The Penn Quakers are the athletic teams of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. The school sponsors 33 varsity sports. The school has won three

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 ...

national championships in men's fencing and one in women's fencing.

School colors

There are several legends relating how "The Red and Blue" came to be used by the University of Pennsylvania. Whether they are fact or fiction remains unknown. # Harvard and Yale. In the early days of the university there was a race among the students of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, and the

. The Harvard team wore their famous

crimson Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colo ...

; Yale teams wore their traditional blue. When the Penn participants were asked which colors would represent their team, they replied that they would be wearing the colors of the two teams they would soon beat. The Penn athletes won the race, and Penn teams used those colors from then on. # George Washington's Clothing. It is rumored that

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

visited the university during one of his terms as

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

. He is supposed to have arrived wearing a blue jacket and

breeches Breeches ( ) are an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each human leg, leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles. Formerly a standard item of Weste ...

with a red

waistcoat A waistcoat ( UK and Commonwealth, or ; colloquially called a weskit), or vest ( US and Canada), is a sleeveless upper-body garment. It is usually worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear. I ...

. The next day, the students decked the university in these colors and donned red and blue themselves to honor the president. Afterward, it was decided to use these colors by the university. # Penn's and Franklin's Coats of Arms. A more probable story is the one that follows. When the university was creating a seal and coat of arms it decided to use elements from both

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

's and

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

's coats-of-arms—Franklin had helped to found the university, and Penn had founded the

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

. Franklin's coat of arms contained the color red and Penn's featured a blue

chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

. As University Archivist Francis James Dallett pointed out in 1983: "Eighteenth-century American academic institutions simply did not have colors." This leaves one inclined to relegate the above explanations to the realm of local myth. A resolution adopted by the university trustees on May 17, 1910, states: "The colors shall be red and blue,...The colors f the University of Pennsylvaniashall conform to the present standards used by the United States Government in its flags." Thus it is possible to determine when Penn adopted the colors red and blue, at least officially.

Men's varsity sports

Baseball

Mark DeRosa Mark Thomas DeRosa (born February 26, 1975) is an American former professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1998 to 2013. He played for the Atlanta Braves (1998–2004), Texas Rangers (2005–2006), Chicago Cubs ...

played varsity baseball for the Penn Quakers from 1994 to 1996.

Men's basketball

Men's crew

Crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involve ...

at Penn dates back to at least 1854 with the founding of the

University Barge Club University Barge Club of Philadelphia (also known as UBC) is an amateur rowing club located at #7 in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Hist ...

. The university currently hosts both heavyweight and lightweight men's teams, which compete as part of the

Eastern Sprints The Eastern Sprints is the annual rowing championship for the men's Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC). (Since 1974, the "Women's Eastern Sprints" has been held as the annual championship for the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Co ...

League.

Ellis Ward Ellis F. Ward (September 13, 1846 – August 25, 1922) was an American rower and coach best known for his time as the coach of the University of Pennsylvania rowing team. Ward was a member of one of the most famous families, the Ward Brothers, ...

was Penn's first intercollegiate crew coach from 1879 through 1912. During course of Ward's coaching career at Penn his "... Red and Blue crews won 65 races, in about 150 starts." Importantly, Ward coached Penn's 8 oared boat to the finals of the

Grand Challenge Cup The Grand Challenge Cup is a rowing competition for men's eights. It is the oldest and best-known event at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing cl ...

(the oldest and most prized trophy) at the

Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It differs from the thre ...

(but in that final race was defeated by the champion

Leander Club Leander Club, founded in 1818, is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, and the oldest non-academic club. It is based in Remenham in Berkshire, England and adjoins Henley-on-Thames. Only three other surviving clubs were founded prior to ...

Penn Rowing has produced a long list of famous coaches and Olympians. Members of Penn crew team, rowers Sidney Jellinek, Eddie Mitchell, and coxswain, John G. Kennedy won the bronze medal for the United States at 1924 Olympics. Joseph William Burk (Penn Class of 1935), captain of Penn Crew team and winner of the Henley Diamond Sculls twice, was named recipient of the

James E. Sullivan Award The AAU James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), is awarded annually in April to "the most outstanding amateur athlete in the United States". Representatives from the AAU created the AAU Sullivan Award with the int ...

for nation's best amateur athlete. The outbreak of

World War Two World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

canceled the 1940 Olympics for which he was favored to win the Gold Medal. Other Olympic athletes and or coaches of such athletes include

John B. Kelly Jr. John Brenden "Jack" Kelly Jr. (May 24, 1927 – March 2, 1985), also known as Kell Kelly, was an American athlete, an accomplished rower, a four-time Olympian, and an Olympic medal winner. He was the son of triple Olympic gold medal winner Jac ...

