The Kentucky State Thorobreds and Thorobrettes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent

Kentucky State University Kentucky State University (KSU and KYSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Frankfort, Kentucky. Founded in 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons ...

, located in

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...

, in intercollegiate sports at the Division II level of 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 an ...

(NCAA). The Thorobreds and Thorobrettes are members of the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Formed in 1913, it consists mostly of historically black co ...

(SIAC), which they have competed since the 1997–98 academic year. Kentucky State previously competed in the

Great Lakes Valley Conference The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level. Its thirteen member institutions a ...

(GLVC) from 1989–90 to 1993–94.

Varsity teams

Facilities

The Exum Center, the university's athletic and recreational complex, was named after William Exum, the first African-American varsity football player at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. Exum was hired as head of KSU's Physical Education department in 1949, and later made head of the Athletics department. He then became manager of the United States Track and Field teams at the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

and 1976 Olympics. Exum retired from KSU in 1980.

List of teams

Men's sports (8) * 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 * Track & field (indoor and outdoor) * Volleyball Women's sports (6) * Basketball * Cross country * Softball * Track & field (indoor and outdoor) * Volleyball ;Notes:

Men's basketball

From 1970 to 1972, the Thorobreds won three straight NAIA national titles (

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

). As of 2017, they are still only the second team to do so, joining

Tennessee State Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

(

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

, 1958,

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

National championships

Team

Conferences

Classifications

;NCAA: * 1951–1972: NCAA College Division * 1973–present: NCAA Division II ;NAIA: * 1958–1969: NAIA * 1970–1984: NAIA Division I

Conference affiliations

* 1907–08 to 1944–45: Independent * 1945–46 to 1961–62:

Midwest Athletic Association The Midwest Athletic Association was an intercollegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that existed from 1926 to 1970. It was later known as the Midwest Conference from 1962 to 1963 and as the Midwestern ...

* 1962–63 to 1963–64:

Midwest Conference The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was ...

* 1964–65 to 1966–67: Midwestern Conference * 1967–68 to 1972–73: NAIA Independent * 1973–74 to 1988–89: Division II Independent * 1989–90 to 1993–94:

* 1994–95 to 1996–97: Division II Independent * 1997–98 to present:

References

External links

* {{Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference navbox