The West Texas A&M Buffaloes, also known as the WTAMU Buffaloes or WT Buffaloes, and formerly West Texas State Buffaloes and WTSU Buffaloes, are the athletic teams that represent

West Texas A&M University West Texas A&M University (WTAMU or WT) is a public university in Canyon, Texas. It is the northernmost campus of the Texas A&M University System and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). It was established on Se ...

, located in

Canyon, Texas Canyon is a city in, and the county seat of, Randall County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,836 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Amarillo, Texas, metropolitan statistical area. Canyon is the home of West Texas A&M University and ...

, in

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

intercollegiate sports. The Buffaloes, colloquially known as the Buffs (men) and Lady Buffs (women), compete as members of the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in Tex ...

for all 14 varsity sports. West Texas A&M was a member of the

Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Border Conference, officially known as the Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association, was an NCAA-affiliated college athletic conference founded in 1931 that disbanded following the 1961–62 season. Centered in the southwestern United State ...

from 1941 to 1961. The football team won a conference championship in 1950. The Buffs were members of the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

from 1972 to 1985.

Varsity sports

Men's sports * Baseball * Basketball * Cross Country *

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

* Golf * Soccer * Track & Field Women's sports * Basketball * Cross Country * Golf * Soccer * Softball * Track & Field * Volleyball

National championships

Team

Individual teams

Football

The football team plays its home games at Bain-Schaffer Buffalo Stadium, a newly built, on-campus stadium. Previously, WT played at

Kimbrough Memorial Stadium Happy State Bank Stadium, formerly known as Kimbrough Memorial Stadium, is a stadium in Canyon, Texas. It is owned by Canyon Independent School District and is primarily used for American football. It is the home stadium for Canyon High School ...

. The Buffs play rival

Eastern New Mexico University Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU or Eastern) is a public university with a main campus in Portales, New Mexico, and two associate degree-granting branches, one at Ruidoso and one at Roswell. ENMU is New Mexico's largest regional comprehensi ...

each fall for the Wagon Wheel trophy, and rival

Midwestern State University Midwestern State University (MSU Texas) is a public liberal arts university in Wichita Falls, Texas. In 2020 it had 5,141 undergraduate students. It is the state's only public institution focused on the liberal arts. History Founded in 1922 as ...

for the Highway 287 Challenge Cup.

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...
Champions

1949, 1962

Tangerine (
Citrus Bowl The Citrus Bowl is an annual college football bowl game played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The bowl is operated by Florida Citrus Sports, a non-profit group that also organizes the Cheez-It Bowl and Florida Classic. The gam ...
) Champions

1957

Pasadena Bowl The Pasadena Bowl, known as the Junior Rose Bowl from 1946 to 1966 and again in 1976 and 1977, was a college football bowl game. Between 1946 and 1966 and again in 1976 and 1977, the game pitted the California Junior College football champions aga ...
Champions

1967

Kanza Bowl The Kanza Bowl was an annual American NCAA Division II college football bowl game played between teams from the Lone Star Conference and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association that is played the first Saturday of each December at t ...
Champions

2009, 2011

NCAA DII Playoffs

National Semifinals: 2012

Basketball

The Buff and Lady Buff basketball teams play in the First United Bank Center, a 5,800 seat multi-purpose

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

. It was built in 2002. It is the home of the Buffaloes

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

teams. The traditional rival is

, but newer rivalries with

and The University of Texas of the Permian Basin have emerged in recent years. A strong tradition of basketball exists at West Texas A&M, dating back to the days of

Maurice Cheeks Maurice Edward Cheeks (born September 8, 1956) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who serves as assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has also served as head coach of t ...

and even as far back as the 1930s and 1940s. The 1954-55 season saw the Buffs make the NCAA tournament, though they would lose to eventual national champion San Francisco University. In 2018-2019, WT became the first school in NCAA history to have both the men's and women's teams host a regional tournament. From WTAMU Record Book

Men's Basketball Postseason

Women's Basketball Postseason

Volleyball

The Lady Buff volleyball team is a four-time

National Champion, winning the title in 1990, 1991, 1997, and most recently in 2022. The Lady Buffs holding one of the best home winning records in any level of competitive volleyball, which currently sits at 523-83 (495-49 at the D2 level). The team plays its home matches at Britkare Court at the WTAMU Fieldhouse aka “The Box.”