Joe Burk Joseph William Burk (January 19, 1914 – January 13, 2008) was an American oarsman and coach. Raised in Delanco Township, New Jersey, he graduated from Moorestown High School in 1930. At the University of Pennsylvania, Burk rowed in ...

, Rusty Callow, Harry Parker and Ted Nash. In 1955, the Penn men's heavyweight crew became one of only four American university crews to win the

at the

. The Penn teams presently row out of

College Boat Club College Boat Club of the University of Pennsylvania is the rowing program for University of Pennsylvania Rowing, located in the Madeira Shell House at #11 Boathouse Row on the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its membership co ...

, No.11

Boathouse Row Boathouse Row is a historic site located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just north of the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It consists of a row of 15 boathouses housing social and ro ...

Men's fencing

Football

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 has competed since 1876. It has won eighteen

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 ...

when the school competed in what is now known as the FBS. Since the formation of the Ivy League in 1956, Penn has won 17 Ivy League Football Championships.(1959, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015). Penn has been outright Ivy Football Champion 13 times and been undefeated 8 times. Eighteen former players have been inducted into the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

. In addition to the varsity squad, the Penn Quakers are a charter member of the Collegiate

Sprint Football Sprint football, formerly called lightweight football, is a varsity sport played by United States colleges and universities, under standard American football rules. As of the 2022 season, the sport is governed by the Collegiate Sprint Football ...

League, having played the sport since 1934.

Men's lacrosse

Men's soccer

Before the NCAA began its tournament in 1959, the annual national champion was declared by the Intercollegiate Association Football League (IAFL) — from 1911 to 1926 — and then the

Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association The NCAA held its first men's National Collegiate Soccer Championship in 1959, with eight teams selected for the tournament. Before 1959, national champions were selected by a committee of the Intercollegiate Soccer Football Association (ISFA) ba ...

(ISFA), from 1927 to 1958. From 1911 to 1958, Penn won ten national championships.

Men's squash

The University of Pennsylvania features one of the fastest rising men's squash programs in the nation, reaching new heights in 2020 by finishing as national runners up. The feat marked the first such occasion in program history.

Men's swimming

The Penn men's

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

team was founded in 1894. They have won the

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 ...

championships five times: in 1940; 1964–65; 1967–68; 1969–70; and 1970–71. Penn's swim team practices and competes at Sheerr Pool in the Pottruck fitness facility.

Wrestling

Penn Quaker Wrestling dates back to 1905, where the first intercollegiate wrestling championship was held in Weightman Hall Gym located on University of Penn campus. Princeton, Yale and Columbia joined Penn in founding the

Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) is an NCAA Division I collegiate wrestling conference. It held its first championship tournament in 1905, making it the oldest wrestling conference in the NCAA; the charter members were Colu ...

(EIWA), which the team currently competes in. Coached by Hall of Fame coach and Penn alumnus Roger Reina C'84. The Penn Quaker Wrestling team currently competes in the historic

Palestra The Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball, is a historic arena and the home gym of the Penn Quakers men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball teams, wrestling team, and Philadelphia Big 5 basketball. Located at 235 South ...

Arena.

Women's varsity sports

Women's basketball

Penn has won the

title in 2001, 2004, 2014, 2016, and 2017.

Women's crew

Women's fencing

Women's lacrosse

Championships

NCAA team championships

Penn has 4 NCAA team national championships. *Men's (3) **

Fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

(3): 1953, 1969, 1981 *Women's (1) **

(1): 1986 *See also: ** Ivy League NCAA team championships **

List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships Listed below are the colleges or universities with the most NCAA Division I-sanctioned team championships, individual championships, and combined team and individual championships, as documented by information published on official NCAA websites. ...

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Penn Quakers, color=white , list = {{Ivy League navbox {{Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association navbox {{Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges {{Big 5 {{Philadelphia Sports {{Pennsylvania Sports Philadelphia Big 5