The Denver Pioneers are the sports teams of the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

(DU). They play in 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) Division I. Denver is a member of

The Summit League ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

for men's and women's basketball, swimming and diving, men's and women's soccer, tennis and golf for both men and women, plus women's volleyball. Other DU teams play in various conferences in the sports that are not sponsored by The Summit. The men's ice hockey team is a charter member of the

National Collegiate Hockey Conference The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference formed on July 9, 2011. The league began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a combina ...

(NCHC), which formed in 2011 with play beginning in 2013. The lacrosse teams for men and women are members of the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

; the men began Big East play in the 2013–14 school year (2014 season), while the women left the

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it now has members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I ...

(MPSF) after the 2016 lacrosse season. Men's and women's skiing compete in the

Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) skiing-only conference. As the NCAA does not have divisions in collegiate skiing, it is composed of both NCAA Division I and NCAA Divisi ...

, while the women's gymnastics team became an affiliate of the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

starting with the 2015–16 season. The University has been fielding athletic teams since 1867. DU's athletic teams are known as the Pioneers. In the early years of competition from the 1860s to the early 1920s, Denver had no official nickname, but sportswriters of the day referred to Denver teams as the "Ministers" or "Fighting Parsons" in homage to the Methodist heritage of the school. Denver officially became the "Pioneers" in 1925, after the result of a student nickname contest, and that nickname has been in place ever since. Today, DU operates a full

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 athletic ...

athletic program with a mix of sports in and around the $85 million Daniel Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness, which was completed in 2000. In 2017, Denver finished #4 in the men's Division I Capital One Cup rankings, the highest finish in school history, and has also won the Learfield Cup in nine of the past 10 seasons, emblematic of the top non-football Division I athletic department in the nation.

Sports sponsored

A member of the

Summit League The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on the W ...

, the University of Denver sponsors teams in seven men's, eight women's, and one coed

NCAA 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 an ...

sanctioned sports: Skiing is technically a men's sport, but it has been co-ed since 1983; the ski team is a member of the

. The ice hockey team is a member of the

. The men's and women's lacrosse teams compete as associate members of the

. The gymnastics team competes as an affiliate member of the

Basketball

DU began playing basketball in 1904, playing primarily regional schedules until after WWII, when it became an NCAA independent Division I program until 1979. In 1999, the program returned to NCAA Division I, when it became a member of the Sun Belt Conference until 2012, when it joined the Western Athletic Conference for one season before joining the Summit League in 2013. The men's basketball team won the 2013 WAC regular season Co-Championship and also made it to the second round of the 2013 National Invitation Tournament (NIT) after defeating

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, but losing to

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

in Round 2. Denver also appeared in the 2005 NIT, losing to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

(after it won the Sun Belt West Division), and also appeared in the 1959 NIT, losing to NYU. The men's basketball team has yet to appear in the NCAA tournament, while the women's team has made one appearance in the NCAA tournament in 2001 as an at-large berth.

Ice hockey

Ice hockey is DU's flagship spectator sport, regularly selling out the 6,026 seat Magness Arena on campus, the showpiece of the Ritchie Center for Sports and Wellness (completed in 2000). DU's Hockey Program has been playing NCAA Division I hockey since 1949–50. The Pioneers are one of the most successful programs in the history of collegiate hockey. They are tied with

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

for first in all-time NCAA National Hockey Championships with nine (1958, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 2004, 2005, 2017, 2022). The Pioneers have appeared in 18 NCAA

Frozen Four The annual NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to determine the top men's team in Division I. Like other Division I cham ...

Championships, with the most recent Frozen Four appearance coming in 2022. Since the creation of the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

in 1959, the Pioneers have won 10 WCHA Regular Season Championships (now the recipients of the

MacNaughton Cup The MacNaughton Cup is a trophy awarded annually to the regular season conference champion of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). The trophy is named after James MacNaughton of Calumet, Michigan, who was a supporter of amateur ice h ...

) and 13 WCHA Playoff Championships (now the recipients of the

Broadmoor Trophy The Broadmoor Trophy is a trophy that has been awarded to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) playoff champion since 1985. The trophy itself dates to 1981, when it was awarded to the WCHA regular season champion for three seasons, f ...

Denver's ice hockey alumni include over 75 NHL hockey players, including Hockey Hall of Famer

Glenn Anderson Glenn Chris Anderson (born October 2, 1960) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, and St. Louis Blues. Ander ...

and current NHLers, such as 2007

Calder Memorial Trophy The Calder Memorial Trophy is an annual award given "to the player selected as the most proficient in his first year of competition in the National Hockey League (NHL)." It is named after Frank Calder, the first president of the NHL. Serving as ...

nominee Paul Stastny, Tyler Bozak, Jason Zucker, Trevor Moore, Scott Mayfield, Danton Heinen, Will Butcher, Henrik Borgstrom, Troy Terry, Dylan Gambrell and Blake Hillman. Previous DU players who starred in the NHL besides Anderson include Keith Magnuson,

Craig Patrick Craig Patrick (born May 20, 1946) is an American former hockey player, coach and general manager, the son of Lynn Patrick and the grandson of Lester Patrick. During the 1980 Winter Olympics, Patrick was the Assistant General Manager and Assist ...

