The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets are the athletic sports teams for

Black Hills State University Black Hills State University (BHSU) is a public university in Spearfish, South Dakota. Close to 4,000 students attend classes at its campus in Spearfish, at sites in Rapid City and Pierre, and through distance offerings. Enrollment comes from ...

. They are currently a member of 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 ...

and participates in the

Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC), commonly known as the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from approximately 1910 through the late 1960s, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N ...

(RMAC). BHSU Rodeo teams are members of the

National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), based in Walla Walla, Washington, was established in 1949. The NIRA sanctions more than 100 college rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practice ...

(NIRA).

Varsity sports

Men's sports *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

* Cross Country * Football * Rodeo *

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

Women's sports *

* Cross Country *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

* Rodeo * Soccer (Fall 2016) *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

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. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Rivalry

Black Hills State's main athletic

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

is the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Hardrockers. The rivalry is generated from proximity, with SDSM&T located less than 50 miles to the east in

Rapid City Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

. Educational differences between the schools also help fuel the rivalry, with BHSU being mainly a liberal arts college and SDSM&T an engineering research university. The football rivalry is the second most-frequently played series in the US, behind Harvard-Yale. It is also the oldest football series west of the Mississippi River. The last game of each season is reserved for the two schools to play, however the two schools may play twice in the same season. In the later game, they battle for the Homestake Trophy, named for a mine in the Black Hills area. This game is called the Black Hills Brawl, due to the ferocity in which the teams play each other.

Softball

The Yellow Jackets softball team appeared in the first

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

Transition to NCAA

In July 2010 the university received word it had been accepted into

. The move to the NCAA was a multiple-year process that included a two-year candidacy period followed by a one-year provisional season, in which BHSU was not be allowed to advance into NCAA postseason play. The

(RMAC) extended an invitation for Black Hills State University to be considered for membership. Following the successful transition, the university became a full member of the NCAA DII in 2013.

Notable alumni

Zac Alcorn Zachary McKensie Alcorn (born August 24, 1980) is a former American football tight end. He was signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Alcorn appeared in six games with the Packers in 2006. He played college footbal ...

– Former NFL

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Lik ...

References

External links

* {{Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference navbox