The Tennessee State Tigers and Lady Tigers are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Tennessee State University (TSU), located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The Tigers athletic program is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and competes in the NCAA Division I, including the

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

. The women's track team is also known as the Tigerbelles. As a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, Tennessee State is one of three

HBCU Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

s competing in Division I that is not a member of an athletic conference made up entirely of historically black institutions (

MEAC The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

and SWAC), the other two being

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

and North Carolina A&T State University 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 ...

. The TSU mascot is Aristocat the Tiger, and the school colors are blue and white. TSU's main rival was historically

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 ...

, an HBCU located in the capital of Tennessee's northern neighbor, but that rivalry has faded since KSU is now in NCAA Division II.

Sports sponsored

A member of the Ohio Valley Conference, Tennessee State University sponsors teams in seven men's and eight women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The only TSU team that competes outside the OVC is the men's tennis team. After the 2021–22 season, the OVC merged its men's tennis league into that of the Horizon League. All OVC men's tennis members, including TSU, became Horizon associates in that sport.

Athletic facilities

''Source:'' Men's Basketball:

Gentry Center Gentry Complex is a multi-purpose facility on the main campus of Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, Tennessee. Opened in 1980 and named for Howard C. Gentry Sr., a long-time professor, coach and athletic director at TSU, the building ho ...

Women's Basketball: Gentry Center Football:

Nissan Stadium Nissan Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, it is primarily used for football and is the home field of the Tennessee Titans of the Natio ...

& Hale Stadium Softball: Tiger Stadium Tennis: TSU Tennis Court Complex Indoor Track & Field: Gentry Center Outdoor Track & Field: Edward S. Temple Track Volleyball: Kean Hall

Highlights

In 1957, coach

John McClendon John B. McLendon Jr. (April 5, 1915 – October 8, 1999) was an American basketball coach who is recognized as the first African American basketball coach at a predominantly white university and the first African American head coach in any professi ...

and three-time All-American Dick Barnett led the then-Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University to become the first historically black college (HBCU) to win a national basketball title, winning the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) championship. The school went on to win the NAIA title again in 1958 and '59. The women's track and field team won the championship of the Amateur Athletic Union national senior outdoor meet for all athletes 13 times in 1955–1960, 1962, 1963, 1965–1967, 1969 and 1978. The team likewise won the AAU national indoor championship 14 times in 1956–1960, 1962, 1965–1969 and 1978–1980. By 2009, approximately 100 TSU football players had been drafted by the National Football League. In 2014,

From the Rough ''From the Rough'' is a 2011 American sports drama film based on the true story of Catana Starks, a former Tennessee State Tigers swim coach, who became the first woman ever to coach a college men’s golf team. With drive, passion, and guts, she ...

was released which is a movie based on a true story about the successes and challenges of the first African-American woman (Dr.

Catana Starks Catana Rhoda Johnson Starks (December 30, 1944 – September 6, 2020) was an American athletics coach. She was the first African-American woman to coach a men's team at the collegiate level, when she coached the Tennessee State Tigers and Lady T ...

) to coach a Division I college men's golf team. Starks helped develop several noteworthy golfers at Tennessee State such as Sean Foley and Robert Dinwiddie. In 2016, the men's basketball team ranked 17th in the nation for increase in home attendance. During the 2015-2016 basketball season, the men's team tied the school record for the most Division I wins with 20. The

Southern Heritage Classic The Southern Heritage Classic presented by FedEx is an annual historically black college football game between the Golden Lions of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) and the Tigers of Tennessee State University. UAPB replaced the Jackso ...

in Memphis, Tennessee is annually one of the largest and most anticipated HBCU football classics in the nation.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Tennessee State Tigers, color=white , list = {{Ohio Valley Conference navbox {{Horizon League navbox {{Tennessee Sports {{Tennessee College Sports Sports in Nashville, Tennessee