Cross Country

The Buffaloes and the Lady Buffs are one of the few Division II institutions that has an on campus cross country course, known as "The Range." The Buffaloes have won the Missouri Valley Conference Championship in 1977, and 1979, and the Lone Star Conference Championship in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. The men have had individual champions in the MVC in 1977 (Joseph Kemei), 1978 (Johnson Bett), 1979 (Johnson Bett), and 1985 (Carlos Ybarra) and in the LSC in 2013 (Dylan Doss), 2015 (Geoffrey Kipchumba), 2016 (Geoffrey Kipchumba), and 2017 (Owen Hind). The men have qualified for the national championships every year since 2013, and had a program best 11th place finish in 2014. The Buffaloes have had 3 NCAA DII All-Americans, Geoffrey Kipchumba(2015,2016), Owen Hind (2017), and Briggs Wittlake (2018). Ezekiel Kipchichir won the 2019 South Central Region meet. The Lady Buffs have won the Lone Star Conference Championship in 2012 and 2013. The women have had individual champions in 2012 and 2014.

Indoor/ Outdoor Track

West Texas A&M Women's Outdoor Track & Field won the 2017 and 2022 National Championships defeating Grand Valley State each time in three day events. The Women's Indoor Track & Field team won the 2018 National Championship.

Baseball

Softball

The West Texas A&M Lady Buffs softball team Won the National Championship in 2014 defeating Valdosta State. in 2021, the Lady Buffs won their second title, defeating Biola University 2 games to 1.

Notable alumni

Joe Fortenberry Joe Cephis Fortenberry (April 1, 1911 – June 3, 1993) was an American basketball player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was a captain of the American basketball team, which won the gold medal in the first Olympics to include basket ...

— winner of the first tournament of

Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics Basketball at the 1936 Summer Olympics was the first appearance of the sport of basketball as an official Olympic medal event. The tournament was played between 7 August and 14 August 1936 in Berlin, Germany. 23 nations entered the competitio ...

- Hall of Fame

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

basketball player and coach *

Mercury Morris Eugene Edward "Mercury" Morris (born January 5, 1947) is a former American football running back and kick returner. He played for seven years, primarily for the Miami Dolphins, in the American Football League (AFL) as a rookie in 1969, then ...

- former NFL running back for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

* David Tameilau — plays rugby for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team represents the United States in men's international rugby union. Nicknamed the Eagles, it is controlled by USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United Stat ...

Duane Thomas Duane Julius Thomas (born June 21, 1947) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. He played college football at West Texas State University. Early yea ...

- former NFL running back for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

In addition to the above, the football program produced several alumni who went on to notable careers in

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

: *

Tully Blanchard Tully Arthur Blanchard (born January 22, 1954) is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and manager. He is best known for his appearances with Jim Crockett Promotions and the World Wrestling Federation in the mid-to-late 1980s as a member of ...

– member of the

WWE Hall of Fame The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame which honors professional wrestlers and professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Originally known as the "WWF Hall of Fame", it was created in 1993 when André the Giant was posthumously ind ...

as part of the

Four Horsemen The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand tha ...

stable *

Bobby Duncum Sr. Bobby Edward Duncum (born August 14, 1944) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances for the World Wide Wrestling Federation, National Wrestling Alliance and American Wrestling Association from the late-1 ...

* Manny Fernandez *

Dory Funk Jr. Dorrance Earnest Funk (born February 3, 1941), known professionally as Dory Funk Jr., is an American retired professional wrestler and wrestling trainer. The son of Dory Funk (Dorrance Wilhelm Funk) and brother of Terry Funk, he was the promoter ...

– member of the WWE Hall of Fame *

Terry Funk Terrence Funk (born June 30, 1944) is an American retired professional wrestler, rapper, disc jockey and actor. Funk is known for the longevity of his career – which spanned more than 50 years and included multiple short-lived retirements – a ...

– brother of Dory Jr. and also a member of the WWE Hall of Fame; also a pioneer of the

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

style * Frank Goodish, better known as

Bruiser Brody Frank Donald Goodish (June 18, 1946 – July 17, 1988) was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the ring name Bruiser Brody. He also worked as King Kong Brody, The Masked Marauder, and Red River Jack. Over the yea ...

– one of the industry's most famous brawlers *

Stan Hansen John Stanley Hansen II (born August 29, 1949) is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. Hansen is known for his Glossary of professional wrestling terms#S, stiff wrestling style, which he attributes to his poor eyesigh ...

– member of the WWE Hall of Fame * Virgil Runnels, better known as

Dusty Rhodes Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...

– member of the WWE Hall of Fame (also played baseball for the then-West Texas State) * Merced Solis, better known as

Tito Santana Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953), better known by the ring name Tito Santana, is a retired American professional wrestler and middle school teacher. Santana has stayed a babyface his entire career and he is best known for his appearances with t ...

– member of the WWE Hall of Fame

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:West Texas AandM Buffaloes