The Bowdoin Polar Bears are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Bowdoin College, located in

Brunswick, Maine Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 21,756 at the 2020 United States Census. Part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin Intern ...

. The Polar Bears compete in the

National Collegiate Athletic Association 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 ...

(NCAA) and

New England Small College Athletic Conference The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal arts institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. ...

(NESCAC). Bowdoin College currently fields teams in fourteen men's sports and sixteen women's sports. The polar bear team name was selected to honor Robert Peary of the class of 1877 who discovered the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. All Bowdoin Polar Bears sports teams compete in NCAA Division III, and 25 of 30 teams compete in the NESCAC. Bowdoin College was one of the eleven charter members who joined together to form the new New England Small College Athletic Conference in 1971. Most Bowdoin Polar Bears teams have on-campus facilities, and most are located on the south side of campus, including Sidney J. Watson Arena for ice hockey; Howard F. Ryan Field for field hockey and lacrosse; Pickard Field for baseball, soccer, softball, and rugby; Lubin Family Squash Center for squash; LeRoy Greason Pool for swimming and diving; and Farley Field House for indoor track and field.

Whittier Field Whittier Field is the outdoor stadium of Bowdoin College. Located in Brunswick, Maine, it is the field for Bowdoin football, Bowdoin outdoor track and field, and the Maine Distance Festival. The Whittier Field Athletic Complex was added to the Nati ...

is located on the east side of campus. Morrell Gymnasium is located at the center of campus. Brunswick Golf Course, Leighton Sailing Center, and Pineland Nordic Skiing Center are all located away from the main campus. Tim Ryan has been the

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

since 2013. The Athletic Department also supports three club sports: rowing,

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

, and

ultimate Frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

Sports sponsored

The Bowdoin College Athletic Department sponsors teams in 14 men's and 16 women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

Baseball

Bowdoin College first fielded a varsity baseball time in 1867. Seven Bowdoin College alumnus have played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. Since 1966, four players have been selected in the

Major League Baseball draft The first-year player draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lo ...

. The Polar Bears have advanced to two NCAA tournaments in 2006 and 2012. The Polar Bears baseball team plays its home games at Pickard Baseball Diamond. Mike Connolly is the current head coach of the Bowdoin Polar Bears baseball.

Women's basketball

The women's basketball team at Bowdoin College has won nine NESCAC championships, including seven in a row from 2001 to 2007. The Polar Bears have historically been competitive in the NCAA tournament.

Field hockey

The field hockey team at Bowdoin College has won 11 conference championships (8 since competing in the NESCAC) and 4 national championships.

Football

Bowdoin College fielded an official varsity football team for the first time in 1899, losing to

Tufts Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning ...

8–4 in its first game. Bowdoin football achieved its first win in the following game in a 42–0 win over the Boston Latin School. The Polar Bears' most prominent current football rivals are in-state NESCAC foes

Bates Bates may refer to: Places * Bates, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Bates, Illinois. an unincorporated community in Sangamon County * Bates, Michigan, a community in Grand Traverse County * Bates, New York, a hamlet in the town of Ell ...

and Colby. Bowdoin has historically shared rivalries with

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, too, but those games are no longer played annually and have lessened in intensity. Since 1965, Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby compete annually in the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Championship to be the best NESCAC school in Maine; Bowdoin has won the CBB championship 20 times, the most of all three schools. Prior to the CBB Championship, the three schools competed with Maine for the State Championship. Bowdoin won the State Championship nine times. The State Championship seasons were: 1935, 1936, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1949, 1952, 1960 and 1963.. The Polar Bears football team plays its home games at

, the team's home field since the program began. B.J. Hammer is the current head coach of the Bowdoin Polar Bears football.

Athletic facilities

Championships

NCAA team championships

Bowdoin has won 5 NCAA team titles. *Men's (1) ** Tennis (1): 2016 *Women's (4) ** Field Hockey (4): 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013

Other national team championships

Below are 3 national team titles that were not bestowed by the NCAA: * Men's (3) **Ice Hockey (3): 1971, 1975, 1976 * Women's (3) **Rugby (3): 2016, 2019, 2021 ( NIRA)

Conference championships

Bowdoin has won 46 conference titles. The men's ice hockey team competed in the ECAC until 1999 when the NESCAC teams formed their own conference tournament. *Men's (16) ** Cross Country (3): 1991, 2001, 2002 ** Ice Hockey (8): 1971, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1986, 1993, 2013, 2014 ** Soccer (2): 2014, 2015 ** Tennis (3): 2008, 2017, 2018 *Women's (30) ** Basketball (9): 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2020 ** Cross Country (2): 1992, 1995 ** Field Hockey (11): 1976, 1977, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2015 ** Ice Hockey (3): 2002, 2004, 2013 ** Track & Field (2): 1992, 1993 ** Volleyball (3): 2011, 2015, 2018, 2021

Rivalries

The college's biggest rival is

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

is another big in-state conference rival. Historically, the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

was a football rival during the Maine State Series era. Currently, Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby have competed for the CBB Championship since the 1960s. The college's rowing club competes in the

Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Chase Regatta The Colby–Bates–Bowdoin Chase Regatta (often abbreviated CBB Chase or the "Chase Regatta") is an annual rowing regatta between the men's and women's heavyweight varsity and club rowing crews of Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin College. The colleges h ...

annually.

Bates

Bates and Bowdoin have been traditional rivals in football since they first met in 1889. , Bowdoin and Bates have competed in 123 football games, making it the 10th longest NCAA Division III rivalry. The Polar Bears lead the Bobcats 67-49-7 all-time.

Colby

The Bowdoin–Colby football rivalry is the third oldest in Division III. Additionally, the Bowdoin men's hockey team has a historic rivalry with Colby. The inaugural ice hockey match between the two schools occurred in 1922.

Notable athletes

Polar Bears in the Olympic Games

Bowdoin College has a long history of athletes who have competed in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

and Paralympic Games. Bowdoin has produced three gold medalists. The list of notable Polar Bear Olympians and Paralympians includes Fred Tootell,

Geoffrey Mason Geoffrey Travers Mason (May 13, 1902 – January 5, 1987) was an American bobsledder who competed in the 1928 Winter Olympics. Responding to a newspaper article in Paris, Mason was invited to join the Olympics. Then, nineteen days after seeing ...

, Bernard Lucas,

Joan Benoit Samuelson Joan Benoit Samuelson (born May 16, 1957) is an American marathon runner who was the first women's Olympic Games marathon champion, winning the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She held the fastest time for an American woma ...

, Jake Adicoff, and Emilie Grand'Pierre.

References

External links

* {{Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association navbox