The Nevada Wolf Pack are the athletic teams that represent the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada, United States. It is the state's flagship public university and prim ...

. They are part of NCAA's Division I's

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

. It was founded on October 24, 1896 with football as the Sagebrushers in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

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 ...

History

Name

Nevada's athletic teams were originally known as the Sagebrushers, named after Nevada's

state flower This is a list of U.S. state, federal district, and territory flowers. See also *List of U.S. state trees * Lists of U.S. state insignia References External linksList of state flowers {{USStateLists * U.S. state flowers Flowers ...

. In the 1921–1922 school year, a local writer described the school's athletic teams as a "pack of wolves" which turned into "Desert Wolves." That name stuck until 1923, the student body designated "Wolves" as the school's mascot. The Wolf Pack is always written as two words in the context of Nevada's sports teams. All media outlets refer to the athletic name as Nevada (except for

Clark County Clark County may refer to: *Clark County, Arkansas *Clark County, Idaho *Clark County, Illinois *Clark County, Indiana *Clark County, Kansas *Clark County, Kentucky *Clark County, Missouri *Clark County, Nevada, containing Las Vegas *Clark County, ...

and

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

as UNR due to their bitter interstate rivalry) for history purposes.

Conference affiliation history

From 1925 to 1939 and again from 1954 to 1968, Nevada was a member of a now defunct

Northern California Athletic Conference The Northern California Athletic Conference (NCAC) was an NCAA Division II college athletic association that sponsored American football that was founded in 1925. It disbanded in 1998 after the majority of its member schools were forced to drop fo ...

. In 1969, Nevada joined the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...

, but remained independent in football. Eventually, this arrangement proved unsatisfactory for Nevada, who by 1975 was the only public school left in the WCC. At the same time,

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

, a charter but non-football member of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

, was facing pressure from the conference to either leave or add football (which they had dropped in 1941), as they were the only non-football member of the conference (and only private school as well). MW logo in Nevada colors

A deal was then worked out in which Gonzaga and Nevada would swap conference affiliations in 1979. Gonzaga joined the WCC where it remains to this day, while Nevada moved to the Big Sky. Both new affiliations were the best institutional fits at the time. By the early 1990s, Nevada had become one of the better football teams in what is now the

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...

of NCAA Division I, advancing to the title game in 1990. Nevada decided to upgrade to FBS in 1992, which required them to leave the Big Sky, which did not accept non-football members at the time (this changed in 2014). Nevada found a home in the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...

, where in-state rival

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...

had been playing since 1982 (they would leave in 1996). By the late 1990s, the football side of Big West had been unstable due to membership changes, so in 2000, Nevada joined the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

, where they would remain for 12 years. The WAC itself became unstable in the early 2010s, with the first move being made by

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It ...

, who moved to the

in 2011. This influenced Nevada to move there as well, in 2012. As a result of that move, Nevada was once again with the conference rivals along with UNLV (who formed the MWC with 7 other former WAC schools in 1999).

Sports sponsored

Baseball

The

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 ...

team plays at William Peccole Park and has made four appearances in the NCAA regionals, in 1994, 1997, 1999 and 2000. They have compiled a record of 5–8 in NCAA games, losing to Stanford in the finals of the Palo Alto Regional in 1999. Nevada finished the 1994 season ranked 19th in the country.

Men's basketball

The Nevada Men's Basketball program first began in 1913. The program has won 19 conference championships and made ten appearances in the NCAA tournament. The team's current coach is

Steve Alford Stephen Todd Alford (born November 23, 1964) is an American men's college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball, Nevada Wolf Pack of the Mountain West Conference (MWC). ...

. The men's basketball program has experienced some success in recent years. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, the Wolf Pack men's basketball team qualified for the NCAA tournament and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in school history, where they fell to

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. The team earned a repeat trip in

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 ...

and beat

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

in the first round before falling to eventual national runner-up

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. The team returned for

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

as a #5 seed but was upset in the first round by former

rival

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. They began the 2006–07 season ranked #24. The Pack's major star during this recent period of success was

Nick Fazekas Nicholas Ryan Fazekas (born June 17, 1985) is an American-born Japanese former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball, Nevada Wolf Pack. Early career Fazekas attended Ralston Valley ...

