at least 23 games in each season, many conference championships, and appearing in the NCAA tournament numerous times. In fact, many Aggie sports have been extremely successful for many years, though this is often overlooked due to the recent futility of the football team.
Following the great heights of the 1960s and 70's, Aggie football has fallen upon hard times in recent decades, leading to a disproportionate lack of USU sports coverage in statewide and national media. Many of the Aggie faithful attribute the decline to administrators at both Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
and BYU
BYU
-Education:* Brigham Young University, a university located in Provo, Utah, USA administered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.**BYU Salt Lake Center, a satellite center in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA...
freezing then-superior USU out of the newly-formed WAC. However, other factors cited as leading to the decline include a failure to upgrade facilities until recently, a lack of donors to athletics, and the complacency of past athletics directors. The decline of the football program has had an extremely negative effect on the perception of the university as a whole, and it is something that the Aggies are only now recovering from.
However, new athletic director Scott Barnes
Scott Barnes (athletics director)
Scott Barnes has been the Athletics Director at Utah State University since March 2008. Utah State's teams are known as the Aggies and play in the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference.-Career:...
has recently inked deals with TV stations, replaced the head football coach, raised funds, and accomplished numerous necessary reorganizations, despite the athletics department's dismal budget in comparison with other state and WAC schools. In large part due to his efforts, USU Athletics was crowned the 2009 National Champion of the Excellence in Management Cup, which seeks to identify the university that wins the most championships with the lowest expenses. The Aggies brought in WAC championships in five sports during the 2008-09 academic year, tied for the most in school history.
Football
The Aggies are currently coached by Gary Andersen
Gary Andersen
-External links:* *...
, who replaced Brent Guy
Brent Guy
-External links:*...
after the 2008 season. Andersen was previously the defensive coordinator at the University of Utah, and a part of the 2008 Utes team
2008 Utah Utes football team
The 2008 Utah Utes football team represented the University of Utah in the college football season of 2008–2009. The team, coached by 4th year head football coach Kyle Whittingham, plays its home games in Rice–Eccles Stadium...
that went undefeated and won a BCS bowl victory in the 2009 Sugar Bowl
2009 Sugar Bowl
The 2009 Allstate Sugar Bowl was the 75th annual edition of the annual college football bowl game that is part of the 2008–09 bowl season of the Bowl Championship Series 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season...
.
The Aggies have played in five bowl games, in which they have won one. Most recently, in 1997, the team lost to Cincinnati
Cincinnati Bearcats football
The Cincinnati Bearcats football program represents the University of Cincinnati in a college football. They compete at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level as members of the Big East Conference. The Bearcat football program is one of the nation's oldest, having fielded a team as...
in the Humanitarian Bowl. The lone victory came in the Las Vegas Bowl
Las Vegas Bowl
The Maaco Bowl Las Vegas is an NCAA-sanctioned Division I-A post-season college football bowl game that has been played annually at 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. since 1992. From 1992 to 1996, matchups featured the champion teams from the Big West and Mid-American...
, where they defeated Ball State
Ball State Cardinals football
The Ball State Cardinals football team represents Ball State University in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football competition as a member of the Mid-American Conference .-Recent history:...
.
Men's basketball
Stew Morrill
Stew Morrill is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Utah State University men's basketball team. Morrill was an All-American at Ricks College and a two-time All-Big Sky selection for Gonzaga University...
era, has received 6 NCAA Tournament
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
berths in the last ten years, and has amassed more wins than any team in the nation except Duke, Kansas, and Gonzaga during that time. During the 2008-09 season, USU's ranking in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll rose as high as #17.
Utah State has won the Old Oquirrh Bucket
Old Oquirrh Bucket
The Old Oquirrh Bucket is the symbol of in-state basketball supremacy in Utah...
nine times, including both of the last two seasons. The Bucket is the award given each year to the best college basketball team in Utah, based on records against in-state opponents.
Other men's sports
The men's cross country team has been impressive in recent years, winning the WAC title for the past five years in a row—each year since joining the WAC. Members of the team have garnered numerous conference and regional awards, and have competed in the NCAA Championships. Likewise, the men's track and field team has long enjoyed success, with a bevy of All-American athletes from decades past. In recent years, the team has also won WAC championships in 2007, 2009, and 2010 (outdoor) and 2008 and 2010 (indoor).Golf has spent many years attempting to return to the heights achieved in the early 1980s by alum Jay Don Blake
Jay Don Blake
Jay Don Blake is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour; he currently plays on the Champions Tour....
