Alaska Nanooks
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The Alaska Nanooks are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the
University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-, National Sea Grant College Program, sea-, and National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, space-grant research university in ...
. The Nanooks name is derived from the Inupiaq " nanuq", meaning polar bear. The school colors are blue and gold. The Nanooks compete at the
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Division II level for all sports except men's
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
(
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Division I). The majority of Nanooks sports are members of the
Great Northwest Athletic Conference The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It has historically operated in the northwestern United States, but a ...
(GNAC), the hockey team is an
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
(after spending several years in the CCHA) and plays at the 4,595-seat Carlson Center located west of downtown Fairbanks, while the women's swim team is a member of the Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC), the men's and women's skiing teams are members of 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 ...
(RMISA), and the rifle team competes as a member of the
Patriot Rifle Conference The Patriot Rifle Conference (PRC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rifle-only conference. The PRC was established in 2013 for schools that sponsor rifle teams, but do not have rifle as a sponsored sport in their primary confe ...
.


Sports sponsored


Ice hockey

Intercollegiate men's ice hockey began in the 1925–26 season. The team had competed as an independent team in Division I through the 1960s and Division II through the 1970s. The Nanooks returned to the Division I level in the 1985–86 season and joined the Great West Hockey Conference (GWHC). The team won the 1987–88 GWHC regular season and 1988 playoff championship. The team has also been a member of both the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference in the Midwestern United States that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previ ...
(CCHA) from 1995 to until its dissolution in 2013, where the Nanooks appeared in their first ever
NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament 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 ...
in 2010 before falling 3–1 to
Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...
., as well as the
Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...
(WCHA) from 2013 until its dissolution in 2021. Currently, the team plays as an
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
.


Rifle

The mixed rifle team has won eleven
NCAA Rifle Championship The NCAA rifle championships are contested at an annual competition sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the team and individual champions of co-educational collegiate shooting sports, rifle among its member pro ...
s (1994, 1999–2004, 2006–2008, 2023) and finished as runner-up seven times. In addition to the team championships, Nanook riflers have won individual NCAA championships in air rifle and smallbore rifle 17 times. In 2007 the university hosted the NCAA Rifle Championship, which saw the host Nanooks win their eighth title in nine years in front of a crowd of about 1,000. The Nanooks rifle team most recently won the 2023 National Championship, bettering its last runner-up finish to
West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Ins ...
in 2015. In June 2013, the Nanooks became a charter member of the
Patriot Rifle Conference The Patriot Rifle Conference (PRC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rifle-only conference. The PRC was established in 2013 for schools that sponsor rifle teams, but do not have rifle as a sponsored sport in their primary confe ...
.


Skiing

The Nanooks were members of the
Central Collegiate Ski Association The Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) is an NCAA skiing-only conference. As the NCAA does not have divisions in skiing, it is composed of NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III schools, as well as one community college. Members ar ...
from 1992 to 2016. They joined 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 ...
in the 2016–17 season. Olympic cross-country skier Tyler Kornfield competed for the Nanooks in both
Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe to heel. Re ...
and cross-country running.


References


External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Alaska Nanooks, color=white , list = {{Great Northwest Athletic Conference navbox {{NCAA Division I ice hockey independents {{Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association navbox {{Patriot Rifle Conference navbox {{Alaska Sports