The South Florida Bulls rifle team represented the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

in the sport of riflery. The program consisted of a men's and women's co-ed team which competed in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

History

The USF rifle team first competed in the NCAA Championship in the 1985–86 season. Since so few schools sponsor rifle, all teams that sponsor it are eligible for the championship. The Bulls finished tied for 5th out of the 7 teams that competed in the 1986 NCAA Championship. They returned to the event in

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

and

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, where they finished in third place both times. They also won the NRA Smallbore Intercollegiate Sectionals in 1987. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

the team had their best finish ever, taking second place in the competition. The program never competed as a team again after the 1989 championship, with the athletic department citing budget problems as the reason.

Athletes

USF Athletic Hall of Fame The University of South Florida Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 2009 to recognize and perpetuate the memory of student athletes, teams, coaches and administrators who have made demonstrably outstanding and significant contributions to the ...

inductee Michelle Scarborough won two individual national titles with the Bulls rifle team, winning championships in the 1989 air rifle event and the 1990 smallbore event (smallbore is considered the more prestigious of the two events in college

riflery Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms ( firearms and airguns, in forms suc ...

). Rifle is the only NCAA sponsored sport where men and women directly compete against each other, meaning that Scarborough was not only the best woman at these events, but shot better than all the men as well. Scarborough's 1989 championship in air rifle was the highest score for both men and women ever recorded in the event, with an unprecedented 399 out of a possible 400 points. Her record stood until the event format changed from 40 shots to 60 shots in 2005. Three Bulls shooters 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 var ...

. Dorothee Deuring represented

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, Kristen Peterson represented the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, and

Peter Durben Peter Durben is an American sport shooter. He competed in the Men's 50 meter Free Rifle Prone event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. He is also the brother of fellow Olympic rifle shooter Daniel Durben. Durben attended the University o ...

represented the

. Other athletes competed internationally as well. Most notably, Michelle Scarborough won three team gold and an individual bronze medal at the

1991 Pan American Games The 1991 Pan American Games were held in Havana, Cuba from August 2 to August 18, 1991. There were 4,519 athletes from 39 countries of the Pan American Sports Organization, PASO community, with events in 33 different sports. The main stadium was ...

and Matthew Suggs won a team gold and individual silver medal at the 1987 ISSF 10 meter air rifle world championship.

References

{{University of South Florida

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

Defunct college rifle teams in the United States 1985 establishments in Florida 1990 disestablishments in Florida Sports clubs established in 1985 Sports clubs disestablished in 1990

History

Athletes

See also

References