The West Virginia State Yellow Jackets (also WVSU) are the athletic teams that represent

West Virginia State University West Virginia State University (WVSU) is a public historically black, land-grant university in Institute, West Virginia. Founded in 1891 as the West Virginia Colored Institute, it is one of the original 19 land-grant colleges and universities ...

, located in

Institute, West Virginia Institute is an unincorporated community on the Kanawha River in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States. Interstate 64 and West Virginia Route 25 pass by the community, which has grown to intermingle with nearby Dunbar. As of 2018, the commu ...

, in

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

intercollegiate sports. The Yellow Jackets compete as members of the

Mountain East Conference The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 12 schools, mo ...

for all ten varsity sports. West Virginia State was a founding member of the conference following the demise of the

West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) was a collegiate athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early years, and expanded into Pe ...

in 2013. WVSU's main rival is the

University of Charleston The University of Charleston (UC) is a private non-profit university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. The university also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley. History The school was founded in 1888 as ...

(WV).

Varsity teams

History

During the segregation era, the school competed in athletics as "West Virginia" and played other segregated schools as a member of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association. After desegregation, the school withdrew from the CIAA (today's

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 ...

) and competed as "West Virginia State" to avoid confusion with

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

. The school then moved to the formerly all-white

, which competed in the

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 ...

's Division II. After the dissolution of the WVIAC, WVSU joined the new

in 2013, which is part of Division II. During the segregation era, black high schools were barred from competition in the

West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC, but colloquially referred to as SSAC) is the main governing body of high school sports, cheerleading, and marching bands in West Virginia, United States. For sports other than basket ...

, and State therefore sponsored an unofficial "state colored championship" from 1932 to 1959.

List of teams

Men's sports * Baseball * Basketball * Cross Country *

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 ...

* Golf * Indoor Track * Outdoor Track * Tennis Women's sports * Acrobatics & Tumbling * Basketball * Cross Country * Indoor Track * Outdoor Track * Soccer * Softball * Tennis * Volleyball

Individual sports

Football

The football team was ranked in the NCAA's Division II Football Poll in 2008. They played in the Chicago Football Classic, which is for HBCU colleges and universities, at

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) since ...

in 2008. They defeated the Marauders of

Central State University Central State University (CSU) is a public, historically black land-grant university in Wilberforce, Ohio. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Established by the state legislature in 1887 as a two-year program for te ...

. The Yellow Jackets football team has also played in the Palmetto Capital City Classic against

Benedict College Benedict College is a private historically black college in Columbia, South Carolina. Founded in 1870 by northern Baptists, it was originally a teachers' college. It has since expanded to offer majors in many disciplines across the liberal arts ...

and the Dayton Classic against Central State. In December 2012, Jon Anderson was named the 13th head football coach in Yellow Jackets history. Anderson came to WVSU after serving on the coaching staff of NAIA football powerhouse the University of Sioux Falls (USF). During Anderson's time on the coaching staff at USF, the school won three NAIA national championships.

Accolades

Other accolades of the Yellow Jackets athletic teams include the men's basketball team ranking #24 in the U.S. on the NCAA's Division II preseason top 25 bulletin for 2009–10, the men's baseball team receiving the WVIAC Sportsmanship Award for 2008–09, the women's cheerleading squad taking third place for the WVIAC Presidents' Cup in 2007–08, the women's golf team finishing sixth place at the WVIAC Women's Golf Championship in 2009, and the 2009 WVIAC Coach Poll ranking the WVSU women's volleyball team at number 2 for the start of the 2009 season.

Varsity teams

History

List of teams

Individual sports

Football

Accolades

Notable Basketball Players

Notes

References

External links