. In 2007, Nevada was ranked #9 in men's basketball, which is the highest ranking that Nevada has ever held. Guards

Ramon Sessions Ramon Darrell Sessions (born April 11, 1986) is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Nevada Wolf Pack, earning WAC All-Newcomer Team as a freshman and second-team All-WAC as a junior. He was dr ...

and Marcellus Kemp both flirted with leaving as juniors for the NBA draft, however Kemp decided to remain at Nevada while Sessions was drafted 56th overall in the

2007 NBA draft The 2007 NBA draft was held on June 28, 2007, at the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was broadcast on television in 115 countries. In this draft, National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amate ...

Football

Ken Wilson is currently the head coach.

Chris Ault Christopher Thomas Ault (born November 8, 1946) is a former American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He served three stints at the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Reno (1976–1992, 1994–1995 and 20 ...

, who in 2012 was one of two active coaches who were enshrined in the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive Tourist attraction, attraction devoted to college football, college American football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players ...

as coaches (the other was

John Gagliardi John Gagliardi ( ; November 1, 1926 – October 7, 2018) was an American football coach. He was the head football coach at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, from 1953 until 2012. From 1949 to 1952, he was the head footb ...

, who also retired after the 2012 season), spent a total of 28 seasons as head coach in three separate stints. Ault is credited with the creation of the

Pistol Offense The pistol offense is an American football Formation (American football), formation and American football strategy, strategy developed by coaches Michael Taylor of Mill Valley, California and popularized by Chris Ault when he was head coach at th ...

which he implemented at Nevada in 2004. Ault was also one of four Football Bowl Subdivision coaches active in 2012 with 200 career wins. The football team plays home games at

Mackay Stadium Mackay Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada. The home venue for Nevada Wolf Pack football and women's soccer in the Mountain West Conference. it&n ...

. The modern Mackay Stadium replaced its predecessor and was completed in 1966 with a seating capacity of 7,500. The facility has been expanded several times in its history and now seats 30,000. The 2010 season saw Nevada at its best finishing the season ranked No. 11 in the AP and No. 13 in the BCS. The Pack celebrated their 500th win in school history with a 52–6 win over

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...

on November 20,

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, at Mackay Stadium. On November 26, 2010, the Nevada Wolf Pack upset

in a historic win at Mackay Stadium. In one round of overtime and 2 missed field goals by the Broncos, one at the end of regulation and one in overtime, Nevada Wolf Pack freshman kicker Anthony Martinez kicked a field goal to put Nevada on top for a final of 34–31. The Wolf Pack's win ended Boise State's 24-game winning streak, then the longest winning streak in the nation. It was also the Wolf Pack's first victory against Boise State after losing 10 straight games to the Broncos.

Men's cross country

On December 15, 2018, it was announced that the Men's cross country athletic team will be added.

Men's golf

:''See footnote''

Men's tennis

:''See footnote''

Women's basketball

Nevada has played women's basketball since 1899, though records only go back to 1981. They have made

Women's National Invitation Tournament The Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) is a women's national college basketball tournament. It used to feature both a preseason and postseason version played every year, but the preseason tournament was last held in 2023. It is operate ...

appearances in 2007 and 2011. In 2018 they made it to the Semi Finals of the WBI.

Women's cross country

:''See footnote''

Women's golf

:''See footnote''

Women's soccer

Originally, the

women's

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 ...

team played home games for their inaugural 2000 season at Mendive Middle School in Sparks, Nevada. The following 2001 season, The Pack did not host any soccer home games. Mackay Stadium has played home to the women's soccer team since 2002 with occasional home matches being played offsite at the Moana Sports Complex (the previous site of Moana Stadium) in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...

. Nevada won its first WAC tournament title in 2006 and qualified for its first NCAA tournament since the program's inception in 2000. Nevada faced

Fresno State California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

in the championship match and after 110 minutes of scoreless play, the two teams went into a shootout where Nevada prevailed 4–2 in penalty kicks. The 2023 Nevada soccer team tore apart previous home attendance records, averaging 829 fans per game. This was the first time in Nevada's history that two home soccer matches surpassed 1,000 in attendance in the same season. The 2023 Nevada soccer team qualified for the Mountain West Tournament for the first time in a decade.

