The Maine Black Bears are the athletic teams that represent the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universities, flagshi ...

. A member of the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research u ...

, the University of Maine sponsors teams in eight men's and nine women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The men's and women'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 ...

teams are members of

Hockey East The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...

, and the

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 ...

team is an associate member of the

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...

Teams

Ice hockey

The men's

program was introduced in 1977. The team has been successful and have won the

title five times, appeared in eleven

Frozen Four 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 ...

s, and won 2

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

. The Black Bears compete in the Hockey East conference, which includes teams such as

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 ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

Northeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

, and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. The program has produced many professional ice hockey players, such as

Paul Kariya Paul Tetsuhiko Kariya (born October 16, 1974) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger who played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Known as a skilled and fast-skating offensive player, he played in the NHL for the Might ...

Eric Weinrich Eric John Weinrich (born December 19, 1966) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the New Jersey Devils, Hartford Whalers, Chicago Blackhawks, Montreal Canadiens, B ...

Keith Carney Keith Edward Carney (born February 3, 1970) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman. He last played for the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 2007–08 season. Playing career Keith Carney was drafted 76t ...

Garth Snow Garth E. Snow (born July 28, 1969) is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender and former general manager, president and alternate governor of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). Drafted by the Quebec Nordiq ...

Mike Dunham Michael Francis Dunham (born June 1, 1972) is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender. Dunham is the Boston Bruins goalie development coach, and the former head goaltending coach for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey Leag ...

Dustin Penner Dustin Penner (born September 28, 1982) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey forward who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings and Washington Capitals. Undrafted by any NHL te ...

, and

Jimmy Howard James Russell Howard III (Jimmy Howard) is an American former professional ice hockey goaltender and currently a Detroit Red Wings studio analyst for Bally Sports Detroit. He spent his entire National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Detroit ...

. The team is best known for its 1992–93 season, in which the team only lost one game, finishing with a record of 42–1–2. The team is noted for its head coach

Shawn Walsh William Shawn Walsh (June 21, 1955 – September 26, 2001) was the head ice hockey coach for the University of Maine Black Bears. Career Walsh was a third-string goalie for Bowling Green State University. As a sophomore, he decided to concentrate ...

, who coached the team for seventeen seasons. Walsh is credited with turning the team into such a successful program, as well as turning the

Alfond Arena Alfond Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Orono, Maine, United States. The arena opened in 1977. It is home to the University of Maine Black Bears ice hockey teams. It is recognizable for its distinctive hyperbolic paraboloid architecture. The m ...

into one of the most intimidating arenas in college hockey. Walsh died of

renal cell carcinoma Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a kidney cancer that originates in the lining of the proximal convoluted tubule, a part of the very small tubes in the kidney that transport primary urine. RCC is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults, resp ...

on September 26, 2001.

Baseball

The

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

program has made several trips to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is an annual baseball tournament held in June in Omaha, Nebraska. The MCWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divisi ...

and has produced numerous major- league baseball players. The program has also made 16 NCAA tournament appearances, most recently in 2011 when they defeated FIU, 4-1, in the NCAA regionals. The program has won the AEC Tournament five times, in 1993, 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2011. The program also won the conference in 1990 and 1991, before the America East sponsored a baseball tournament.

Basketball

The

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, as well as all other sports teams, participate in the

. Former

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

head baseball coach

Jack Leggett Jack Leggett (born March 5, 1954) is a retired American head college baseball coach. He was recently the head coach of the Clemson Tigers baseball, Clemson Tigers from 1994 to 2015. Under Leggett, the Tigers reached the College World Series six ...

also attended the university, as well as

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 ...

head coach

Rick Carlisle Richard Preston Carlisle ( ; born October 27, 1959) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has previously served as head coach of the Detro ...

(although Carlisle transferred to

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and finished his college career there). Other notables include

Rufus Harris Rufus D. Harris is a retired American professional basketball player. He was the America East Conference co-Player of the Year as a senior in 1979–80 while playing for the University of Maine. After graduating, Harris was selected in the 198 ...

