The Central State Marauders and Lady Marauders are the athletic teams that represent
Central State University
Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio, United States. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-y ...
, located in
Wilberforce, Ohio, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the
Division II level of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
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. ...
(NCAA), primarily competing in the
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) since the 2015–16 academic year (with football joining first as an affiliate member from 2013–14 to 2015 before upgrading for all sports). The Marauders and Lady Marauders previously competed in the D-II
Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) from 2012–13 to 2014–15, and as an
NCAA D-II Independent from 2002–03 to 2011–12; as well as competing in the
American Mideast Conference of the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...
(NAIA) from 2000–01 to 2001–02.
Varsity teams
Central State competes in 11 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, football, track & field (indoor and outdoor) and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, track & field (indoor and outdoor) and volleyball. Central State's main rivals are Kentucky State University and West Virginia State University.
National championships
Team
Individual teams
Football
The Central State University Marauder football team experienced much success in
Division II and
NAIA during the 1980s through 1995 under then head football coaches,
William "Billy" Joe (1981 to 1993) and
Rick Comegy (1993 to 1996).
Under Billy Joe, the Marauders were NCAA Division II runners-up in 1983 and won the
NAIA Football National Championship (Division I) in 1990 and 1992.
Under Comegy, a former assistant coach under Joe, the Marauders won the
NAIA Football National Championship (Division I) in 1995.
The heyday of Central State football ended in the late 1990s when the university administration was forced to drop the football program in 1997 due to financial difficulties and a significant drop of enrollment.
In 2005, under new administration leadership of president Dr. John W. Garland, Esq, (Class of 1971), the university reinstated the Central State Marauder football program.
Notable Marauder alumni who went on to play in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
include:
Vince Heflin,
Vince Buck,
Erik Williams,
Hugh Douglas,
Charles Hope,
Brandon Hayes,
Mel Lunsford,
Kerwin Waldroup, and
Dayvon Ross.
References
External links
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{{Ohio Sports