The Tufts Jumbos are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs of

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

, in

Medford, Massachusetts Medford is a city northwest of downtown Boston on the Mystic River in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 59,659. It is home to Tufts University, which has its campus al ...

. The Jumbos compete at

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

level as member of the

New England Small College Athletic Conference The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal arts institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. ...

(NESCAC). Like all Division III schools, Tufts does not offer athletic scholarships. Coed and women's sailing are the only Division I sports at the school. Tufts won the

NACDA Directors' Cup The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and univer ...

in 2021-22 as the most successful team in NCAA Division III that year.

Sports sponsored

Football

The Tufts football program is one of the oldest in the country. The 1,000th game in team history was played during the 2006 season. Historians point to a Tufts versus

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

game in 1875 as the first game of

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

using

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

rules. The team plays at the Ellis Oval, located on the southwest corner of the campus.

Sailing

The Jumbos particularly stand out in

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

. The team competes in the

New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association The New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) is one of the seven conferences affiliated with the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions. NEISA ...

, and has won the

Leonard M. Fowle Trophy The Leonard M. Fowle Trophy is a sailing trophy awarded annually by the Intercollegiate Sailing Association to the best overall collegiate team. The team with the most points, which are compiled results of the ICSA Women’s Singlehanded, Men’s ...

eight times. The Jumbos also won the 2001 Dinghy National Championship, and won more championships in the 1990s than any other team. Several world and Olympic champions have been a part of the Tufts Sailing Team; among them is

Tomas Hornos Tomas Hornos (born September 15, 1988 in Argentina), is a world class sailor in the Star and Snipe classes. He was the youngest skipper to win the Snipe World Championship by winning the title on his 19th birthday in 2007, and also the youngest ...

(class of 2010), who was

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in 2007, and Kaitlin Storck, who was awarded the

ICSA Women's College Sailor of the Year ICSA Women's College Sailor of the Year, also known as Quantum Women's College Sailor of the Year Trophy due to Sports marketing, sponsorship by Quantum Sails, is a Sailing (sport), sailing award annually presented, since 2003, to Intercollegiate Sa ...

trophy in 2008. Others include Roger Altreuter in 1975, R. Stuart Johnstone in 1980,

Paul Dickey Paul Dickey (12 May 1882 – 7 January 1933), was an American playwright and silent screen writer. He wrote 17 films between years 1914 and 1933. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and died in New York, New York, aged 50. Selected filmogr ...

in 1981, and

Senet Bischoff Senet or senat ( egy, znt, translation=passing; cf. Coptic ⲥⲓⲛⲉ /sinə/ "passing, afternoon") is a board game from ancient Egypt. The earliest representation of senet is dated to E from the Mastaba of Hesy-Re, while similar boards and ...

in 1996, who all won the

ICSA College Sailor of the Year ICSA College Sailor of the Year, also known as Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year because of the sports marketing, sponsorship by Marlow Ropes, is an award annually presented, since 1968, by the United States Naval Academy and the executive co ...

trophy.

Other

Tennis Courts, Tufts University, Medford MA

Men's Squash maintains a top 20 Division I national ranking. Tufts University won its first NCAA-sanctioned national team championship when the men's lacrosse team defeated

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

in the 2010 Division III men's lacrosse final. Since then, Tufts has captured NCAA Division III National Championships in women's field hockey (2012), women's softball (three consecutive from 2013 to 2015), men's lacrosse again (2014, 2015), and men's soccer (2014, 2016, 2018, 2019). Tufts teams also reached the 2008 championship game in women's field hockey and the 2011 championship game in men's lacrosse.

References

External links

* {{Massachusetts Sports