Top 10 home match attendance records for Nevada soccer

Softball

Since the program was reinstated in 2003, the

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) ...

team has qualified for the NCAA tournament three times (2006, 2008, 2009) and has compiled a record of 3–6 in tournament play. In 2006, Nevada won its first WAC tournament title as Jordan McPherson pitched all 41 innings for Nevada in the WAC tournament, without giving up a single earned run, while striking out 34 on the way to being named tournament MVP. The 2008 team finished the season ranked in both national Top 25 polls. The Wolf Pack was ranked No. 21 in the USA Today/NFCA Division I Top 25 Poll and was No. 20 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25. Nevada went 44–18 and won the Western Athletic Conference regular season title. That season, Noelle Micka became the first Nevada softball player to earn second team All American and Vanessa Briones was named WAC Player of the Year. She was the first Wolf Pack player to earn the honor. Briones led the way for a program-record six Nevada players on the All-WAC first team. The senior led the WAC with a .429 batting average, including four home runs and 16 RBI in WAC play. She was joined by fellow outfielder Brittany Puzey, who was named to the first team for the second straight season. Puzey batted .339 with seven extra-base hits in WAC games. The Wolf Pack received an at-large bid to the NCAA Regionals and advanced to the championship game of the Los Angeles Regional, where they lost 6–4 to UCLA.

Women's swimming and diving

The swimming and diving team won the

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

– Division II national title in 1979 and has won 10 conference championships since 1992. They won the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference in 1992 followed by the

Big West The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

championship five years in a row from 1996 to 2000 and the WAC title in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Nevada won the

championship in 2016. Nevada has produced 13 All-Americans and reached its highest national ranking in 2000 at #13. Nine Olympians have been associated with the program. Jian Li You has been with the university since 1996 and is one of the top diving coaches in the U.S., having been a member of the 1980 Chinese Olympic team and a coach for the U.S. Olympic Diving Team.

Women's tennis

:''See footnote''

Women's track and field

:''See footnote''

Women's volleyball

The volleyball team has qualified for the NCAA tournament five times in its history, all coming from at-large selections. (1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005). Nevada produced the beach volleyball team known as Team Gorgeous (

Michelle More Michelle More (born June 12, 1981) is a professional American beach volleyball player. Michelle grew up in Southern California and attended the University of Nevada-Reno. At Nevada-Reno, More met fellow volleyball player Suzanne Stonebarger, wh ...

and

Suzanne Stonebarger Suzanne Stonebarger is a professional American beach volleyball player. Stonebarger is an alumna of the University of Nevada-Reno, where she played college volleyball. At Nevada-Reno Stonebarger met and played with her present-day teammate, Michel ...

National Championships

Individual

Team

* Between the time the NCAA dropped collegiate boxing (1960) and the formation of the NCBA (1976), Nevada belonged to the California Collegiate Boxing Conference.

Mascots

The Wolf Pack's mascots are

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

wolves named Alphie, Wolfie Jr and Luna. Alphie took over the duties of cheering from his uncle, Wolfie, in 1999. In 2007, Alphie was joined by his younger brother, Wolfie Jr. A girl mascot named Luna joined the team in 2013.

Sports no longer sponsored

* Men's Boxing - The NCAA stopped sponsoring collegiate boxing in 1960. The team continues to exist under the auspices of the

National Collegiate Boxing Association The National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA) is a non-profit college sports organization that organizes boxing fights for student athletes. The association falls under the auspices of USA Boxing. After 1960, the NCAA no longer sanctioned bo ...

. * Men's and Women's Skiing - The ski team was founded in 1936. Its NCAA affiliation ended in 2009 due to budget cuts. * Men's and Women's Gymnastics * Men's Track & Field - Nevada's Track & Field team was disbanded in 1994. The Wolf Pack produced seventeen first-team All-Americans. * Rifle - The Nevada rifle team placed second in the 2004

NCAA Rifle team championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and 1 in Canada. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and helps ...

, losing to national champion Alaska Fairbanks. On December 15, 2018, the athletic department announced that the rifle team would be discontinued.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle={{CollegePrimaryStyle, Nevada Wolf Pack, color=white , list= {{Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball navbox {{Mountain West Conference navbox {{Nevada Sports 1896 establishments in Nevada Sports clubs and teams established in 1896