The Bucknell Bison are the athletic teams that represent

Bucknell University Bucknell University is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal-arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1846 as the University at Lewisburg, it now consists of the College of Arts a ...

. The program is a member of the

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...

for most

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division 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 athlet ...

sports and Division I FCS in football.

List of sports

History

The Bucknell Bison are the athletic teams that represent

. The program is a member of the

for most

sports and Division I FCS in football. Since 1923, the mascot has been Bucky Bison. Their

fight song A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand, these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...

is ''ray Bucknell''.

Football

Bucknell won the first Orange Bowl (26–0 over the University of Miami on January 1, 1935). It is also the alma mater of Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Christy Mathewson who requested burial in a cemetery adjoining Bucknell's campus.

Men's basketball

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, the men's basketball team went to 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. ...

men's basketball tournament and became the first

team to win an NCAA tournament game, in an upset of

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(64–63). The victory followed a year that included wins over #9 Pittsburgh and Saint Joseph's. They lost to

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

in the following round, but received the honor of "Best Upset" at the 2005 ESPY Awards. In 2006, the Bison continued their success with high-profile victories at Syracuse, then ranked 19th, DePaul, and Saint Joseph's, a sequence that saw the Bison nearly enter the Associated Press's top-25 rankings. However, those wins were followed by high-profile losses against Villanova, then ranked fourth in the nation, and at Duke, then ranked first. Patriot League play began after the Duke loss, and the Bison did not lose a league game in 2006. The team was ranked 24th in the nation in both the

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and

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college basketball polls for the week of February 13. This was the Bucknell program's first national ranking, and the first time since the league's creation in 1990 that any Patriot League men's basketball team has been ranked. The team was seeded ninth in the Oakland bracket for the 2006 NCAA tournament, and defeated

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

in the first round (59–55). The Bison were defeated by Memphis in the second round, losing by a score of 72–56. They finished the regular season ranked 25th in the ESPN poll. Entering the 2006–2007 season, the Bison had scheduled a number of high-profile games, including a season opener against Wake Forest. The schedule also included a match-up against George Mason, a team that had made the 2006 Final Four. In a tight game, the Bison were defeated by Wake Forest 86–83 in overtime. They did, however, go on to defeat George Mason. Bucknell made it to the 2007 Patriot League Championship Game where they faced Holy Cross. The Bison lost by a score of 66–74.

Women's basketball

Men's lacrosse

Bucknell also has a reputable men's lacrosse program that is often nationally ranked. The team reached the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship in 2001. Former head coach Sid Jamieson is currently ranked 14th in all-time Division I wins. In 2005, the team upset No. 2 ranked Navy during the regular season, and again in 2006 the team upset No. 1 Maryland. In 2008, the team broke into the top 10 National Rankings for only the second time in school history.

Men's soccer

In 2006 the Bucknell Men's soccer team went on a surprise run to capture the Patriot League championship. In the semifinal they beat top seeded Lehigh in a game that went to a shootout. Then in the final they defeated Lehigh in a game that also ended in a shootout. This qualified them for the NCAA Soccer tournament. They faced George Mason in the first round and won on an overtime goal. In the second round they fell to fourth ranked Virginia.

Other sports

In 2003, Bucknell made history by becoming the only school in Patriot League history to capture both the Men's and Women's Patriot League Swimming Championship in the same season (2003). These teams were led by seniors Gonzalo Diaz, Christopher Feinthel, Michael Guskey, Geoffrey Konopka, Kurt "Russell" McCoy, Stelios Saffos and Stephen Schwanhausser on the Men's team and seniors Rebecca Dolan and Darby Golino on the Women's team. This historic win was accomplished at the newly opened Kinney Natatorium at Bucknell. The men's swimming and diving team also captured the Division II national championship in 1964. In 2006 the Bucknell Women's rowing team won the Patriot League Championship and its Lightweight Women scored a 6th-place finish at the National Championship IRA Regatta. The following year the team repeated as Patriot League team champions, and the lightweight eight was crowned national champions at the IRA for the first time. Beginning in the 2006–2007 season, Bucknell has re-instituted its men's wrestling program in response to a private donation of $5.6 million from wrestling alumnus William Graham, after it was originally dropped by the university in efforts to be in compliance with Title IX in 2001. In 2009, the team had a program record of 6 NCAA qualifiers. Since the Patriot League does not sponsor wrestling, Bucknell's team competes as a member of the EIWA. In 2008, the Bucknell baseball team entered the Tallahassee regional of the NCAA tournament and upset Florida State, 7–0.

List of sports

History

Football

Men's basketball

Women's basketball

Men's lacrosse

Men's soccer

Other sports

National championships

Team

See also

References

External links