, Cliff Koroll, Peter McNab and

Kevin Dineen Kevin William Dineen (born October 28, 1963) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. , Dineen is the head coach of the Utica Comets in the American Hockey League (AHL). Dineen previously served as the head coach for the Fl ...

, who coached the Florida Panthers of the NHL until 2013. Legendary hockey coaches at Denver include four former NHL players: Murray Armstrong, Marshall Johnston,

Ralph Backstrom Ralph Gerald Backstrom (September 18, 1937 – February 7, 2021) was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and later a coach, entrepreneur and hockey executive. He played in the National Hockey League with the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles ...

and Jim Montgomery. George Gwozdecky, who coached the team for 19 seasons until 2013, is the only person in NCAA history to win Division I Men's Hockey National Championships as a player (with Wisconsin in 1977), an assistant coach (with Michigan State in 1986) and as a head coach (with Denver in 2004 and 2005). The current (2018) coach is David Carle. In 2013, DU hockey left the WCHA to launch the

(NCHC). The new conference was formed as a direct reaction to the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

's announcement that it would start a men's hockey league in 2013. The six charter members of the NCHC—DU,

Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory. The college enrolls approxi ...

, Miami (OH), Minnesota–Duluth, North Dakota, and Omaha—have combined for 21 NCAA championships in the sport. These schools were soon joined by St. Cloud State and

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pen ...

to bring the league's membership at launch to eight.

Ski team

Skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

is another strong sport. The University of Denver Ski Team has won 24 NCAA titles (more skiing titles than any other school). The Pioneers have won 10 championships since 2000. DU won NCAA titles in 2014, 2016 and 2018, "three-peated" NCAA titles in 2008, 2009 and 2010, won an NCAA title in 2005 and as well as three consecutive NCAA titles from 2000 to 2002.

Lacrosse

The Denver men's lacrosse team appeared in the 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 NCAA Tournaments. Denver won the NCAA men's lacrosse championship in 2015, beating

, 10–5 in Philadelphia. It was the first-ever men's lacrosse championship by a school outside the

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small p ...

. Denver also appeared in the Final Four four other times in the 2010s. In the Pioneers' first three Final Four appearances, they lost in the semifinals to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in 2011 in Baltimore, Syracuse in 2013 in Philadelphia, and

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

in 2014 in Baltimore. The Pioneers also appeared in the 2017 Final Four, losing to

in Foxboro, Mass. D1 Lacrosse

Women's lacrosse began as varsity sport in 1999, and DU played in the

through the 2016 season and joined the DU men in the

starting with the 2017 season. Denver has progressed to four NCAA Tournaments in its history, with the highest level of advancement being to the Elite Eight in 2019. In that 2019 tournament, DU upset the

USC Trojans The USC Trojans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ''Trojans'', the women's athletic teams are referred ...

and Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor, Mich. in the first and second rounds, respectively, before losing to the eventual NCAA champion

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

in the quarterfinals in College Park, Maryland. Prior to that 2019 high water mark, Denver went to the Sweet 16 in each of its other three NCAA appearances in 2013, 2014 and 2018, beating

Jacksonville University Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, ...

in the first round in 2013 and 2014 before losing to the Florida Gators in those consecutive years in Gainesville, Fla. In 2018, DU beat

High Point University High Point University is a private university in High Point, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The university was founded as High Point College in 1924, and it became High Point University in October 1991. HPU of ...

in the first round before losing to the

in the second round in College Park, Maryland.

Football

Football was once the most popular sport at Denver. The first DU football game was played in 1885 against

, which is believed to be the first intercollegiate football game played west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. DU's football highlights include appearances in the 1946 Sun Bowl, 1947 Alamo Bowl, and

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

Pineapple Bowl The Pineapple Bowl was a college football bowl game played during the 1940s and early 1950s in Honolulu, Hawaii, at Honolulu Stadium. The game featured the then- Hawaii Rainbows and an invited team from the mainland. History The Pineapple Bowl w ...

. The football team played in a 30,000-seat stadium that stood on campus from 1926 to 1971. The highest national ranking DU ever attained was #18 in 1954. However, the program was discontinued in 1961 for financial reasons.

Soccer

The DU men's soccer team has appeared in the 1970, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 NCAA tournaments, reaching its first ever NCAA College Cup (final four) in 2016 in Houston, where the Pioneers lost in double overtime, 2–1 to

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

. Jamie Franks was named the program's 10th head coach in January 2015. The DU women's soccer team advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2012 NCAA Women's College Cup Tournament, and have also appeared in the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2018 NCAA Tournaments. The women's soccer program head coach is Jeff Hooker, who took over the reins in 1992.

