The North Florida Ospreys are the athletic teams of the

University of North Florida The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public research university in Jacksonville, Florida. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Sc ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

. The Ospreys compete in the ASUN Conference 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 ...

. UNF became a full-fledged member of Division I in 2009; previously, the Ospreys were members of the Sunshine State Conference and

Peach Belt Conference The Peach Belt Conference (PBC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The 11 member institutions are located in the South Atlantic states of South Carolina ...

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 ...

. UNF fields teams in seven men's sports and ten women's sports.

History

The University of North Florida's intercollegiate athletics program began in 1983, originally as a member of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its st ...

(NAIA). The Ospreys joined

in 1993, the same year the

UNF Arena UNF Arena is a multi-purpose arena located on the campus of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. It is home to the North Florida Ospreys men's and women's basketball and women's volleyball teams. It is also used for other eve ...

opened. Initially, UNF competed in the Sunshine State Conference, and then in 1997 moved to the

. In 2005, the Ospreys began the transition to Division I, joining the

Atlantic Sun Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Div ...

. The transition's final year was the 2008-09 season, with UNF becoming tournament eligible beginning in the 2009-10 season. UNF is a non-football school. However, the prospect of an Osprey football team is a popular topic among students and the community. In 2013, UNF President John Delaney revealed the school would begin preliminary discussions about adding the sport. UNF won the Sunshine State Conference's all-sports title four times and won four NAIA national titles—men's golf in 1991 and 1993, and women's tennis in 1986 and 1994. UNF's first Division I conference title came in 2008 when the men's golf team captured the Atlantic Sun crown. In February 2009, UNF hired

Lee Moon Lee Moon is an American former college football coach and athletics administrator. Following the resignation of Jim Dickey, Moon served as the interim head football coach at Kansas State University during the 1985 football season, posting a record ...

to be the new athletic director. He is UNF's sixth athletic director and previously worked at the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became a four-year campus in 1966 and a fully autonomous univ ...

, the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

, and

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges: ...

. Since taking over UNF athletics, he has made many staff changes to move the program forward. On July 16, 2014, UNF released updated logos and a custom font to represent the Ospreys across all sports.

Future

On September 2, 2008, the University announced plans for UNF Varsity Village. The project costed an estimated $30 million which provides two new facilities and upgrades to existing facilities. The two new facilities are a student wellness and sports education center, and a baseball stadium with a seating capacity of 3,000. The existing stadium, Harmon Stadium was renovated to include 1,200 seats and used for softball. Other improvements included upgrades to the Arena and Hodges Stadium.

National championships

Team

Sports sponsored

A member of the ASUN Conference (ASUN), the University of North Florida sponsors teams in eight men's and eleven women's

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 ...

sanctioned sports.

Baseball

North Florida's

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

program was founded in 1988. They play their home games at Dusty Rhodes Field at Harmon Stadium. The team was established under the leadership of

Dusty Rhodes Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crocket ...

, who served as head coach from 1988 to 2010. Since its inception, the Ospreys baseball team has won thirteen conference titles: six in the NAIA, six in

, and one in

and has made a total of sixteen playoff appearances: six in the NAIA and ten in NCAA Division II. They went to the NAIA World Series in 1989 and 1991 and the NCAA Division II World Series in 2000, 2001, and 2005, advancing to the final in 2005. The team's current head coach is Smoke Laval, who took over from Rhodes after the 2010 season. The Ospreys won their first Atlantic Sun regular season championship in 2015. Notably, the team's former logo is similar to the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

logo. It was designed in 1986 at the urging of Dusty Rhodes and continued, and brought extra attention to the baseball program. It was discontinued after Rhodes' retirement in 2010 and replaced with a new logo for the 2011 season.

Men's basketball

The

North Florida Ospreys men's basketball The North Florida Ospreys represent the University of North Florida (UNF) in men's college basketball. The Ospreys compete in the ASUN Conference (A-Sun) in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). They play home games ...

team began play in the 1992–93 season as members of the NAIA. Matthew Driscoll is the current and fourth overall head coach of the men's basketball team. He was hired in 2009, just before UNF's completion of their transition into Division I play. In the 2010–11 season, they advanced to the Atlantic Sun tournament championship game, where they were defeated by Belmont. The 2014–15 team won the program's first

regular season championship and Atlantic Sun Tournament title, earning them their first ever bid to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The program's all-time record through the 2014–15 season is 268–403.

