The Manhattan Jaspers are composed of 19 teams representing

Manhattan University Manhattan University (previously Manhattan College) is a private university, private, Catholic university in New York City. Originally established in 1853 by the De La Salle Brothers, De La Salle Christian Brothers (Institute of the Brothers o ...

in intercollegiate athletics. The Jaspers compete in the

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 ...

and are members of the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...

. Manhattan University fields 19 Division–I athletic teams for men and women, including

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 ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. Historically

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

has been the school's strongest sport. The Jaspers nickname comes from Brother Jasper of Mary, F.S.C., who was a memorable figure at the school. He was head of resident students, athletic director, and baseball coach during the late 1800s."What is a Jasper?"
GoJaspers.com. Retrieved February 16, 2016.

Sponsored sports

Baseball

The college annually played the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

(who moved to San Francisco in the 1950s) in the late 1880s and into the 1890s at the Polo Grounds and Manhattan is credited by the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United S ...

with the practice of the " seventh inning stretch" spreading from there into major league baseball. It is written in the

that "During one particularly warm and humid day when Manhattan College was playing a semi-pro baseball team called the Metropolitans at a park near 107th street, Brother Jasper noticed the Manhattan students were becoming restless and edgy as Manhattan came to bat in the seventh inning of a close game. To relieve the tension, Brother Jasper called time-out and told the students to stand up and stretch for a few minutes until the game resumed." In 1982, The New York Times reported that almost 800 alumni stood in unison at a dinner to honor the 100th anniversary of Brother Jasper Brennan's seventh inning stretch. Luis Castro, a Manhattan University alumnus, was the first Latin American born player to play in Major League Baseball in the United States, and the first Latin American since

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

n player Esteban Bellán in 1873 to play professional baseball. On July 15, 2014, it was announced that

's baseball team will use Dutchess Stadium as their home field. The field used at Van Cortland Park through 2014 was not meeting NCAA standards. The college looked into building their own field in The Bronx, but the land costs alone did not make such a project feasible. In 2020, the school's baseball team moved back to the refurbished ball field at Van Cortland Park. Since the move was announced, there have been proposals to name Van Cortland Park's "field of dreams" after 1975 Manhattan graduate Joe Coppo. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Coppo was trapped in the north tower of the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

when the first plane struck, and he never made it out.

Basketball

Manhattan University has been playing basketball since 1904. College basketball has always been a popular sport in the New York metropolitan area and interest in the sport expanded with the start of the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

(NIT) in 1938. The NIT is considered the first national college basketball championship tournament and for years it was always played at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

. In 1940, Manhattan was one of five New York City colleges and universities that took over administration of the tournament. This arrangement was in place until 2005 when 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) purchased the rights to the NIT. Before the college's current home court, Draddy Gymnasium, was built in 1978, Manhattan hosted the majority of its home games at Madison Square Garden. Probably the team's greatest victory came at the end of the 1957–58 season when Manhattan upset the top seed

West Virginia Mountaineers The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. The Mountaineers have been a membe ...

, led by

Jerry West Jerry Alan West (May 28, 1938 – June 12, 2024) was an American basketball player and executive. He played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is widely regarded as one of the greatest ...

, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Today the team's coach is John Gallagher. He previously served as the head coach at the

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. It enrolled approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students as ...

from 2010 until 2022. From 2011 to 2022, the team's coach was

Steve Masiello Stephen John Masiello Jr. (born September 2, 1977) is an American college basketball coach and a former player. He is currently the associate head coach at St. John's. Masiello is a native of White Plains, New York. He graduated from Iona Gramm ...

. Masiello was an assistant coach at Manhattan in the early 2000s and came back to the school as head coach in 2011. During the 2013–2014 season, the Jaspers beat Iona in the MAAC Conference final and went on to play the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

in the first round of the NCAA tournament in a highly publicized game where Masiello coached against one of his mentors,

Rick Pitino Richard Andrew Pitino (; born September 18, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is the head men's basketball coach at St. John's University (New York City), St. John's University. He was also the head coach of Greece national basketball t ...

. During the 2014–15 season, the Jaspers again defeated Iona in the MAAC Conference final to earn their second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, where they lost to

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missiona ...

in the play-in game for the round of 64. With a record of 300–205, coach

Ken Norton Kenneth Howard Norton Sr. (August 9, 1943 – September 18, 2013) was an American actor and professional boxer who competed from 1967 to 1981. He was awarded the World Boxing Council, WBC world heavyweight championship in 1978, after winning a ...

has the most wins in school history. When he was hired in 1946, Norton succeeded basketball coach

Honey Russell John David "Honey" Russell (May 31, 1902 – November 15, 1973) was an American basketball player and coach who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1964. He turned professional after his sophomore year of high scho ...

. Norton also coached baseball and golf, and was the school’s athletic director when he retired in 1979. In 1977, he led the Jaspers to the Metropolitan Golf Association (MGA) Intercollegiate Championship. The Lady Jaspers' first campaign was the 1978–79 season under head coach Michelle Blatt. The Lady Jaspers current head coach is Heather Vulin. An assistant coach at Virginia Tech, Vulin came to Manhattan in 2016.

