Hofstra Pride

The Hofstra Pride (formerly the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen) are composed of 17 teams representing Hofstra University in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women’s basketball, cross-country running, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track and field. Men’s sports include baseball and wrestling. Women’s sports include volleyball, field hockey, and softball. The Pride compete in the NCAA Division I and have been members of the Colonial Athletic Association in most sports since 2001.^[2] They were previously members of the America East Conference.

Until 2001, Hofstra's nickname was the Flying Dutchmen (shortened to simply "Dutchmen" or "Dutch"), an homage to the Dutch heritage of university founder William S. Hofstra.^[3] The Pride refer to the two lions on Hofstra's longtime logo, which school officials felt was more meaningful.^[4]

Teams

Basketball

The men’s basketball team experienced its most successful period in 2000 and 2001, winning back-to-back America East men's basketball tournament titles and making their first appearances in the Division I championship since the 1970s. Jimmy Hall played for the team in 2012–13. The team most recently won the 2020 Colonial Athletic Association Championship. Speedy Claxton, the star on the 2000 team, was named the head coach in April.^{[citation needed]}

Baseball

The Hofstra Pride baseball team represents Hofstra University in NCAA Division I college baseball. The team plays its home games at University Field in Hempstead, New York.^[5] The Pride qualified for its first NCAA Division I baseball tournament in 2022 by winning the CAA baseball tournament.

Wrestling

The Hofstra University Pride Wrestling team competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association in the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.

In 1977, Hofstra wrestler Nick Gallo won the NCAA National Championship in the 126 lb weight class and was a member of the 1976 and 1980 U.S. Olympic Freestyle Wrestling teams, he was also given the title "Most Outstanding Wrestler" in the 1977 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.^[6]

Dennis Papadatos is the current head coach.^[7] The Pride wrestling team competes on campus in the Mack Sports Complex. Former Pride wrestler Chris Weidman was a 2-time NCAA Division I All-American (6th in 2006 & 3rd in 2007, both at 197 lb) and is a former UFC Middleweight Champion. Hofstra can claim 30 All-American honors among 19 wrestlers through 2018.

Hofstra’s wrestling team was formerly a member of the CAA like all other Pride teams until the CAA ended sponsorship of wrestling in 2013.

Discontinued sports

Football

The school fielded a football team from 1937 to 2009, when the sport was cancelled due to costs and declining attendance.^[8] The team was an associate member of the Atlantic 10 Conference from 2001 until 2009. Funds previously used for the football program went into the creation of the medical school, and enhancing a variety of programs, including hard sciences and engineering.^[9]

Conference history

• Metropolitan New York Conference (1942–1943)
• East Coast Conference (1965–1994) (some sports competed as independents)
• North Atlantic Conference/America East Conference (1994–2001)
• Colonial Athletic Association (2001–present) (football competed in the A-10 until 2006)

References in popular culture

Two of Bill Cosby's early comedy albums include routines about a game between the now-defunct Hofstra football team and Temple University.^{[citation needed]} The routines are "TV Football" (from I Started Out as a Child) and its expanded re-telling "Hofstra" (from Why Is There Air?).

An entire episode of Everybody Loves Raymond was devoted to a main character, Frank Barone, catching a record-setting field goal ball kicked by a Hofstra player at a game against Northeastern that Ray Barone predicted to be a "tickle fight".

See also

• List of NCAA Division I non-football programs

References

External links

• Official website