The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens are the athletic teams of the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

of Newark,

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, in the United States. The Blue Hens compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of Division I of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) as members of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Sports sponsored

The Blue Hens have won twenty-two team CAA Championships since joining in 2001. In January 2011, UD announced that men's cross country and outdoor track & field teams would be reclassified to club status, while women's golf would be added. On November 20, 2016, the Delaware women's field hockey team won the 2016 NCAA Division I championship, defeating North Carolina, 3–2.

Women's basketball

The women's basketball team went undefeated in CAA play in the 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 seasons under head coach Tina Martin and All-American

Elena Delle Donne Elena Delle Donne (born September 5, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Delle Donne played college basketball for the Delaware Blue Hens from 200 ...

. The 2011–2012 team finished went 31–2 and undefeated in the CAA conference (18–0) to win the conference championship. They also won the CAA conference tournament to qualify for the CAA's automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament, where the Fightin' Blue Hens won their first-round game against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock 73–42 before losing in the second round to the University of Kansas 70–64. This win over UALR was the first by a Delaware women's team in NCAA tournament history. The 2012–2013 team finished 32–4 overall, ranked #15 in the final AP poll. The 2012–13 team went undefeated in CAA conference play and also won the CAA conference tournament to qualify for the CAA's automatic bid to the

2013 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament The 2013 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament was played from March 23 through April 9, 2013. Tennessee continued its streak of making every NCAA women's basketball tournament at 32 consecutive appearances. Kansas made the regional semif ...

, where the team won their first and second-round games against West Virginia (66–53) and North Carolina (78–69) before losing in the round of 16 to Kentucky (69–62) in the

. The 2012–2013 team featured three seniors —

(3,039 points, 5th all time in women's college basketball and a record at Delaware), Lauren Carra, and Danielle Parker (1,064 rebounds, also a career record at Delaware) — who scored 1,000 points during their careers, and point guard specialist Kayla Miller. This senior class, which includes Chelsea Craig and Jaquetta May, won more games (104) than any senior class in Delaware women's basketball history, and won two CAA Conference Championships. The 2007–2008 Delaware team finished 26–5 overall and 16–2 in the CAA (3rd place) and earned an bid to the 2007 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament where they lost to the

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the school colors are green and wh ...

coached by Joanne P. McCallie (now the coach at

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association ...

) by a score of 69–58. The 2000–01 Delaware team finished 26–5 overall and 17–1 in the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

(where they were members from 1991 to 2001, before joining the CAA), and finished first in the regular season and won the conference tournament to qualify for their first NCAA bid. In the 2001 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament, they lost to the

NC State Wolfpack women's basketball The NC State Wolfpack women's basketball team represents North Carolina State University in NCAA Division I women's basketball. History The early years (1974–1981) The women's basketball team at NC State had its beginnings in 1974. Under firs ...

team coached by the late Hall of Fame women's coach

Kay Yow Sandra Kay Yow (March 14, 1942 – January 24, 2009) was an American basketball coach. She was the head coach of the NC State Wolfpack women's basketball team from 1975 to 2009. A member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, she had more than 700 c ...

76–57 in the first round. Delaware women's cumulative NCAA tournament record is 3–4, the three wins being by the group of seniors

, Lauren Carra, Danielle Parker, Kayla Miller, Chelsea Craig and Jaquetta May who won 104 games together (some missing some games due to injuries).

Men's basketball

Football

Football is the most popular and most successful sport at Delaware. The Fighting Blue Hens football teams have won six national titles, including the 2003 NCAA Division I Football Championship. In 2007, the Delaware Blue Hens returned to the championship game, but were defeated by defending champion Appalachian State. In 2010 they were once again runners-up, that time to

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanf ...

. Former head football coaches

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his deadpan delivery. He rose to fame on ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' (1973–1974) before becoming a national presence on '' Saturday Nig ...

Dave Nelson David Earl Nelson (June 20, 1944 – April 22, 2018) was an American professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators / Texas Rangers, and Kansas City Royals from 1968 through 19 ...

and Harold "Tubby" Raymond are College Football Hall of Fame inductees. Delaware is one of only two schools to have three straight head coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

is the other).

Lacrosse

Delaware's first non-football NCAA National Championship came in 1983 for Women's Division I Lacrosse. The 2007 men's lacrosse program reached the final four of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in its history.

Soccer

The men's soccer team played in the 1968 and 1970 editions of the College Cup.

Championships

NCAA national team championships

Delaware has won three NCAA Division I national team championships and one NCAA Division II national team championship:
:Men (2) :* Football ''(Division I)'' (1): 2003 :* Football ''(Division II)'' (1): 1979 :Women (2) :*

Field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

(1): 2016 :*

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

(1): 1983

Other national team championships

Below are 13 national team titles that were not bestowed by the NCAA: :Men (4) :* AP College Division Football National Champions (3): 1946, 1971, 1972 :*

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

College Division Football National Champions (3): 1963, 1971, 1972 :Women (3) :* AIAW

''(Division II)'' (2): 1981, 1982 :* IHSA

Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

(1): 1997 :Coed (6) :*

Figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are m ...

