The St. Thomas Celts are the athletic teams that represent the University of St. Thomas, located in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

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 Collegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), founded in 1962, is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas. Difficulti ...

(SCAC) as a provisional member since the 2019–20 academic year. The Celts previously competed in the

Red River Athletic Conference The Red River Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference's 14 member institutions are located in Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico. History ...

(RRAC) at 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 2011–12 to 2018–19; as well as an NAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) from 2007–08 to 2010–11.

Varsity teams

UST competes in eight intercollegiate men's sports, nine women's sports, and two co-ed sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field and volleyball; and co-ed sports include cheerleading (spirit) and

Esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

History

Original tenure

UST men's basketball dates back to 1947, in conjunction with the opening of the university. During their original athletic tenure, their mascot was the Warriors. Their men's basketball program disbanded in 1967. UST also hosted a baseball team from 1948 to 1969. Men's basketball temporarily returned for the 1984–85 season, posting a 9–23 record and losing in the NAIA District IV Tournament to

Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwester ...

. 1984 was also when the UST athletic teams were first known as the Celts.

NAIA (2006–2019)

In fall 2006, the NAIA informed UST that its application to join had been accepted, bringing varsity intercollegiate athletics back to campus for the first time in 20 years. Beginning in 2007, UST fielded both a women's

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 ...

team and a men'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 to compete as Independents within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII). The 2009–10 academic year marked the return of the UST men's varsity basketball team. From 2011 to 2019, UST competed in the NAIA as members of the RRAC.

Move to NCAA Division III

On February 14, 2018, UST announced it would become the SCAC's 10th member after completing an exploratory year in

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

. Pending acceptance into Division III after that, SCAC competition would begin in the 2019–20 season. As Division III and the SCAC require a minimum of 12 sports, UST added men's and women's tennis along with the return of baseball during the 2019–20 academic year. According to UST President

Richard Ludwick Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and ...

, " is is really recognition not only of the quality of our athletics program, but of the quality of our academics and institution as a whole. It is exciting to think about the level of competition that we have been invited to join." The school became a provisional member of Division III in 2019. In 2020, the Celts Baseball team played for the first time since 1969. They went 7-11 before the season ending due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On February 8, 2020, the Celts registered their first victory (an 11-7 victory over Howard Payne) since April 26, 1969 (a 2-1 defeat over Houston Baptist).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Thomas University of St. Thomas (Texas)