, Kevin Reed, Matt Rossignol, Jim Boylen, Andy Bedard, and several former Maine high school stars including Bangor's Jon McAllian and Edward Little's Troy Barnies. A prominent current player is

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

-native Gerald Mclemore. The women's and men's basketball teams play at the

Cross Insurance Center The Cross Insurance Center is a 5,800-seat multi-purpose arena in Bangor, Maine, United States. The arena holds up to 8,500 people for concerts, and features an attached 2,000-person convention center. It was built at an estimated cost of $65&nbs ...

in Bangor starting with the 2013-14 season. The men's team has held a total of eight games at Memorial Gym since 2003–04. The team has never played in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

Cindy Blodgett Cindy Lee Blodgett (born December 23, 1975) is a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She was also the head coach at University of Maine from 2007 to 2011. Blodgett attended Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine, where she was ...

played basketball at Maine before playing in the WNBA. She went on to serve as an assistant coach at

and

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

. The men's basketball team in recent years has made progress as in the 2009–10 season the team finished the season in second place in the America East conference with a 19–11 overall record with recording one of its biggest wins in recent years with a 52–51 win over

of the Atlantic Coast Conference and in the 2010–11 season defeating the University of Massachusetts, 68-56, and Penn State, 74-64. On May 23, 2007, Blodgett was named the head coach of the women's team. She was released in March 2011. The Black Bears'

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

with the

New Hampshire Wildcats The New Hampshire Wildcats, or 'Cats, are the American intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of New Hampshire (UNH), located in Durham. The wildcat is the school's official mascot, the colors are UNH Blue and white. The Uni ...

is the longest continuous basketball rivalry between any two non-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

schools: the men's teams have played each other 109 seasons in a row, from 1904–1905 to the present season (2013–2014). The program has developed 2 NBA players those being former

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

Jeff Cross and former

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

and current head coach of the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

Football

Maine's

team competes in the

. Prior to the 2007 season, the NCAA football league was sponsored by the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

. The football program has produced many professional football players and coaches, such as

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

Mike Flynn, offensive lineman Justin Strzelczyk, quarterback Mike Buck, wide receiver/coach

Phil McGeoghan Philip P. McGeoghan (born July 8, 1979) is an American football coach who was most recently the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach for the Colorado Buffaloes. He is the former wide receivers coach of the Los Angeles Chargers of the N ...

, Pro Bowl linebacker

Lofa Tatupu Mosiula Mea'alofa "Lofa" Tatupu (born November 15, 1982) is a former American football linebacker who played six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was an assistant linebackers coach with the Seattle Seahawks. He played college ...

, who transferred to

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

after his freshman year, linebacker Stephen Cooper, Pro Bowl fullback/special teams

Montell Owens Montell Ernest Owens (born May 4, 1984) is a former American football fullback. He played college football at Maine. Owens was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2006. He has also played for the Detroit Lions and Ch ...

, defensive back Daren Stone, tight end

Matthew Mulligan Matthew Ben Mulligan (born January 18, 1985) is a former American football tight end. He played college football at The University of Maine. Mulligan was signed by the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He has also been a member ...

, defensive lineman

Mike DeVito Michael Ralph DeVito (born June 10, 1984) is a former American football defensive end. He played for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL) from 2007 to 2012, and then the Kansas City Chiefs from 2013 to 2015. He played colleg ...

, linebacker

Jovan Belcher Jovan Henry Allen Belcher (July 24, 1987 – December 1, 2012) was an American football linebacker who played his entire career with the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He grew up in West Babylon, New York and was a sta ...

, Pro Bowl fullback/defensive lineman Patrick Ricard and defensive back

Brandon McGowan Brandon McGowan (born September 16, 1983) is a former American football safety. He was signed by the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2005. He played college football at Maine. Early years McGowan attended Lincoln High School in Jers ...

. Current Iowa coach, and 2002 AP National Coach of the Year

Kirk Ferentz Kirk James Ferentz (born August 1, 1955) is an American football coach. He is the current head football coach at the University of Iowa, a position he has held since the 1999 season. From 1990 to 1992, Ferentz was the head football coach at the ...

began his head coaching career at Maine. The team also received brief publicity when the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

selected wide receiver Kevin McMahan as the last player in the

2006 NFL Draft The 2006 National Football League Draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with ad ...

, affectionately known as

Mr. Irrelevant Mr. Irrelevant is the nickname given to the last pick of the annual National Football League Draft. Although NFL drafts date back to 1936, the first person to be called Mr. Irrelevant was Kelvin Kirk of the 1976 NFL Draft. History "Mr. Irrelev ...

