Quinnipiac University Athletics
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ow with a full decade of experience at the Division I level, a new chapter has begun for the Quinnipiac University Department of Athletics. The Bobcats have shown great success in such a small period of time, immediately announcing themselves on the Division I landscape with numerous national tournament appearances since the advancement to the NCAA’s most elite division. Although Quinnipiac began Division I competition at the start of the 1998–99 season, the process began a few years earlier when Quinnipiac President John L. Lahey sent a letter to the NCAA announcing Quinnipiac’s intention to enter the country’s highest athletic division. Jack McDonald, director of athletics and recreation, said it was necessary to make the switch to Division I because of potential student-athletes and other applicants interested in Quinnipiac. “Prospective students who were interested in Quinnipiac were also applying to Fairfield, Hartford, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine,” McDonald said. “We found the general interest of Quinnipiac had risen from a Division II/III school to a Division I school.” Since Quinnipiac’s official entrance into Division I on Sept. 2, 1998, the athletic department has experienced tremendous growth. The coaching staffs have made the transition from part-time to full-time, and the Athletic and Recreation Center has doubled in size. In 13 years the number of full-time staff members increased from about 25 to 65. Perhaps the most visible change was the opening of the 185,000-square-foot TD Bank Sports Center in January 2007, home of the men’s and women’s basketball and ice hockey teams. Despite the added emphasis on athletics, Quinnipiac continues to hold a reputation for high academic standards. Numerous teams and individual student-athletes have been nationally recognized for their work in the classroom over the last decade. “Every student-athlete goes to college for two reasons — to get a degree and make the NCAA tournament,” McDonald remarked. “Our graduation rate and GPA is higher than the rest of the student body. I’m very proud of that. Most student-athletes will never play professionally, but they all need their degree.” Last academic school year, Quinnipiac recognized special moments and players from the Bobcats’ first full decade at the Division I level.
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Because there were so many deserving moments in the last decade, it was extremely difficult to narrow down the list. For example, was announcing the “Bobcats” as the University’s new nickname on August 27, 2002, one of the all-time top moments, or the baseball team advancing to the 2005 NCAA Regionals against Texas. Maybe it was the men’s and women’s Ice Hockey teams’ invitation to ECAC Hockey on July 9, 2004, or was it the women’s soccer team winning Quinnipiac’s first-ever game at the Division I level in September 1998? The 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons alone could have produced four of the top 10 moments with women’s cross country winning a NEC-record sixth and seventh straight championship, men’s basketball reaching back-to-back National Postseason Tournaments (NIT and CIT), men’s ice hockey ranked fourth nationally and women’s ice hockey hosting an ECAC Hockey Tournament series. Although the 2010-11 season capped off the University’s first full decade of the competition at the Division I level, there is even higher potential for the years ahead. With all the successes the teams accomplished in the past, there is room for greater achievements in the future including: increasing the teams’ graduation rate and GPA, increasing the number of teams that advance to NCAA tournaments, and winning NCAA tournament games. The importance of strong academics and athletics advancing together is essential for greater success at the Division I level. “We’ve become such a successful program with a beautiful campus, great facilities, student-athletes who excel academically and coaches who do a great job with the total well-being of the studentathlete,” McDonald said. “It’s been a tremendous transition for the inisitution.”