The Northern State Wolves are the athletic teams that represent

Northern State University Northern State University (NSU) is a public university in Aberdeen, South Dakota. NSU is governed by the South Dakota Board of Regents and offers 45 bachelor's degrees, 53 minors, six associate degrees, 16 pre-professional programs, 23 certifi ...

, located in

Aberdeen, South Dakota Aberdeen ( Lakota: ''Ablíla'') is a city in and the county seat of Brown County, South Dakota, United States, located approximately northeast of Pierre. The city population was 28,495 at the 2020 census, making it the third most populous cit ...

, U.S., in

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

Division II intercollegiate sports. The Wolves compete as members of the

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...

for all 13 varsity sports. Northern State has been a member of the conference since 1978, and they also have the fifth-smallest enrollment of the 16 member schools. In the 1990s, all members of the NSIC solely became members of NCAA Division II, after spending many years with dual membership with the NAIA.

Varsity teams

History

The Northern State Wolves compete in 13 inter-collegiate athletics. The athletic program began in 1902 with men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, track and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

followed in 1903, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

in 1904. Northern State has had two national championships in women's basketball which occurred in 1992 and 1994. Today, Northern offers men's and women's

cross country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track, women's soccer, women's

fastpitch softball Fastpitch softball, also known as fastpitch or fastball, is a form of softball played by both women and men. While the teams are most often segregated by sex, coed fast-pitch leagues also exist. Fast pitch is considered the most competitive for ...

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 ...

, American football,

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, baseball, and women's

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

. Northern State athletics are well supported by both the students and the community, as men's and women's basketball as well as football are consistently ranked in the top ten nationally for

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

attendance. The men's basketball team was ranked number one in the nation in attendance for the 2005–06 season. Thunder the Wolf serves as the official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...

of the Wolves and of Northern State University. Thunder appears in a variety of sports uniforms and day clothes. Prior to Thunder, the mascot had been known as "Waldo" since the 1950s. However, a dispute with

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

necessitated a change in the name in the early 1990s.

List of teams

Men's sports * Baseball * Basketball * Cross country *

* Indoor & outdoor track & field * Wrestling Women's sports * Basketball * Cross country * Soccer * Softball * Swimming & diving * Indoor & outdoor track & field * Volleyball

Individual sports

Football

Northern's football team plays at Dacotah Bank Stadium and are led by head coach

Mike Schmidt Michael Jack Schmidt (born September 27, 1949) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played his entire 18-season career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies. Schmidt was a 12-time All-Star and a ...

. Their inaugural season was in 1902 and they have a all-time record of 167-153-2 as of 2021.

Men's basketball

Wolves head basketball coach Don Meyer coached basketball for over thirty years and over that span amassed a number of awards. He achieved 700 wins faster than any other coach in college history. He began his head coaching career at

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

Hamline University Hamline University is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1854, Hamline is known for its emphasis on experiential learning, service, and social justice. The university is named after Bishop Leonidas Lent Hamline ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

where he posted a 37–41 record in three years before taking command of David

Lipscomb University Lipscomb University is a private university in Nashville, Tennessee. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The campus is located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, between Belmont Boulevard to the west and Granny White Pike o ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

. In his 24 years at Lipscomb Meyer had a record of 665–179, including a national championship in 1986. In 1999 Meyer accepted the head coaching position at Northern State, and in his first nine-plus seasons has a record of 201–81. Meyer is third on the all-time win list for four-year college coaches, surpassing legendary coach

Bobby Knight Robert Montgomery Knight (born October 25, 1940) is an American former basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", Knight won 902 NCAA Division I men's college basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement, and currently fourth all-ti ...

on January 10, 2009, with his 903rd victory. Prior to his death, Meyer hosted an annual coaches academy every summer in Aberdeen which brought in college coaches such as the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

's Pat Summit, the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

' Bill Self, the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

's Tubby Smith,

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, th ...

's Jerry Krause, and in 2002 the keynote speaker was former

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

head coach John Wooden. The Northern State men's basketball team had its best record in school history during the 2017–18 season. Under coach Paul Sather, the Wolves finished 36–4, leading to the first NCAA Division II championship appearance in school history. They fell to Ferris State by a score of 71–69. After the 2018–19 season, Paul Sather stepped down as the head coach, ending a 9-year stint which accumulated a 126–71 record, 2 regular season conference championships, 2 conference tournament championships, and one Central Region championship, and was hired as the head coach for the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of N ...

and was subsequently replaced by former

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subsequ ...

coach, Saul Phillips. In Phillips' first year, the Wolves ended the season 26–6 record and won both the regular season conference championship and the conference tournament championship. However, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

the national tournament was cancelled.

Championships

Northern State has won 38 Regular Season Championships, 6 Conference Tournament Championships, and 2 Central Region Tournament Championships South Dakota State Conference *Regular Season Championships (5 times): 1906–07, 1907–08, 1908–09, 1909–10, 1916–17

South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference The South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference (SDIC) was an NAIA-associated collegiate athletic conference that ceased operations following the 1999–2000 academic school year when it merged with the North Dakota College Athletic Conference to form ...

*Regular Season Championships (17 times): 1923–24, 1935–36, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1941–42, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1970–71 (Unknown Conference) *Regular Season Championships (3 times): 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78

*Regular Season Champions (13 times): 1983–84, 1984–85, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019-20 *North Division Titles (4 times): 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 *Conference Tournament Champions (6 times): 2004, 2005, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 NCAA Central Region *Central Region Tournament Championships (2 times): 1998, 2018

Women's basketball

Long-time women's head basketball coach Curt Fredrickson retired in 2018 after thirty-nine seasons at Northern State, during which time he amassed a career record of 846–306. During his tenure he led the Wolves to two NAIA national championships and numerous conference titles. He has been named the National Coach of the Year twice, as well as being named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference coach of the year. He is one of only four NCAA D-II women's coaches to reach 600 career wins, and he set a national record by leading his Wolves to 45 straight wins from 1993 to 1995. After losing their season opener in the 1993–94 season, his Wolves won 32 straight games to win the national championship and finish the season with a record of 32–1, a school record. Fredrickson was also an All America selection during his baseball career at Northern, and was inducted into the

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame. He is the only player in South Dakota amateur baseball history to win 200 games on the mound and hit 200 home runs in a career. Fredrickson was also the head baseball coach at Northern State from 2003 to 2006.

Championships

Northern State has won 2 National Championships, 8 Regular Season Conference Championships, and 2 Conference Tournaments Championships District Title *District Title (1 time): 1976–77

*Regular Season Champions (7 times): 1987–88, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2017–18 *North Division Champions (4 times): 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18 *Conference Tournament Champions (2 times): 2014–15, 2016–17 NAIA *National Champions (2 times): 1991–92, 1993–94

Softball

The Wolves softball team appeared in two

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

in 1975 and 1976.

References

External links

* {{Northern State Wolves football navbox, state=collapsed 1902 establishments in South Dakota Sports clubs established in 1902 Sports teams in Aberdeen, South Dakota