The Alaska Nanooks are the

intercollegiate athletics College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des É ...

teams that represent the

University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for cla ...

. The Nanooks name is derived from the Inupiaq " nanuq", meaning polar bear. The school colors are blue and gold. The Nanooks compete at the

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 an ...

Division II level for all sports except men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

(

Division I). The majority of Nanooks sports are members of the

Great Northwest Athletic Conference The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. It has historically operated in the northwestern United States, but al ...

(GNAC), the hockey team is an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

(after spending several years in the CCHA) and plays at the 4,595-seat

Carlson Center The Carlson Center is a 4,595-seat multi-purpose arena in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. It is the third largest arena in Alaska by seating capacity after the Sullivan Arena and Alaska Airlines Center, both of which are in Anchorage. It is home ...

located west of downtown

Fairbanks Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

, while the women's swim team is a member of the Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC), the men's and women's skiing teams are members of the

Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association The Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) skiing-only conference. As the NCAA does not have divisions in collegiate skiing, it is composed of both NCAA Division I and NCAA Divisi ...

(RMISA), and the rifle team competes as a member of the

Patriot Rifle Conference The Patriot Rifle Conference (PRC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rifle-only conference. The PRC was established in 2013 for schools that sponsor rifle teams, but do not have rifle as a sponsored sport in their primary confe ...

Sports sponsored

Ice hockey

Intercollegiate men's ice hockey began in the 1925–26 season. The team had competed as an independent team in Division I through the 1960s and Division II through the 1970s. The Nanooks returned to the Division I level in the 1985–86 season and joined the

Great West Hockey Conference The Great West Hockey Conference was a short-lived NCAA Division I college ice hockey conference. The conference was formed in 1985 by the four D-I independent schools west of the Rocky Mountains: the University of Alaska Anchorage, the Univers ...

(GWHC). The team won the 1987–88 GWHC regular season and 1988 playoff championship. The team has also been a member of both the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) from 1995 to until its dissolution in 2013, where the Nanooks appeared in their first ever

NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament The annual NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to determine the top men's team in Division I. Like other Division I cham ...

in 2010 before falling 3–1 to

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

., as well as the

Western Collegiate Hockey Association The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

(WCHA) from 2013 until its dissolution in 2021. Currently, the team plays as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Rifle

The mixed rifle team has won ten

NCAA Rifle Championship The NCAA Rifle Championship is an annual co-educational rifle national collegiate championship sponsored by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The tournament includes an individual and team championships consisting of the two- ...

s (1994, 1999–2004, 2006–2008) and placed runners-up four times. In addition to the team championships, 12 Nanook Riflers have won individual championships In 2007 the university hosted the NCAA Rifle Championship, which saw the host Nanooks win their eighth title in nine years in front of a crowd of about 1,000. The Nanooks rifle team most recently won the 2008 National Championship and appeared as runner-up to

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples ...

in 2010. In June 2013, the Nanooks became a charter member of the

Skiing

The Nanooks were members of the

Central Collegiate Ski Association The Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) is an NCAA skiing-only conference. As the NCAA does not have divisions in skiing, it is composed of NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III schools, as well as one community college. Members are ...

from 1992 to 2016. They joined the

in the 2016–17 season. Olympic cross-country skier

Tyler Kornfield Tyler Kornfield (born February 9, 1991) is an American Olympic cross-country skier. Early and personal life Kornfield was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, the son of Ed and Robin Kornfield. His father was originally from Philadelphia, Penn ...

competed for the Nanooks in both

Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the Ski binding, binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe ...

and

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 ...

running.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Alaska Nanooks, color=white , list = {{Great Northwest Athletic Conference navbox {{NCAA Division I ice hockey independents {{Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association navbox {{Patriot Rifle Conference navbox {{Alaska Sports