The Loyola Ramblers (also called the Loyola Chicago Ramblers) are the varsity sports teams of Loyola University Chicago. Most teams compete in the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

, which the school joined in 2022 after leaving the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

. They previously played in the Horizon League. Notable athletes from Loyola have included middle-distance runner Tom O'Hara, volleyball player Thomas Jaeschke, and basketball players Mike Novak, Jerry Harkness, Les Hunter, Wayne Sappleton, Alfredrick Hughes, LaRue Martin, and Blake Schilb. The nickname "Ramblers" was first used in 1926. The Loyola Ramblers departed from the

and joined the

effective July 1, 2022.

Conference affiliation history

Loyola Chicago was a charter member of the Midwestern City Conference when it was established on June 16, 1979. The intercollegiate athletic circuit eventually rebranded twice, first as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1985 and then the Horizon League on June 4, 2001. The university announced on April 12, 2013, that it was leaving the Horizon League to replace Creighton as the tenth member of the

(MVC) beginning months later on July 1. Prior to the conclusion of its nine years in the MVC, the Ramblers were accepted by the

(A-10) on November 16, 2021, as its 15th member beginning July 1, 2022. The women's golf team competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

Sports sponsored

A member of the

, Loyola University Chicago sponsors teams in seven men's and eight women's

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. ...

sanctioned sports.

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

was discontinued at Loyola after the 1930 season. The university had previously fielded a varsity football team intermittently from 1892 to 1930.

Baseball

Phil Weintraub, later a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

player, played for the Loyola baseball team.

Men's basketball

The

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team has played at the Joseph J. Gentile Arena since 1996; before then, they played home games at Alumni Gym. The 1962–1963 team, led by coach George Ireland, won the 1963 NCAA University Division basketball tournament (predecessor to the current Division I men's tournament), defeating the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

60–58 in the title game. Vic Rouse tipped in the winning bucket in overtime to win the game. During their tournament run, the Ramblers also won a historically notable game against Mississippi State, an all-white team that defied a state court order in order to play said game. The Ramblers made it back to the regional semifinals the following year and qualified for the tournament in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and 1968. They would not make the national tournament again until 1985, in which they lost to eventual tournament runner-up Georgetown in the Sweet Sixteen. In 2018, the Ramblers returned to the tournament for the first time in 33 years. As a No. 11 seed, they upset No. 6 seed Miami (FL) and No. 3 seed

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

to qualify for the Sweet Sixteen. They faced

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

in the regional semifinal and defeated the Wolf Pack 69–68 to advance to the Elite 8 against Kansas State. They advanced to the Final Four by beating Kansas State 78–62. In the Final Four, they lost to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

69–57. Loyola made it to the finals of the National Invitation Tournament in 1939 and

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

and qualified for

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

tournaments. They won the College Basketball Invitational in 2015.

Men's volleyball

The volleyball team is coached by Loyola alumnus Shane Davis. His record through twelve seasons is 265–88 (). In 2013, the Ramblers were defeated by the UCI Anteaters 0–3 (24–26, 18–25, 27–29) in the first semifinal of the NCAA championships on May 2, 2013, at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

's Pauley Pavilion. This was the team's first appearance ever in an NCAA men's collegiate volleyball tournament. On May 3, 2014, Loyola, playing host to the 2014 Championships, defeated the Stanford Cardinal 3–1 to win the program's first-ever NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship. Loyola successfully defended their championship in 2015, defeating Lewis 3–2 at Stanford's Maples Pavilion.

National championships

Facilities

Loyola does not have local competition sites for cross country, golf, or track and field.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Loyola Ramblers, color=white , list = {{Atlantic 10 Conference navbox {{Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association navbox {{Chicago sports {{Illinois Sports