The LIU Sharks are the athletics teams representing Long Island University's (LIU) campuses in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

and

Brookville, New York Brookville is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 3,465 at the time of the 2010 census. History The geographic Village of Brookv ...

. The Sharks compete in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

athletics and are members of the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Fo ...

. The LIU Sharks are the result of the July 1, 2019 unification of the athletic departments which had previously represented two separate campuses of LIU, the NCAA Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

LIU Post Pioneers The LIU Post Pioneers (also Long Island–Post Pioneers and formerly the C.W. Post Pioneers) were the athletic teams that represented the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, located in Brookville, New York, in NCAA Division II intercolle ...

History

Following Long Island University's founding in 1927, its sports teams wore blue uniforms and became known as the Blue Devils. After the school's uniforms were changed to black in 1935, a ''Brooklyn Eagle'' reporter from the Midwest saw the new look as the basketball team dribbled up and down the court and stated that the team looked like the blackbirds from back home; the comment struck home, and a new nickname was born. During the 1930s and '40s, the basketball team was often called the "Beemen," while they were coached by the legendary

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

coach,

Clair Bee Clair Francis Bee (March 2, 1896 – May 20, 1983) was an American basketball coach who led the team at Long Island University in Brooklyn, New York to undefeated seasons in 1936 and 1939, as well as two National Invitation Tournament titles in ...

. LIU Post opened in 1954 as C.W. Post College and began athletic competition in 1956–57. The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and LIU Post Pioneers combined for 23 national championships (7 team, 16 individual), 215 conference titles, and 362 All-Americans.

Unification

On October 3, 2018, Long Island University announced that it was unifying the athletic programs of its two campuses into one Division I program, effective with the 2019–20 academic year. The unified LIU program continues to sponsor all varsity sports that either campus sponsored before the merger. The new program's nickname of Sharks was announced on May 15, 2019. The LIU Sharks inherited the athletic legacy of the Brooklyn campus, including its membership in the

. The Division II LIU Post teams for sports that had not been sponsored by LIU Brooklyn immediately moved to Division I without the usual transition period for an institution moving to a different division. Teams for sports sponsored by both campuses were merged. LIU added two completely new women's sports effective in 2019–20. Shortly before the athletic merger was announced, LIU Brooklyn announced that it would add women's ice hockey and shortly after the merger announcement, LIU announced it would add women's water polo, placing that sport in the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and N ...

. The university incorporated athletic facilities on both the

and Brookville campuses with basketball, bowling, fencing, ice hockey, swimming, track and field (indoor & outdoor), volleyball, and water polo based out of the Brooklyn campus while baseball, cross country, esports, equestrian, field hockey, football, golf, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, softball, tennis, and wrestling operating from the Brookville campus.

Teams

Long Island University fields 35 teams that compete in 14 men's and 20 women's sports and 1 co-ed e-sports team. Most teams compete in the

(NEC). Affiliations outside the Northeast Conference are as follows: * Women's equestrian: Independent * Esports:

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fro ...

* Women's fencing: Independent * Women's gymnastics: East Atlantic Gymnastics League * Men's ice hockey:

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

* Women's ice hockey: New England Women's Hockey Alliance * Men's lacrosse:

(from 2022–23) * Women's rowing: TBD (2022–23) * Women's rugby:

National Intercollegiate Rugby Association The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) is a governing body of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collegiate women's rugby programs in the United States founded in 2015. The organization is further organized into confere ...

* Men's volleyball: Independent (2021–22 only, after which the NEC will begin sponsoring men's volleyball) * Women's water polo:

* Men's wrestling: Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association

NCAA team championships

*Men's Division II Lacrosse Championship – 1996, 2009, 2010 *Women's Division II Lacrosse Championship – 2001, 2007, 2012, 2013 * Both competing as LIU Post Pioneers.

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, LIU Sharks, color=white , list = {{Northeast Conference navbox {{Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference navbox {{NCAA Division I ice hockey independents {{Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association navbox {{East Atlantic Gymnastics League navbox {{New England Women's Hockey Alliance navbox {{National Intercollegiate Rugby Association {{New York Sports {{NewYorksports * Sports teams in the New York metropolitan area Sports in Brooklyn