Other sports

The women's volleyball team has made NCAA tournament appearances in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, losing in the first round to Colorado State University,

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

, Stanford University, California Polytechnic State University, and the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

respectively. The women's gymnastics team has been to 17 straight NCAA Regional tournaments and finished a program-high 4th at the 2019 NCAA National Championships in their fourth appearance in the national finals. The team is a member of the

after moving from its former home of the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference in 2015. The DU men's and women's tennis teams are consistently ranked in the top 35 to top 70 of all Division I collegiate tennis teams. The men's team has produced All-Americans, including a Men's Singles player ranked 11th in the country, and the team broke into the top 25 during the 2010 season. The men's team upset regional #1 seed Florida in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament. The women's team has its lone NCAA tournament victory in 2017 over USC, and had one of its doubles team advance to the NCAA final eight for the first time in 2017. Daniel L

The women's basketball team appeared in the 2001 NCAA Tournament, where it lost to

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

in the first round. The women's

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 ...

team won the 2009 NCAA West Regional and later finished 5th in the finals of the 2009 NCAA tournament. DU also appeared in the 2008 (6th) and 2007 (14th) NCAA finals, as well as multiple NCAA regionals.

History and Notable Athletic Figures

Denver's first athletic event was in a baseball game in 1867 (a loss to the Arapahoe Baseball Club), a sport that was played at the varsity level until 1999 when DU returned to full NCAA D-I status. DU's best baseball achievements were appearances in the 1970 and 1973 NCAA baseball tournaments. Other notable Denver sports alumni include former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player

Dan Schatzeder Daniel Ernest Schatzeder (born December 1, 1954) is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the major leagues from – for nine different teams. Schatzeder attended Willowbrook High School in Villa Park, Illinois then played college ...

, NBA basketball players Vince Boryla and Byron Beck, CFL Hall of Famer and former NFL football player

Sam Etcheverry Samuel "The Rifle" Etcheverry (May 20, 1930 – August 29, 2009) was a professional American and Canadian football player and head coach. Etcheverry played the quarterback position, most famously with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Footba ...

, 1952 US Olympic Long Jump Gold Medalist Jerome Biffle, former

US Olympic Committee The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 as the United States Olympic Committee, and is headquartered in Col ...

Executive Director Lyman Bingham, and MLS/US National soccer player Nat Borchers. San Antonio Spurs head coach

Gregg Popovich Gregg Charles Popovich (born January 28, 1949) is an American professional basketball coach and executive who is the president and head coach of the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Taking over as coach of the Spur ...

received a master's degree from DU but did not play any varsity sports there. Five-time world champion and US Olympic figure Skating star

Michelle Kwan Michelle Wingshan Kwan (born July 7, 1980) is a retired competitive figure skater and diplomat serving as United States Ambassador to Belize. In figure skating Kwan is a two-time Olympic medalist (silver in 1998, bronze in 2002), a five-time ...

graduated from DU in 2009. Former DU basketball player David Adkins went on to greater fame outside of sports as comedian and actor Sinbad.

Phil Heath Phillip Jerrod Heath (born December 18, 1979) is an American International Federation of BodyBuilders, IFBB professional Bodybuilding, bodybuilder. He is a seven-time Mr. Olympia winner, having won the competition every year from 2011 to 201 ...

a former DU basketball player in the early 2000s, won the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Championship seven consecutive times between 2001 and 2017. Taryn Hemmings Women's Soccer (2004-2008) who played professional soccer for the Boston Breakers and the Chicago Red Stars from 2009 to 2015. Joe Colborne played 8 years in the NHL before retiring in 2020 after starring for the Pioneers.

National Championships

NCAA team championships

The University of Denver has 34 NCAA team national championships, the most of any Division I school outside of the

Power Five conferences The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiat ...

. *Men's (23) **

Ice Hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

(9, tied for the most ever): 1958, 1960, 1961, 1968, 1969, 2004, 2005, 2017, 2022 **

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): 2015 **

(14): 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971 *Co-ed (10) **

(10): 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018 *see also: ** Big East Conference NCAA team championships **

List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships Listed below are the colleges or universities with the most NCAA Division I-sanctioned team championships, individual championships, and combined team and individual championships, as documented by information published on official NCAA websites. ...

Other national team championships

Note: Skiing was a men's NCAA sport from 1954 to 1982 and became co-ed in 1983. The AIAW sponsored women's skiing and a national championship from 1977 to 1982 before being superseded by the NCAA, at which time skiing became co-ed. Denver won one AIAW championship: *Women's (1) **

Gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

(1): 1982 (Division II) Denver has won three team national championships that were not bestowed by the NCAA: *Men's (3) **

(3): 1949, 1951, 1952 *see also: **

List of NCAA schools with the most Division I national championships This is a list of U.S. universities and colleges that have won the most team sport national championships (more than 15) that have been bestowed for the highest level of collegiate athletic competition, be that at either the varsity or club level, ...

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Denver Pioneers, color=white , list = {{Summit League navbox {{Big 12 Conference navbox {{Big East Conference navbox {{Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association navbox