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Utah Utes

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Utah Utes
Logo
UniversityUniversity of Utah
ConferencePac-12
DivisionDivision I
Athletic directorChris Hill
LocationSalt Lake City, Utah
Varsity teams17
Football stadiumRice–Eccles Stadium
ArenaJon M. Huntsman Center
Baseball stadiumSpring Mobile Ballpark
MascotSwoop
NicknameUtes
Fight songUtah Man
ColorsCrimson and White
   
Websitewww.utahutes.com

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 women's gymnastics team is known as the "Red Rocks". Currently Utah competes in the Pacific-12 Conference, after it was announced on June 17, 2010, that the Utes would join the conference in all sports, beginning in the 2011–2012 academic year.[1]

They are the third Pac-12 member to have previously spent time in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), joining old conference rivals Arizona and Arizona State. They are also the first school to leave the Mountain West Conference since it was formed in 1999.

Football

Main article: Utah Utes football

The University of Utah college football program began in 1892 and has played home games at Rice–Eccles Stadium since 1927. The Utes have a record of 12–4 (.750) in bowl games, which is the highest percentage in the nation for teams who have been to more than ten bowls. They have won twenty-four conference championships, including six in a row from 1928 to 1933 when they were part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Rice–Eccles Stadium

After a twenty-eight year stretch of not playing in a bowl game, Utah football experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s under head coach Ron McBride. The Utes played Washington State in the 1992 Copper Bowl, losing to the Cougars 31–28, and reached their peak under McBride when they finished the 1994 season ranked 10th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and recorded a 16–13 victory over Arizona in the Freedom Bowl. The team was the first Mountain West Conference team, as well as the first team from a non-BCS conference, to play in and win a BCS bowl.

The Utes have a 96–39 (.711) record since the beginning of the 2000 season. Along the way, Utah engineered an eighteen game winning streak. They produced an undefeated season in 2004, when the Utes were 12–0 and became the first school from a non-Bowl Championship Series conference to play in a BCS bowl game, earning them the title of BCS Busters. The Utes played the Big East Conference champion Pittsburgh Panthers in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, winning 35–7. The Utes finished the season ranked #4 in the AP poll. Later that year Alex Smith, who was Utah's quarterback for the 2003 and 2004 seasons, was drafted #1 by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft. He became the first player in the state of Utah to ever be drafted first. This culminated in the University of Utah becoming the first school in history to produce two #1 professional draft picks in the same year when Andrew Bogut became the #1 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft.

Utah is currently coached by Kyle Whittingham, who took over for Urban Meyer after Meyer left Utah for Florida after two seasons with the Utes. During the 2008 season, Utah again went undefeated with a 13–0 record, which included a 31–17 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The Utes finished the season ranked #2 in the AP poll. In Whittingham's six years the Utes are 57–20 overall and 35–13 in conference play and have won five bowl games (the Emerald Bowl, the Armed Forces Bowl, the Poinsettia Bowl (twice), and the Sugar Bowl).

On June 17, 2010, the University of Utah officially accepted an invitation to join what will become the Pac-12.[2]

Notable players to have played for the University of Utah are NFL Hall of Fame member Larry Wilson, Super Bowl Head Coach Winner George Seifert, Manny Fernandez, Marv Bateman, Norm Chow, Scott Mitchell, Kevin Dyson, Andre Dyson, Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, Luther Ellis, Jamal Anderson, Mike Anderson, Bob Trumpy, Roy Jefferson, Paul Soliai, Barry Sims, Sione Pouha, Koa Misi, Chris Kemoeatu, Maake Kemoeatu, Jonathan Fanene, Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers, Jordan Gross also of the Carolina Panthers, Alex Smith of the San Francisco 49ers, Sean Smith of the Miami Dolphins, and Eric Weddle of the San Diego Chargers.

Men's basketball

Jon M. Huntsman Center
Main article: Utah Utes men's basketball

The Runnin' Utes basketball program has the 9th most wins among college basketball programs.[3] The Utes have made 29 NCAA Tournament appearances, which ranks 7th all-time, while the Utes 10 outright conference championships (28 championships overall) is the 5th best in NCAA history. The Utes are coached by first-year coach and former Michigan State assistant Jim Boylen, replacing Ray Giacoletti.

Individual success has been a big part of Utah athletics, as many successful players and coaches have been a part of the rich Utah tradition. In 2005 Andrew Bogut was selected #1 in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, making the University of Utah the only school in NCAA history to produce the #1 draft pick in both the NBA and NFL in the same year (Alex Smith). Other notable players that have gone on to play in the NBA are Andre Miller, Keith Van Horn, Michael Doleac (who recently won the NBA championship with the Miami Heat), Danny Vranes and Tom Chambers. The Utes have also been coached by several top NCAA coaches, including Vadal Peterson – the winningest coach in Utah basketball history, hall of fame coach Jack Gardner, Bill Foster and Rick Majerus.

The Utes have played in four Final Fours, winning the 1944 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Utah also added an NIT title, which was the premier tournament at the time, in 1947. Jerry Chambers was named MVP of the 1966 Final Four in which Utah lost to eventual champion Texas Western (UTEP) and the legendary coach Don Haskins. They also played for the 1998 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, losing to the Kentucky Wildcats.