. The University of Maine is known currently to have the most active players on NFL rosters at the Division I FCS level. The team has played several Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) opponents. The team has played teams in recent years such as Iowa, Rutgers, Hawaii, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Connecticut, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh in 2011. In 2004, The Maine Black Bears defeated

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

, 9-7. This marked the first time that Maine defeated a

Division I FBS The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). A ...

opponent. The largest crowd that the Black Bears have ever played in front of was 77,469 fans at Memorial Stadium, when Maine fell, 25–7, to the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

in Lincoln. The team is scheduled to play BCS games at the ACC's Boston College in 2012 and the Big Ten's Northwestern in 2013. UM also defeated longtime rival and FBS opponent Massachusetts, 24-14, in 2013. Despite success over the past decade, including an NCAA tournament berth in 2011, Maine had never won a CAA regular season title. That drought ended on November 16, 2013 as Maine defeated the University of Rhode Island 41-0 at home to win their first CAA title.

Radio and television

Currently the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

for all football and hockey games, as well as their respective coaches shows are carried on The Voice of Maine News/Talk Network (

WVOM-FM WVOM-FM (103.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Howland, Maine and serving Central and Down East Maine, including Bangor. It airs a talk radio format and is owned by Maine-based Blueberry Broadcasting which is headed by Louis ...

and

WVQM WVQM (101.3 FM) is a commercial radio station in Augusta, Maine. It simulcasts a talk radio format with 103.9 WVOM-FM in Bangor. The stations are owned by Blueberry Broadcasting. The radio studios and offices are on Target Industrial Circl ...

, the current flagship for all men's and women's basketball games as well as baseball and select softball games is

WGUY WGUY (1230 AM) is a radio station licensed to Veazie, Maine, United States. It is owned by Port Broadcasting, LLC. The station signed on in November 2011 as a simulcast of co-owned WNZS. In May 2012 WGUY broke away from the WNZS simulcast, a ...

. All games are carried on GoBlackBears.com. TV coverage includes Bangor's

WVII-TV WVII-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Bangor, Maine, United States, affiliated with ABC and Fox. The station is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting, and has studios on Target Industrial Circle in West Bangor; its transmitter is located on ...

, whose games are simulcasted on Fox College Sports.

NESN New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports network, regional sports cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which ow ...

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...

, and

NBCSN NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...

Comcast SportsNet New England also carry select games as part of a larger contract with the conferences the sports are in. During the school year the ''Black Bear Insider'' is carried Sunday mornings on WVII at noon, and re-broadcast on Fox College Sports as well. In 2006 the University sold the multi-media advertising and broadcast rights to all athletic events to

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

based Learfield Sports. Starting with the fall 2007 sports season, WVOM and

split radio coverage, WGUY carrying men's and women's basketball and select baseball and softball games and WVOM carrying football and hockey broadcasts. After the 2008 fall sports season, WAEI-FM became the flagship for all Maine sports; the rights were transferred again to WKSQ in 2011 (though WAEI's AM sister station remained a co-flagship), before coming back full circle locally to WVOM (Blueberry) and WGUY (WaterFront) in 2013. Many Black Bear games can also be heard on

WMEB-FM WMEB-FM is a non-commercial radio station owned and operated by the University of Maine, broadcasting on 91.9 FM from its campus in Orono and a transmitter located in Old Town. The station is run by university students and programs an alternati ...

, a student-run, commercial-free radio station located on campus.

Championships

Men's ice hockey

Men's Cross Country – 1915 (IC4A)

Baseball

Softball
America East – 1994, 2004 Football
Yankee Conference – 1949, 1951, 1952, 1961, 1965, 1974, 1982,1989, 2000, 2009 Atlantic 10 – 2001, 2002
Colonial Athletic Association - 2013, 2018 Riflery
Yankee Conference – 1959, 1960, 1961, 1965, 1966The Maine Book: University of Maine Athletics 1881-2007 online at: http://umaine.edu/mclub/files/2011/07/27-Riflery.pdf Women's Basketball
America East – 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2018, 2019 Men's Cross Country
America East – 2004
Yankee Conference – 1950, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1963
New England – 1913, 1914, 1921, 1922, 1927, 1928, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959 Men's Indoor Track
Yankee Conference – 1964 Men's Outdoor Track
America East – 1995
Yankee Conference – 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965
New England – 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 Women's Outdoor Track
New England – 2003

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Maine Black Bears, color=white , list = {{America East Conference navbox {{Colonial Athletic Association navbox {{Hockey East {{Maine Sports