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Utah Athletics History
University of Utah varsity athletic teams have run with the leaders since their start in the late 1800s. Utah's first national title came in 1916, when the men's basketball team won the AAU Championship. The men's basketball team would win the 1944 NCAA and 1947 National Invitational Tournament championships as well. Football also had early success, winning the 1938 Sun Bowl. In 1961 and '66, the men's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Final Four. In 1964, the football team went 9-2 and crushed West Virginia 32-6 in the Liberty Bowl. In the mid-1970s, women's athletics earned varsity status and quickly made up for time lost on the sidelines. The women skiers struck gold at the 1977 AIAW Championships and sandwiched that title with a trio of silvers from 1976-79. The women's gymnastics team, which would soon become the dominant gymnastics team in the land, placed 10th at the 1976 AIAW Championships. The women's basketball team averaged 20 wins per year in the 1970s - a figure that still holds true today. In the spring of 1979, the Ute softball team went to the College World Series. The 1980s saw athletics at Utah become even more visible on the national scene. The women's gymnastics team won an unprecedented six straight national titles from 1981-86. The softball team qualified for the 1982 and '85 NCAA College World Series. In 1983, skiing became a coed sport and Utah won the NCAA title - the first of five in the '80s. Utah athletics became a household name in the 1990s. In the 1996-97 season, the men's basketball team made the Elite Eight and set the stage for a Final Four appearance the next year. The Runnin' Utes played for the 1998 NCAA Championship against Kentucky, falling to the Wildcats after beating No. 1 seed North Carolina in the semifinal game. The men's basketball team won seven conference championships in the '90s. The decade also marked the emergence of Utah football as a national power. The football team played in five bowl games and its victory over Arizona in the 1994 Freedom Bowl helped the Utes finish in the top 10 in the country. Utah shared the conference football title in 1995 and 1999. The women's gymnastics team added more championship hardware to its trophy case, winning NCAA titles in 1990, 1994 and 1995, while the ski team won the 1996 and 1997 NCAA Championships. The softball team qualified for College World Series twice, the women's basketball team made six NCAA appearances, the volleyball team advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round in 1998 and 1999, and the men's swim team won six conference titles to raise its total to 22. In the current decade, the Utes have continued to be associated with the top programs. The 2004-05 Utah athletics season was one of the finest in the history of college athletics. The Utah football team broke new ground when it qualified for a BCS bowl, going undefeated (12-0) in 2004, ranking No. 4 in the nation and beating Big East co-champion Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. Quarterback Alex Smith was a Heisman Trophy finalist and the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. The men's basketball team, with Consensus All-American and National Player of the Year Andrew Bogut, made the Sweet 16. Bogut was the first pick in the 2005 NBA draft, making Utah the first school in NCAA history to boast the NFL and NBA top draft pick in the same year. The 2008-09 season saw Utah football soar even higher, again running the table with a perfect season. All was capped by a 31-17 thrashing of then-ranked #4 Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The Utes finished the year ranked #2 in the nation. Other highlights of the new millennium include a 2003 NCAA Championship by the ski team, NCAA Championship runner-up finishes by the gymnastics team in 2000, 2006, '07 and '08, a 6-0 bowl record, an Elite Eight appearance by the women's basketball team in 2006, a 2001 Sweet 16 trip for the volleyball team and four NCAA Tournament invites for the women's soccer team. Since 2000, Utah teams have won 18 Mountain West Conference championships. Utah's National Athletics Highlights
1900-1979
1980-1989
1990-1994
1995-97
1998-2000
2001-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09 |
