The Seattle Redhawks are the intercollegiate varsity athletic teams of

Seattle University Seattle University (SeattleU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington. Seattle University is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate pro ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. They compete in the NCAA's Division I as a member institution of the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to most of t ...

(WAC).

History

Between 1950 and 1971, Seattle competed as an NCAA Division I independent, then joined the

West Coast Athletic Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

(now West Coast Conference) in 1971. The Chieftains gained national attention in early 1952 when the basketball team defeated the

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name ''Harlem'' because of ...

. Seattle was led by the O'Brien twins, Eddie and

Johnny Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varia ...

, of South Amboy, New Jersey; Johnny became the first college player to score 1,000 points in a season and both were named

All-Americans The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

. The twins led Seattle to the NIT in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

, and then onto its first NCAA Tournament berth in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugosl ...

. The O'Briens were selected in the

1953 NBA draft The 1953 NBA draft was the seventh annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 24, 1953, before the 1953–54 season. In this draft, nine remaining NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college bas ...

by the Milwaukee Hawks but were also standouts in baseball. Upon graduation, Eddie and Johnny opted for the

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

and played together in the major leagues with the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

from

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

. Eddie (1930–2014) was later the baseball coach and athletic director at SU. Seattle has eight wins (plus two consolation game victories) in eleven NCAA basketball tournament appearances (all from

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

); half of the wins came in

when the Chieftains advanced to the championship game at

Freedom Hall Freedom Hall is a multi-purpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, which is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, previously serving as the home ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, against the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

. Seattle was led by consensus All-American and future NBA Hall of Famer

Elgin Baylor Elgin Gay Baylor ( ; September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 14 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lak ...

of Washington, D.C., who was named most outstanding player of the tournament. In the semifinal on Friday night against tournament favorite

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

, he scored 23 points and grabbed 22 rebounds as Seattle won by 22 points in an upset rout, 73–51. In the final the next night,

John Castellani John Louis Castellani (August 23, 1926 – May 11, 2021) was an American attorney and a former basketball coach. He coached the Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA during the 1959–1960 season, their last before relocating to Los Angeles. Prior to ...

's Chieftains led by three points at the half, but Baylor soon picked up his fourth personal foul, which limited his effectiveness in the second half and

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Un ...

's Wildcats won by a dozen, 84–72. During a period in the 1960s, Seattle led the nation with the number of active players in the NBA. Notable basketball alums include

Eddie Miles Edward Miles, Jr. (born July 5, 1940) is a retired American basketball player. A 6'4" guard born in North Little Rock, Arkansas and a graduate of Scipio A. Jones High School, Miles was nicknamed "The Man with the Golden Arm" because of his shoo ...

, Tom Workman,

Rod Derline Rod Derline (born March 11, 1952) is a former professional basketball guard for the Seattle SuperSonics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Amateur career Derline played high school basketball at Elma High School in Elma, Washington, l ...

, and Clint Richardson, who won an NBA title with the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Ea ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. Tennis player Tom Gorman led SU before leading the USA

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organi ...

teams in the 1970s.

Janet Hopps Janet Hopps Adkisson (born August 4, 1934) is a former professional tennis player from the U.S. Adkisson was ranked in the top 15 female tennis players three times, and was, according to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, "once recognize ...

(tennis) and Pat Lesser (golf) were trailblazers in the advancement of women's sports in the 1950s competing nationally as a part of the men's teams. Seattle native

Ruth Jessen Mary Ruth Jessen (November 12, 1936 – September 21, 2007) was an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1956 and won 11 LPGA Tour victories in all. Amateur career Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Jessen g ...

attended for a year and was a top

LPGA The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of wee ...

tour player in the 1960s. In 1953, Patricia Lesser won the women's individual intercollegiate golf championship (an event conducted by the Division of Girls' and Women's Sports (DGWS) — which later evolved into the current NCAA women's golf championship). In March 1980, due to a recession that crippled the region, the administration contemplated dropping intercollegiate athletics. Two months later, SU voluntarily downgraded its athletic program from NCAA Division I to the small college NAIA, the Chieftains competed at this level for the next 21 years. Under the leadership of university president Stephen Sundborg, SJ, Seattle changed its nickname from Chieftains to Redhawks in January 2000. Seattle rejoined the NCAA in 2001 and competed in Division III for a year, then in Division II from 2002 to 2009. For the 2009–10 academic year, Seattle's varsity teams played full schedules against Division I opponents. Although it was then a Division I

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

, the university had initially hoped to rejoin the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

(where they played before leaving the NCAA in 1980), since all nine current members were private, religiously affiliated institutions (seven are

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and four share Seattle University's

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

affiliation). Seattle also explored membership in the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference (BSC) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I with football competing in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the western United States in the eig ...

