The Niagara Purple Eagles are athletics teams that represent

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Appro ...

college sports College athletics encompasses non-professional, collegiate and university-level competitive sports and games. World University Games The first World University Games were held in 1923. There were originally called the ''Union Nationale des ...

. Part of 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 I, the Purple Eagles field 18 varsity level teams. The Purple Eagles are members of the

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Of its current 11 full members, 10 are located in three states of the northeastern United States: Connecticut, New Jersey, and N ...

and

Atlantic Hockey The Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) is an NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. Unlike several other c ...

. Between 1946 and 1958, Niagara was a member of the

Western New York Little Three Conference {{Location map+ , New York , caption = Locations in New York , width = 295 , places = {{Location map~ , New York , label = Canisius College , position = right , mark = Gold pog.svg , marksize = 7 , link = Can ...

. In 2012, the

women's ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hoc ...

program was replaced by women's

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

Teams

Club teams

Teams competing at the club level are: *Men's ice hockey competes in the Northeast Collegiate Hockey League of the ACHA. *Men's rugby competes in the

Upstate Small College Rugby Conference The term upstate may refer to the northerly portions of several U.S. states. On the east coast, upstate generally refers to places away from the Atlantic Ocean. It also can refer to parts of states that have a higher elevation, away from sea level. ...

(West Division) of the

NSCRO National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) formerly the "National Small College Rugby Organization" is a rugby union governing body in the United States. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, NCR was created in 2007 by Chip Auscavitch and Steve Cohen to supp ...

. *Women's rugby competes in the West Region

Upstate New York Collegiate Rugby Conference The term upstate may refer to the northerly portions of several U.S. states. On the east coast, upstate generally refers to places away from the Atlantic Ocean. It also can refer to parts of states that have a higher elevation, away from sea level. ...

of the

. *Men's lacrosse competes in the Empire West D2 of the NCLL. *Men's roller hockey competes in Division IV Eastern Collegiate Roller Hockey Association of the NCRHA.

Former sports

Football

Niagara first played football in 1897 and continued until suspending operations after the 1909 season. The Purple Eagles returned for the 1914 season and kept playing college football until World War II made the 1941 season Niagara's last until 1946. For the third time, the Purple Eagles suspended their team after the 1950 season, only to return in 1967. After 20 seasons of play that had seven winless seasons with six occurring in a span of seven years, the Purple Eagles dropped football for the fourth and final time after the 1987 season. Over the span of 67 seasons, the team went won 182 games, lost 205 games, and had 31 ties. In the 1975 club season they played the Heritage Bowl in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

, losing to Assumption College (27-7). The Eagles had 37 seasons in which they finished with more wins and ties than losses, though the Purple Eagles finished on an 18-game losing streak in over three seasons, their last win occurring in October 1985. The most wins they had in a season was 1902, in which they went 9–3–1, while the most losses they had in a season was 1922, when they finished 1–8–1.

Notable players

* Tom Cahill * Dan DeSantis *

Bob Stefik Robert Mathias Stefik (October 8, 1923 – April 9, 2008) was a professional American football player. Early life Stefik was born Robert Mathias Stefik on October 8, 1923, in Madison, Wisconsin. He moved to Niagara Falls, New York, as a child a ...

Chris Cappanola

Women's ice hockey

Rivalries

Niagara's fiercest rivals include: * St. Bonaventure Bonnies *

Canisius Golden Griffins The Canisius College Golden Griffins are composed of 16 teams representing Canisius College in intercollegiate athletics. These teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, track, lacrosse, soccer, and swimming and diving. Men's spo ...

All-Americans

Calvin Murphy Calvin Jerome Murphy (born May 9, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player who after a prolific collegiate career at Niagara, where he averaged 33.1 points per game over his three years, played in the National Basketball Assoc ...

, 1970 (men's basketball) * Tania Pinelli, 2002 (women's hockey) * Juan Mendez, 2005 (men's basketball) * Allison Rutledge, 2007 (women's hockey) * Paul Zanette, 2011 (men's hockey)

NCAA postseason appearances

* Men's Hockey:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

* Women's volleyball:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

* Men's basketball:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

Women's Tennis Women's tennis is one of the most popular sports for women. It is one of the few sports in which women command fame and popularity that equal those of their male counterparts. Women's Tennis Association is the main organisation which runs femal ...

: 2005, 2003 *

Women's soccer Women's association football, more commonly known simply as women's football or women's soccer, is a team sport of association football when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries and 176 national ...

: 2006 * Women's Hockey:

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

: 1998 * Men's soccer:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championships

*Women's Volleyball: 2011, 2010, 2009 * Men's basketball: 2007, 2005 *Women's Soccer: 2006 *Women's Tennis: 2005, 2003 *Softball: 1998 *Men's Swimming: 1994 *Women’s Swimming: 2022 * Men's soccer:

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season titles

*Women's Volleyball: 2011, 2010 *Women's Tennis: 2009, 2003 *Men's Basketball: 2013, 2005, 2001, 1999

College Hockey America Tournament championships

*Men's Hockey:

College Hockey America regular-season titles

*Men's Hockey: 2007, 2006, 2000

Atlantic Hockey Association regular-season titles

*Men's Hockey: 2013

References

External links

* {{New York Sports