The Virginia Union Panthers are the athletic teams that represent

Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a private historically black Baptist university in Richmond, Virginia. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. History The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Rich ...

, located in Richmond, Virginia, in

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 ...

Division II intercollegiate sports. The Panthers compete as members of the

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. CIAA institutions mostly consist of historically black coll ...

for all 13 varsity sports. Virginia Union has been a member of the conference since 1912.

Varsity teams

History

Virginia Union plays basketball and volleyball in the Barco-Stevens Hall, built as the

Belgian Building The Belgian Friendship Building or Belgian Pavilion is the former exhibition building for Belgium from the 1939/1940 World's Fair in New York City. It now serves as Barco-Stevens Hall on the campus of Virginia Union University (VUU), in Richmond, ...

for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The building, which has stone reliefs depicting the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

, was one of thirteen facilities designated as "unique" by ''NCAA News'' in 2005. The building was awarded to the university in 1941 and moved to its present location in 1943. The basketball team began using the facility in early 1947.

List of teams

Men's sports * Basketball * Cross Country * Football * Golf * Tennis * Track & Field Women's sports * Basketball * Bowling * Cross Country * Softball * Tennis * Track & Field * Volleyball

Individual sports

Men's basketball

Under the leadership of head coach Dave Robbins since 1978, the Panthers basketball program has been to the Division II "Final Four" seven times (1980, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2006) and have won three NCAA Division II national championship titles (1980, 1992, 2005). The team was the 2006 National runner-up with a record of 30–4. The team has captured the

conference championship 20 times with the latest being 2018. The school plays in an annual exhibition game with the Division I cross-town rival Virginia Commonwealth University. Coach Robbins' program has produced eight NBA players, including

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at L ...

star center Ben Wallace, and former New York Knicks

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to centers. When on offense, they typically play with their ba ...

Charles Oakley Charles Oakley (born December 18, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player. Oakley played for the Chicago Bulls, New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards, and Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association ...

Women's basketball

The women's basketball team won the

NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship The NCAA Division II women's basketball tournament (officially styled as "Championship" instead of "Tournament") is an annual tournament to determine the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II women's college basketball nati ...

in 1983. The VUU women's basketball team were also the Division 2 National runners-up in 2016-2017 losing to Ashland University.

References

External links

* {{Richmond Sports