. As a member of the Aggie golf squad, Blake won the NCAA Championship
NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships
The NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships, played in late May or early June, is the top annual competition in U.S. men's collegiate golf. It is a stroke play team competition, starting in 2009 the competition changed to a stroke play/match play competition with the top 8 teams after 54 holes of...
in 1980 and was named NCAA Player of the Year in 1981. He turned pro that year, and in 1987 joined the PGA Tour, where he has earned one victory and several Top 10 finishes, mostly in the early '90s.
The tennis team has a difficult time attracting major recruits due to the lack of indoor on-campus facilities. The team trains and plays its home matches at an upscale local gym. Despite this deficiency, the team has produced a number of athletes who have won all-conference honors in recent years, drawing from both local and international talent pools.
Women's sports
Of women's sports at USU, gymnasticsGymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
has probably been most successful historically, heading to the postseason 26 times, including five trips to the national championships. The soccer team has been successful as of late, finishing the 2008 season with a perfect record in conference play, as well as a WAC title. Despite falling in the conference tournament in 2009, Aggie soccer landed three players on the All-WAC first team.
Women's volleyball and softball are the two sports at USU which can boast national championships in their history. Neither team has returned to such heights in recent years, though each has been consistently good. The women's tennis team struggles with the same disadvantages as the men's.
The women's basketball program began rebuilding in 2003 after a fifteen-year absence. At the time, USU was the only Division I school that did not have a women's basketball program besides the mostly male Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute
The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
and The Citadel
The Citadel (military college)
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, also known simply as The Citadel, is a state-supported, comprehensive college located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the six senior military colleges in the United States...
. The women's team has yet to produce a winning season since the hiatus. It has, however, been steadily improving since 2003, and boasted a winning record for much of the 2009-10 season.
Facilities
The most used sports venue is the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, where basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics events are held. TV and radio announcers visiting the Smith Spectrum for the first time commonly state that the spectrum is one of the loudest basketball venues in the country with one of the most enthusiastic crowds in the country, rivaling Cameron Indoor StadiumCameron Indoor Stadium
Cameron Indoor Stadium is an indoor arena located on the West Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. It is home to the Duke Blue Devils men's and women's basketball teams, the women's volleyball team, and the men's wrestling team....
at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. It is a tradition that near the beginning of games the crowd chooses one player from the other team who commits a blatant foul, taunts the crowd, etc., and every time that player touches the ball the entire crowd boos loudly until he passes the ball. This pressure on opposing players created by this tradition has cut many outstanding players down to below average while at the Spectrum.
The football team plays in Romney Stadium
Romney Stadium
Merlin Olsen Field at Romney Stadium is an outdoor football stadium in Logan, Utah, USA, on the campus of Utah State University . It is the home field of the Utah State Aggies of the Western Athletic Conference. It opened in 1968 and currently has a seating capacity of 25,513...
, slightly north and west of the main campus. The stadium had natural grass until 2004, when artificial turf was installed. Romney Stadium is built on a hillside, and appears much smaller from outside than it actually is, as much of the seating and the field are below street level. In 2009, the field at Romney Stadium was named Merlin Olsen
Merlin Olsen
Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...
field, in honor of the Hall of Fame alumnus.
Aggie name and mascot
The name Aggies, short for Agriculturalists, is a fixture of many universities that began as land-grant and agricultural colleges. Early USU sports teams were sometimes simply referred to as the "Farmers" as well as the Aggies, though the former name was never official. Beginning in the 1930s, an image of a "bean-pole farmer" with a pitchfork in hand and hay stalk in mouth began to be used to represent the college, though this too was never made official, and disappeared following the transformation into a full-fledged university in 1957.During the late 1960s and early '70s, a movement began on campus to shed the Aggie name in favor of the Utah State Highlanders, but the movement met with widespread opposition and was abandoned. The name "Highlanders" was a nod to the university's historic ideological tie to Scotland, which came about very early on in the college's history, mostly due to the university's setting on a hill in a high mountain valley. In fact, for a brief period, USU's teams were indeed nicknamed the "Scotsmen" as well, and a remnant of this era lives on in the current and popular fight song "The Scotsman".
