The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds were the athletic teams representing Long Island University's campus in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in intercollegiate athletics, including men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, and track; women's-only bowling, lacrosse, softball, tennis, and volleyball; and men's-only baseball. The Blackbirds competed in

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

and were members of the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

. A member of the

, LIU Brooklyn sponsored teams in six men's and thirteen women's NCAA sanctioned sports: The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds merged with the Division II LIU Post Pioneers after the 2018–19 academic year. The new program now competes as the

LIU Sharks The LIU Sharks are the athletics teams representing Long Island University's (LIU) campuses in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York. The Sharks compete in NCAA Division I athletics and are members of the Northeast Conference. The LIU Sharks are the ...

with a blue and gold color scheme.

Origin of "Blackbirds" nickname

Following Long Island University's founding in 1927, its sports teams wore blue uniforms and became known as the Blue Devils. After the school's uniforms were changed to black in 1935, a ''Brooklyn Eagle'' reporter from the Midwest saw the new look as the basketball team dribbled up and down the court and stated that the team looked like the blackbirds from back home; the comment struck home, and a new nickname was born.

Teams

Soccer

In soccer,

Dov Markus Dov Markus (born January 31, 1946) is an Israeli-American former soccer player. At Long Island University he was the first recipient of the Hermann Trophy, as the outstanding collegiate soccer player of the year, and was a two-time All American. I ...

played on the Blackbirds from 1965 to 1967. In 1965 as a sophomore, Markus scored 35 goals in 14 games for 70 points, at the time both the most-ever goals and the most-ever points in an

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 ...

season."Faces in the Crowd"
/ref> Over his three-year career, Markus scored 79 goals, setting a new NCAA career record, in 49 games. Markus won the 1967 Hermann Trophy as the outstanding collegiate soccer player of the year. He was the first recipient of the Hermann Trophy. In 2000, LIU inducted Markus into its Athletic Hall of Fame.LIU Hall of Fame
/ref>

Notable players

* Shmuel Avishar (born 1947), Israeli basketball player * Ivan Leshinsky (born 1947), American-Israeli basketball player *

(born 1946), Israeli-American soccer player

References

External links

* — current LIU program
brooklyn.liuathletics.com
— archived site specific to LIU Brooklyn {{NewYork-sport-team-stub