Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Encyclopedia
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers is the name for all of the men's intercollegiate athletic teams that play for Western Kentucky University
. Women's teams are known as Lady Toppers. This consists of eighteen teams (nine men's, nine women's teams) that compete in the Sun Belt Conference
of the NCAA's Division I.
Women compete in basketball
, cross country
, golf
, soccer, softball
, swimming
, tennis
, track and field
, and volleyball
.
Men compete in basketball
, baseball
, cross country
, American football
, golf
, swimming
, tennis
, and track and field
.
On March 12, 2010, Ross Bjork, who was the senior associate athletic director for Development and External Relations at UCLA
was named athletic director, replacing Dr. Wood Selig, who left WKU for Old Dominion University
.
arrived in 2008.
The program is 8th-winningest program in NCAA history. The program has over 1,600 victories, forty 20-win seasons, 34 Postseason Tournament Appearances and 28 All-Americans.
During the 1990s, Lady Toppers basketball had a higher national profile than the men's program. In recent years, the Lady Toppers and Hilltoppers have had roughly equal success; under head coach Mary Taylor Cowles, the Lady Toppers won the Sun Belt Conference's regular season title four times in the last six years, advancing to the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
tournament in 2003 and 2008.
, Navy Midshipmen
and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
. In 2009, the Hilltoppers completed the transition and joined the Sun Belt Conference
.
. The team won the Sun Belt Conference
championship in 2009, their first title.
With the help of Matt Rice behind the plate as an All American Catcher
Kenny Martin is the most Valuable player on the team
Rivalries=
WKU holds a long-standing rivalry with Cross-state Eastern Kentucky University
. Up until 2008, the two schools' football teams competed annually in the "Battle of the Bluegrass", with WKU leading the all time series 47-34-3.
The rivalry with Middle Tennessee State University
has become one of the most heated and most most competitive in the Sun Belt, with each team fielding championship contending teams each year. The rivalry has grown in recent years due to the football teams' move into the FBS.
getting upset that the Athletic Towels were being stolen. So he decided that he wanted all of his towels to be red. After the red towels were made, Diddle threw them to the rafters, beat them on the floor, chewed on them, waved, twisted, and even cried into them.
George Barker from the Nashville Tennessean described these various actions and interpreted their meanings as such:
Western Kentucky University
Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. It was formally founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier....
. Women's teams are known as Lady Toppers. This consists of eighteen teams (nine men's, nine women's teams) that compete in the 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...
of the NCAA's Division I.
Women compete in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, soccer, softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
.
Men compete in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, 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...
, cross country
Cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, 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...
, golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, and track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
.
On March 12, 2010, Ross Bjork, who was the senior associate athletic director for Development and External Relations at UCLA
UCLA Bruins
The UCLA Bruins are the sports teams for University of California, Los Angeles . The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation . For football, they are in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I...
was named athletic director, replacing Dr. Wood Selig, who left WKU for Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University
Old Dominion University is a state university located in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
.
Basketball
The Hilltoppers basketball program is nationally recognized, and reached the Final Four in 1971. Current coach Ken McDonald (basketball coach)Ken McDonald (basketball coach)
Ken McDonald is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach at Western Kentucky University.McDonald spent from 2004 to 2008 at Texas under Rick Barnes...
arrived in 2008.
The program is 8th-winningest program in NCAA history. The program has over 1,600 victories, forty 20-win seasons, 34 Postseason Tournament Appearances and 28 All-Americans.
During the 1990s, Lady Toppers basketball had a higher national profile than the men's program. In recent years, the Lady Toppers and Hilltoppers have had roughly equal success; under head coach Mary Taylor Cowles, the Lady Toppers won the Sun Belt Conference's regular season title four times in the last six years, advancing to the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...
tournament in 2003 and 2008.
Football
WKU football was a member of the Gateway Conference through the 2006 football season and then began its 2-year transition into becoming a full FBS (formerly I-A) member. As a member of Division I-AA, now Division I FCS, the Hilltoppers won a Division 1-AA Football Championship in 2002. In 2008, the Hilltoppers were among the Division 1-A Independents, along with the Army Black KnightsArmy Black Knights
Army Black Knights is the name of the athletics teams of the United States Military Academy. They participate in NCAA Division I-A as a non-football member of the Patriot League, a Division I Football Bowl Subdivision independent school, and a member of Atlantic Hockey, the Collegiate Sprint...
, Navy Midshipmen
Navy Midshipmen
The United States Naval Academy sponsors 30 varsity-sports teams and 12 club-sports teams . Both men's and women's teams are called Navy Midshipmen or "Mids"...
and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame's nickname is inherited from Irish immigrant soldiers who fought in the Civil War with the Union's Irish Brigade, , recollected among other places in the poetry of Joyce Kilmer who served with one of the Irish Brigade regiments during World War I...
. In 2009, the Hilltoppers completed the transition and joined the 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...
.
Baseball
WKU baseball competes at Nick Denes FieldNick Denes Field
Nick Denes Field is a baseball venue located on the campus of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. It is home to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers baseball team, a member of the Division I Sun Belt Conference. The field has a capacity of 1,500 people, 1,000 of which...
. The team won the 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...
championship in 2009, their first title.
With the help of Matt Rice behind the plate as an All American Catcher
Kenny Martin is the most Valuable player on the team
Rivalries=
WKU holds a long-standing rivalry with Cross-state Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Kentucky University, commonly referred to as Eastern or by the acronym EKU by local residents, is an undergraduate and graduate teaching and research institution located in Richmond, Kentucky, U.S.A.. EKU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools...
. Up until 2008, the two schools' football teams competed annually in the "Battle of the Bluegrass", with WKU leading the all time series 47-34-3.
The rivalry with Middle Tennessee State University
Middle Tennessee State University
Middle Tennessee State University, commonly abbreviated as MTSU, is a public university located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States....
has become one of the most heated and most most competitive in the Sun Belt, with each team fielding championship contending teams each year. The rivalry has grown in recent years due to the football teams' move into the FBS.
The Red Towel
The red towel is famous at WKU. The origins of the towel come from Coach DiddleEdgar Diddle
Edgar Allen Diddle was a college men's basketball coach. He is known for coaching at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky from 1922 to 1964. Diddle became the first coach in history to coach 1,000 games at one school...
getting upset that the Athletic Towels were being stolen. So he decided that he wanted all of his towels to be red. After the red towels were made, Diddle threw them to the rafters, beat them on the floor, chewed on them, waved, twisted, and even cried into them.
George Barker from the Nashville Tennessean described these various actions and interpreted their meanings as such:
| Action | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Tossed in the air | Pure climatic joy |
| Whirled overhead | Satisfaction and high expectation |
| Slapped violently on the floor | Extreme disappointment with players or referee |
| Twisted or braided | Outcome doubtful |
| Chewed | Outcome very doubtful |
| Used to shield the eyes | Horror or Shakesperian-like dismay |
| Rubbed on groin | Pure disgust |