Big Blue
A November 7, 1901 meeting decided that the college's official color would be blue. It originated as more of a royal blue, morphing fully into navy by the 1920s.The term "Big Blue" came about in the 1960s simply to refer to the uniform color, as opposed to any particular mascot. The image of a bull first appeared on a football game program in 1975, and the following year it was adopted as USU's mascot.
For a few years, USU used an actual white bull, painted blue, which was brought to sporting events and corralled on the sidelines. However, when the Smith Spectrum
Smith Spectrum
The Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is a 10,270-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of Utah State University in Logan, Utah. It is best known for being the home of the Utah State Aggies men's basketball team...
was built, there were concerns with the bull ruining the floor. For a short time, the bull was outfitted with rubber boots, which idea didn't pan out. The bull was retired, and a costume was designed in 1987.
The costume has since undergone at least one redesign, but is now one of the most active and recognized college mascots in the region. Possibly Big Blue's most well-known antic is his tradition of rappelling from the JumboTron to kick off team introductions for men's basketball games. He also enjoys crowdsurfing. As of 2003, four of the six people who had played the Big Blue role had gone onto become mascots for professional sports teams.
The true identity of Big Blues past and present have always been well-kept secrets on campus.
Hail the Utah Aggies
The Aggies' principal fight songFight song
A fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
is known as "Hail the Utah Aggies" as well as simply "Fight Song". It was composed in 1933 by Mickey Hart, with words by Darwin Jepsen and Mark Hart. The main verse is sung twice, with the chant once in between.
Hail the Utah Aggies
We'll play the game
With all our might
See the colors flying
The Aggie blue
And fighting white
How they stir us onward
We'll win the victory all right,
Hail the Utah Aggies
We're out to win
So fight, fight, fight!
(Chant) Utah State, hey
Aggies all the way
Go Aggies
Go Aggies
Hey, hey, hey!!
The Scotsman
The popular Scotsman song was composed by student Ebenezer J. Kirkham, class of 1918, though a similar song had been used by other colleges for at least a decade. At athletic events, "The Scotsman" is often sung immediately following "Hail the Utah Aggies". The words are sung twice through without a break, accompanied by synchronized arm gestures originally symbolizing the herding of sheep for the first time through, and the milking of cows for the second. During the final words of the second "verse", the students' pitch often rises to a full-out yell.Show me the Scotsman who doesn't love the thistle.
Show me the Englishman who doesn't love the rose.
Show me the true blooded Aggie from Utah
Who doesn't love the spot . . .
Where the sagebrush grows!
Conference championships
Listed here are the conference championships from the Big WestBig West Conference
The Big West Conference is an NCAA-affiliated Division I mid-major college athletic conference. When the conference began in 1969, its name was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association . After nineteen years, in 1988, its name was changed to the Big West Conference. The conference stopped...
era (beginning 1978) to the present in the WAC
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
.
Men
- Basketball: 1980, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- Cross Country: 1992, 1993, 1994, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
- Football: 1978, 1979, 1993, 1996, 1997
- Indoor Track: 1993, 2008, 2010
- Outdoor Track: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011
- Wrestling: 1978, 1979
Women
- Cross Country: 1998, 2006, 2008
- Gymnastics: 1992, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005
- Indoor Track: 1994
- Outdoor Track: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
- Soccer: 2008, 2011
- Softball: 1993
All-Americans
Men's Basketball
Football
|
Mark Mraz Mark David Mraz is a former professional American football defensive end who played in the National Football League, World League of American Football and the Canadian Football League... - '86 Kevin Alexander (wide receiver) Kevin John Alexander is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League. He played for two seasons for the New York Giants from 1996–1997. He played college football at Utah State.-Professional career:... - '95 Golf
Gymnastics
Softball
|
Men's Track and Field
Discus: '58, '59; Long Jump: '67
Hammer: '95, '99, '00, '01; Discus: '01
|
Women's Track and Field
Mile: '93; 5000: '93
Volleyball
|