(6): 2002, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

Colonial Athletic Association conference team championships

Below are 27 CAA conference team titles that the Blue Hens have won since joining the CAA in 2001: :Men (10) :*Baseball (1): 2017 :*

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 ...

(2): 2014, 2022 :* Football (2): 2010, 2021 (spring) :*Lacrosse (3): 2007, 2010, 2011 :* Soccer (2): 2011, 2016 :Women (17) :*

(3): 2012, 2013, 2022 :*Field Hockey (7): 2004, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 :*Golf (2): 2016, 2017 :*Outdoor Track & Field (1): 2014 :*Volleyball (4): 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011

Notable non varsity sports

Figure skating

Men's ice hockey

The men's ice hockey team is a club level

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...

program that plays its home games at the

Fred Rust Ice Arena The Fred Rust Ice Arena or University of Delaware Ice Arena multi-purpose arena located on the campus of The University of Delaware located in Newark, Delaware. The Facility houses two ice sheets. The first sheet is located in the Fred Rust Aren ...

. The Fightin' Blue Hens are a member of the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League, which plays at the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I level. The Blue Hens won the 2012 ACHA Division 1 National Championship on March 7, 2012.

Men's crew

The men's club crew team was founded alongside the women's crew team by Coach Chuck Crawford, already well known for his 1972 World Championship in the Men's Lightweight 8+ and successful coaching career at Saint Joseph's Preparatory. The team has gained prominence in recent years, winning the

Dad Vail Regatta The Dad Vail Regatta is the largest regular intercollegiate rowing event in the United States, drawing over a hundred colleges and universities from North America. The regatta has been held annually on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsyl ...

lightweight freshmen eight event in 1993, 1994, and 2012 with the varsity lightweight eight winning bronze in 1994, and gold in 2013 and 2015. Since then, the lightweight program has gained national recognition; however, they are no longer racing via invitation in the

Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen men's college rowing crews. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members Eighteen colleges and universities are member ...

' championship, the EARC Sprints. For the heavyweight men, the varsity have reached the finals of the Dad Vail Regatta in 1994, 1995, 1996, 2006, 2010, and 2011 with the crews medaling in 1994, 1996, 2010, and 2011. The heavyweight freshmen won the Dad Vails title in 2008 and followed that with a silver in 2009 and a bronze in 2010.

Rugby

Founded in 1972, the University of Delaware Rugby Football Club plays in the East Conference of Division 1-A. Delaware are led by head coach Bjorn Haglid. Delaware reached the quarterfinals of the 2012

Collegiate Rugby Championship The Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) is an annual college rugby sevens tournament. The CRC is the highest profile college rugby sevens competition in the United States, with the tournament broadcast live on NBC from 2010–2017, on ESPN News an ...

(CRC), the highest profile

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States of America. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the ...

tournament in the country. The CRC is broadcast live on NBC, and is held every June at

PPL Park Subaru Park (formerly known as PPL Park and Talen Energy Stadium) is a soccer-specific stadium located in Chester, Pennsylvania, located next to the Commodore Barry Bridge on the waterfront along the Delaware River. The venue is home to the Ph ...

in Philadelphia. Delaware reached the semifinals of the 2011 Las Vegas Invitational, the largest amateur rugby competition in the US, where they were led by star player Jimmy Kowalski. Delaware participated in the 2012

USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships The USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships is an annual competition among the top college rugby teams in the country to decide a national champion in rugby sevens. USA Rugby organized the championship to capitalize on the surge in pop ...

where they finished third. The rugby team was suspended by the university for five years after a 2013 I'm Shmacked party went out of control.

Nickname

The athletic teams at Delaware are known as the Fightin' Blue Hens with a mascot named

YoUDee YoUDee (pronounced yoo-dee) is a mascot of the University of Delaware, along with Baby Blue. It is an anthropomorphic "fighting Blue Hen", and its species is the blue hen, as the state bird of Delaware. While YoUDee appears masculine and can have ...

. YoUDee is a Blue Hen Chicken, after the team names and the state bird of

. YoUDee was elected into the mascot hall of fame in 2006 and is a seven-time UCA Open Division Mascot National Champion.

Intrastate competition

In November 2007, it was announced that the University of Delaware and

Delaware State University Delaware State University (DSU or Del State) is a public historically black land-grant research university in Dover, Delaware. DSU also has two satellite campuses: one in Wilmington and one in Georgetown. The university encompasses four colle ...

would have their first football game against each other, the game being in the first round of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. The game was played on November 23, with University of Delaware winning 44–7. Delaware was the victor in the teams' nine regular season match-ups (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, and spring 2021).

Fight song

"The Delaware Fight Song" first appeared in the Student Handbook in 1933. It was composed by alumnus George F. Kelly (Class of 1915).

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens, color=white , list = {{Colonial Athletic Association navbox {{Delaware sports {{Philadelphia Sports