Football

Manhattan University had a

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 ...

program from 1924–1942. The college team posted an all-time record of 194 wins, 198 losses and 22 ties. The final coach for the school's football team was Herbert M. Kopf. After the 1942 season, the school suspended intercollegiate football competition for World War II and then did not reactivate the program after completion of the war. The team was invited to the first ever Miami Palm Festival Game, predecessor to the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

, played on January 2, 1933,

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

defeated Manhattan University, 7–0. The team was revived in 1965 in the form of a club team, and existed until 1987.

Lacrosse

The school participated in the first intercollegiate

game in the United States, playing

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

on November 22, 1877. Manhattan's lacrosse program became Division I in 1996 playing in the

(MAAC). They have qualified for the MAAC tournament 7 times (2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2008–2010). In 2002 the Jaspers went undefeated in the MAAC (9–0), and won the MAAC Championship. They finished with an 11–6 record. The Jaspers earned a bid to the NCAA Playoffs in 2002, playing Georgetown. They fell to Georgetown 12–7 in the first round of the NCAAs. The program has produced a number of ALL-MAAC players. The Lady Jaspers have won three MAAC Lacrosse Championships (2000, 2004, 2005). The Jaspers and Lady Jaspers home field is the historic

Gaelic Park Gaelic Park () is a multi-purpose outdoor athletics facility, located at West 240th Street and Broadway in the Kingsbridge neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City, New York, United States. Since 1926 the grounds has been used as the venue ...

Rowing

Manhattan University's rowing program holds much history, as well. The school is one of the original eight founding members of the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, the largest collegiate

regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wa ...

in the United States. The race attracts over one hundred colleges and universities from the U.S. and Canada and thousands of student-athletes on the second Saturday of May. The team's coach, Allen Walz, along with the school's football coach at the time, Herbert M. Kopf, served as stewards to the regatta. In 1936 and 1938, Manhattan was one of two teams competing in the regatta, the other being

Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...

, on the Harlem River, where the team trains today. Both the men's and women's teams still compete in the Dad Vail Regatta today, as well as in the MAAC Championships, N.Y. State Championships, Knecht Cup and the C.R.A.S.H. B's World Indoor Rowing Championships.

Track and Field

The Manhattan University Track and Field program has the richest athletic tradition in the school, amassing a total of 31 out of a possible 32 MAAC Indoor/Outdoor Track titles. In 1973, Manhattan University won the Indoor NCAA Championship along with setting a world record in the distance medley relay. Manhattan was also home to former American Record holder in the 5,000m Matthew Centrowitz Sr. The program was run by legendary coach/runner Fred Dwyer, who ran a 4:00.3 mile while at Villanova. Manhattan still remains a powerhouse on the east coast as one of the top programs around. Dan Mecca, men's and women's track and field head coach, was promoted to men's and women's cross country and track and field coach in 1993 after coaching the Jaspers' men's field events since 1986. During his 36 years, Manhattan won 17 MAAC Men's Indoor Team Titles, 14 Men's Outdoor Titles, 13 Women's Indoor Titles, 11 Women's Outdoor Titles, five MAAC women's Cross Country titles, and one IC4A men's indoor title. under the direction of Dan Mecca. Currently, Kerri Gallagher is in her seventh year at Manhattan University and her second as the program's Director of Cross Country, Track and Field. Gallagher, who was promoted to director in May 2021, was named head coach of Manhattan's men's & women's cross country, mid-distance and distance programs in July 2016.

Van Cortlandt Park Van Cortlandt Park is a urban park, park located in the borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Al ...

, which is located near the college, is a prominent site for cross-country running. The park's trails are some of the most utilized cross-country courses in the country and is the venue for the annual IC4A or Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America ( ICAAAA) cross country championships. The

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

and

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

NCAA Men's Division I Cross Country Championships were hosted by Manhattan at Van Cortlandt.

1973 NCAA title

Manhattan won the 1973 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships becoming the smallest school to win a Division I track title. Led by 1972 Olympians Anthony Colon of

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

and Michael Keogh of Ireland, the Jaspers won the title with 18 points and a 6-point margin.

Rivalries

Manhattan has long maintained rivalries with several local, and MAAC Conference opponents. The Jaspers' most notable rivals are the

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Battle of the Bronx", and the

Iona Iona (; , sometimes simply ''Ì'') is an island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaeli ...

Gaels The Gaels ( ; ; ; ) are an Insular Celts, Insular Celtic ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Goidelic languages, Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising ...

. The Jaspers also maintain a very strong rivalry with the

Saint Peter's Peacocks The Saint Peter's Peacocks are the sixteen intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Saint Peter's University, located in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Peacocks compete in the NCAA Division I and are founding members of the Metro Atlantic A ...

and Siena Saints.

References

External links

* {{NewYorksports