, although all of its members played FCS

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 ...

. Seattle once again became eligible for Division I

NCAA Championships 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 and ...

beginning in 2012–13, and is a full Division I-AAA member (no football) in all 20 sports. During the 2010–14 NCAA conference realignment, the

(WAC) saw a large number of their members leave. From 2011 to 2013, twelve schools left the WAC. In June 2011, the WAC invited Seattle to join as a full member beginning July 2012. Seattle accepted soon after for all of the sports it sponsors at the varsity level except rowing, which the WAC does not sponsor and, initially, men's swimming and diving, which the WAC did not sponsor at the time. Men's swimming and diving was added as a WAC-sponsored sport in 2013. The conference dropped football after the 2012 season and in the summer of 2013, only three members from the prior year remained in the conference (Seattle,

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

, and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

). The WAC added six new members in 2013, and when Idaho returned to the Big Sky in 2014 (&

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — d ...

for football), Seattle became the second-longest tenured WAC school after just three seasons in the league. Since joining the conference, the Redhawks have claimed five team titles and three individual titles, and have had four student-athletes named player of the year. Stephanie Verdoia, women's soccer forward, was named two-time WAC Player of the Year, two time Academic All-American and was named an All-American and the Academic All-American of the Year for women's soccer in 2014. Verdoia also received the Senior CLASS Award as the sport's top scholar-athlete nationally and was the named the 2015 Seattle Sports Commission Female Sports Star of the Year. In 2018, Seattle University's board of trustees renamed the Connolly Complex to the Redhawk Center due to Archbishop Thomas Connolly's failure to act on a known abusive priest.

Sports sponsored

Seattle University sponsors teams in nine men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports: The women's rowing team competes as an independent.

WAC Titles

;Baseball :Regular Season (1): 2016 ;Men's Basketball :Regular Season (1): 2022 ;Men's Golf :Regular Season (1): 2017 ;Men's Soccer :Regular Season (3): 2013, 2015, 2019 :Tournament (5): 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 ;Women's Basketball :Regular Season (1): 2013 :Tournament (1): 2018 ;Women's Cross Country :Regular Season (1): 2014 ;Women's Soccer :Regular Season (6): 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020 :Tournament (5): 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019 ;Softball :Regular Season (1): 2019 :Tournament (2): 2019, 2021

Athletic facilities

*Baseball –

Bannerwood Park Bannerwood Park is a baseball park in the northwest United States, located in Bellevue, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle. It is the home field of Seattle University, a member of the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference. The ...

(capacity 300+) *Men's Basketball – Redhawk Center (capacity 999) and

Climate Pledge Arena Climate Pledge Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is located north of Downtown Seattle in the entertainment complex known as Seattle Center, the site of the 1962 World's Fair, for which it was ori ...

*Women's Basketball – Redhawk Center *Men's & Women's Cross Country – ''Several Seattle area sites'' *Men's & Women's Golf – The Golf Club at Newcastle ''& other Seattle area courses'' *Rowing – Seattle Rowing Center *Men's & Women's Soccer – Championship Field (capacity 650+) *Softball – Logan Field (capacity 250) *Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving – Redhawk Center Pool *Men's & Women's Tennis – Seattle University Tennis Courts & Amy Yee Tennis Center (City of Seattle) *Men's & Women's Track & Field – ''No Home Facilities'' *Volleyball – Redhawk Center : Source:

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Seattle Redhawks, color=white , list = {{Western Athletic Conference navbox {{Washington Sports {{Seattle Sports {{Division1washingtoncolleges