Women's basketball

The Ospreys women's basketball team is currently led by head coach Darrick Gibbs, who is in his first season in 2015–16. Mary Tappmeyer was the head coach from the program's inception in 1992 until 2015 when her contract was not renewed. North Florida made the NCAA Division II Tournament twice, in 2003 and 2004, and were the 2009–10 Atlantic Sun Conference runner-up. However, they began to struggle in the following years, posting two last-place finishes in the Atlantic Sun and a combined conference record of 4–28 over the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons.

Cross country

The men's cross country team has earned 4 conference titles in Division II, 3 of which came while UNF was in the Sunshine State Conference (1994–1996), and the fourth came in 2000 during their time in the

. The women's cross country team has earned 5 conferences title in Division II, 3 in the Sunshine State Conference (1994–1996), and two in the Peach Belt Conference (2001, 2003). They won their first A-Sun conference title in 2010.

Men's golf

The men's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

team earned UNF's first Division I conference title in 2008. They added conference titles in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2019. They use UNF's on-campus Hayt Golf Learning Center, which has a three-hole course and driving range. Team honors: *NAIA National titles (2): 1991, 1993 *NCAA Division II Regional appearances (5): 1999–2002, 2008 *NCAA Division II Championship appearances (1): 2000 *NCAA Division I Championship appearances (4): 2012, 2013, 2018, 2019

Men's soccer

North Florida soccer's home matches are held at Hodges Stadium. As of 2009, men's soccer's all-time record is 149–138 and the women's record is 151–88–15. Men's soccer won their first Atlantic Sun Conference tournament title in 2015 by defeating USC Upstate 7–0 at Hodges Stadium. They earned their first bid to the

NCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champi ...

(College Cup) with a record of 10–6–1.

Softball

Osprey

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 ...

competes at home at the UNF Softball Complex, next to Harmon Stadium. They have a 619–24 all-time record as of 2009. Team honors:
''NCAA Division II Tournament Appearances (7):'' 1999–2005 UNF volleyball and Ozzie

Tennis

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

at UNF began in 1983, and the women's team has earned two national championships (1984–85 and 1993–94). Both men's and women's tennis has won seven conference championships each.

Volleyball

Women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

at UNF began in 1991, and have an overall record of 401–178 (as of 2008). They play their home games at UNF Arena. They won eight

championships between 1997 and 2004. In the first year ever for UNF Women's Volleyball, the team progressed through the NAIA playoffs and qualified for the NAIA National Championship.

Other sports

UNF

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 eve ...

hosted the 2009 Atlantic Sun Conference Championships at

Hodges Stadium Hodges Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium at the University of North Florida (UNF), and the home field for the North Florida Ospreys soccer, track and field, and cross country teams. It is located on the university's campus in Jacksonville, Flori ...

, the first Division I Conference Championship hosted at UNF. The UNF women's golf team began play in 2012. A women's

sand volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

team was added in 2012; The current head coach is Samantha Dabbs. Women's swimming and diving competes in the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association.

Traditions and rivalries

"The Swoop" is a key UNF tradition, similar in principle to UF's Gator Chomp or FSU's Tomahawk Chop as the recognized gesture to show school spirit. It simulates the movement of an Osprey flying through the "swooping" of a fan's arms. "Swoop" is also an acronym that stands for Students With Outstanding Osprey Pride. Osprey basketball and baseball games can be heard on 1010 XL in Jacksonville. Most varsity sports can be watched on ESPN3.

River City Rumble

North Florida's most notable rivalry is with crosstown opponents the

Jacksonville University Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida. Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, ...

Dolphins A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (t ...

. The two universities contest the "River City Rumble", in which the school with the most wins over the other across all sports receives a trophy, the

SunTrust SunTrust Banks, Inc. was an American bank holding company with SunTrust Bank as its largest subsidiary and assets of US$199 billion as of March 31, 2018. The bank's most direct corporate parent was established in 1891 in Atlanta, where it was h ...

Old Wooden Barrel. The teams are awarded one point for each victory throughout the season. In individual sports, the team that finishes higher at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship earns one point. If the contest results in a tie, whichever team won the previous season retains the trophy.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, North Florida Ospreys, color=white , list = {{ASUN Conference navbox {{Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association navbox {{Florida College Sports {{Divison1floridacolleges 1983 establishments in Florida Sports clubs established in 1983