Conference championships

Post-season tournaments

Baseball

The baseball team is made up of 32 Division I players from across the country and the world. 14 players are from Utah, 8 from Arizona, 4 from California, 2 from Nevada, and 1 from Louisiana, Oregon, Idaho, and the Netherlands. The Utes call Spring Mobile Ballpark their home field. Spring Mobile Ballpark was previously known as Franklin Covey Field but was changed in 2009. Spring Mobile Ballpark is also the home of the Salt Lake City Bees, Triple-A affiliate of the Major League Anaheim Angels baseball team.

The Utah baseball team has won 1 Mountain West Conference Championship, occurring in 2009. This gave the Utes a regional birth for the first time since the 1960s. In the past 3 years Utah baseball has seen 6 of their players get drafted in the annual Major League Baseball draft.

Women's basketball

The team is coached by Anthony Levrets. The Utes have gone to the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship tournament 15 times, and former coach Elaine Elliott has a 536–212 record (.717).[4] The program's most successful season came in the 2005–2006 campaign. The Utes, who finished in 2nd place in the Mountain West Conference, won the conference tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 14th time in school history. After getting by Middle Tennessee in the first round of the 2006 Women's NCAA Tournament, Utah surprised the 4th seeded Arizona State Sun Devils to advance to the Sweet 16 for only the second time in school history. There the Utes faced 8th seeded Boston College and gutted out a 3 point win, advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time in school history. Making the regional finals, Utah became the first women's team in Mountain West Conference history to ever do so. In doing so, the Utes would go on to play 2nd seeded, and eventual national champion, Maryland. The game went into OT, but Maryland prevailed and Utah's amazing run came to an end.

In the 2006 WNBA Draft Utah guard Shona Thorburn was selected by Minnesota Lynx with the 7th pick and Kim Smith, a forward for the Utes, was selected 13th overall by the Sacramento Monarchs.

Women's gymnastics

Main article: Utah Red Rocks

The women's gymnastic team, the Red Rocks, has won the national gymnastics championship title 10[5] times, beginning with an AIAW national championship title in 1981, more than any other university except the University of Georgia, to whom they finished second from 2006–2008. In the years when Utah does not place first, they are almost always #2 or #3.[citation needed] The ten-time national champion Utah gymnastics team has qualified for a record 31st-consecutive national championship. Utah is the only program to qualify for all 25 NCAA Championships. The Utes won the 2006 women's gymnastics attendance title, averaging 12,747 spectators to their six regular season home meets. It marked the second-highest attendance average in Utah and NCAA gymnastics history. Utah has won twenty-two of the last twenty-five gymnastics attendance titles. This is also one of the highest attendance averages for any women's college sport in the nation.

Post-season history

Skiing

The Utah men's skiing team won a national championship in 1981; the women, 1978. The teams won the combined national championship in 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1996, 1997, and 2003.

Pageantry

Nickname

The "Utes" nickname comes from the Ute tribe, from which the state of Utah derives its name.[6] The Ute tribe gave the University of Utah explicit permission to use the name for all its athletic teams.[7] The men's basketball team is known as the "Runnin' Utes"; the women's basketball team used to be called the "Lady Utes," but now prefers to be referred to as the "Utes"; and the women's gymnastics team is known as the "Red Rocks."

Before 1972, the university used the "Redskins" nickname interchangeably with the "Utes" nickname.[8]

Mascot

Swoop, a red-tailed hawk, is the mascot of the Utah Utes sports teams. The university introduced Swoop with the consent of the tribal council of the Ute tribe in 1996.[9] Originally the school's mascot was an American Indian, but was dropped when the school stopped using the redskins nickname. Later Hoyo, a cartoon Indian Boy became a unofficial mascot, but was also dropped. During the 1980's the Crimson Warrior, a horseman dressed in Indian clothing, would ride onto the field before home football games and plant a lance into a bale of hay. The warrior was considered more a symbol of the school than a mascot.[10]

Fight song

The Utah fight song is "Utah Man". Harvey Holmes and the football team wrote the song in 1904. The song was popularized during a football game at Colorado when Thomas Fitzpatrick heard four Utah students singing the song from the stands.[11] It is sung to the tune of Solomon Levi, an old folk song.[12]

See also

External links

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to University of Utah athletics.
  1. ^ "Utah excited by Pac-10 acceptance". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  2. ^ "Utah excited by Pac-10 acceptance". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  3. ^ "College Basketball – 100 Greatest Programs". D. A. Resler. Retrieved 2007-03-16. [dead link]
  4. ^ http://utahutes.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/elliott_elaine00.html
  5. ^ Schools with the Most NCAA Championships
  6. ^ "What is a Ute?". utahutes.cstv.com. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  7. ^ Stephen Speckman. "U. Officially Files Appeal on Utes Nickname". Deseret News. Retrieved 2009-05-20.
  8. ^ Lya Wodraska. "Utah athletics: Drum and feather logo may not last". National Indian Education Association.
  9. ^ "Utah Mascot". www.trademarks.utah.edu. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  10. ^ Jay Drew (6 August 2005). "Utah nickname change not unprecedented". The Salt Lake Tribune.
  11. ^ Hinckley, Shane (2010). University of Utah Football Vault : The History of the Utes. Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, LLC. p. 24. ISBN 079482797-7.
  12. ^ "The University of Utah Marching Band". Retrieved 2011-08-07.
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