The Savannah State Tigers and Lady Tigers are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that play for

Savannah State University ) , established = , closed = , type = Public historically black university , parent = University System of Georgia , academic_affiliation = Space-grant , endowment ...

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

Conference affiliation

Savannah State University ) , established = , closed = , type = Public historically black university , parent = University System of Georgia , academic_affiliation = Space-grant , endowment ...

holds membership in the

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 ...

(as members of the SIAC) and participates in the following

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

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 ...

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 ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

( men and

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

), cross-country (men and women), tennis (men and women), track and field (men and women),

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 ...

(women only), golf (men), and

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 ...

(women). On

March 20 Events Pre-1600 * 673 – Emperor Tenmu of Japan assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne at the Palace of Kiyomihara in Asuka. * 1206 – Michael IV Autoreianos is appointed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. * 1600 – The Link ...

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 ...

, the Tigers were accepted as provisional members of the

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

(MEAC) beginning on

July 1 Events Pre-1600 * 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. * 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and th ...

. On

September 8 Events Pre-1600 * 617 – Battle of Huoyi: Li Yuan defeats a Sui dynasty army, opening the path to his capture of the imperial capital Chang'an and the eventual establishment of the Tang dynasty. *1100 – Election of Antipope Theodo ...

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 celebrates ...

, the university was confirmed as a full member of the MEAC Conference, making the Tigers eligible to participate in all conference championships and earn the conference's automatic berth to NCAA postseason competition in all sponsored sports. Before moving to Division I-AA, Savannah State was a member of the

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Formed in 1913, it consists mostly of historically black c ...

in the

(1981–2005),

and the

Southeastern Athletic Conference The Southeastern Athletic Conference (SEAC) was an intercollegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that existed from 1929 to 1961. It was known as the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association ...

in the NAIA (1929–1961). Savannah State announced on

April 17 Events Pre-1600 *1080 – Harald III of Denmark dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized. * 1349 – The rule of the Bavand dynasty in Mazandaran is brought to an end by the murder of Has ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

that all of its intercollegiate athletic programs were going to be reclassified to

, citing that maintaining Division I status was not financially feasible. Just under eight months later on December 7, the university revealed its plans to apply for re-entry to the

by February 1, 2018. These plans were later approved and Savannah State was re-admitted into the SIAC on

July 2 Events Pre-1600 * 437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome. * 626 – Li Shimin, t ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Conference championships

Team colors

The official

school colors School colors (also known as university colors or college colors) are the colors chosen by a school as part of its brand identity, used on building signage, web pages, branded apparel, and the uniforms of sports teams. They can promote connect ...

for Savannah State are

Burnt Orange In optics, orange has a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nm and a hue of 30° in HSV color space. In the RGB color space it is a secondary color numerically halfway between gamma-compressed red and yellow, as can be seen in ...

and

Reflex Blue In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occur ...

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

is often used as a secondary color and for alternate jerseys.

Organization

Athletics at Savannah State University are administered by the Savannah State University Athletic Department. The department is headed by an athletic director who is responsible for the department's oversight and all matters related to the school's 16 NCAA Division I sports teams for men and women. The department dedicates about $2 million per year for its sports teams and facilities. The current athletic director is Sterling Steward Jr.

Current facilities

Most athletic teams have on-campus facilities for competition, including Ted A. Wright Stadium for

and track and field, and Tiger Arena for

and women's

. Ted A. Wright Stadium is an 8,500 seat multi purpose stadium which opened in 1969. The stadium's name is an homage to former Savannah State Football coach Theodore Wright, who coached the team from 1947–1949. Track and field renovations were made at Ted A.Wright Stadium in the mid 1990s as part of the "Olympic Legacy Package". The "Olympic Legacy Package" included a 400-meter track and competitive field areas. Tiger Arena is a 5,000-seat multi purpose arena that opened in 2000. Tiger Arena replaced Willcox-Wiley Gymnasium, costing $9.6 million to construct.

Traditional rivals

The traditional rival, in all sports, is in-state Fort Valley State University.

Sports sponsored

Football

The football team is traditionally the most popular sport at Savannah State. The games are played at Ted A. Wright Stadium. Since moving to

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 ...

Division I – FCS in 2000, the Tigers have compiled a 17–88 record as of the 2009–2010 season. Prior to moving to Division I – FCS, the team compiled a 97–108–4 record in

(1981–2000), a 15–20–0 record in

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

(1973–1980) and a 1–1–0 record as a member of the NAIA.

Men's basketball

Savannah State competes in

Division II as a member of the

since July 2019, and plays home games in Tiger Arena on the university campus. The school gained notoriety when they finished the 2004–2005 men's basketball season a winless 0–28, the first Division I team to do so since

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher lear ...

in 1991–1992. The Tigers were the 2011–12 MEAC regular season champions and received an automatic bid into the

2012 NIT The 2012 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2012 NCAA tournament. The annual tournament began on March 13 on campus sites and ended on March ...

, their first ever appearance in any Division I tournament as a Division I member. The team posted a 21–10 overall mark and lead the MEAC in scoring defense, only allowing 58.9 points per game and were second in the conference in scoring margin (+5.4). The Tigers defeated Benedict College, 76–62, to win the 2022 SIAC Men's Basketball Tournament.

Baseball

The head coach is Carlton Hardy.

Conference championships and NCAA playoffs

*The Savannah State Tigers finished as SIAC baseball champions for five consecutive seasons (1995–1999). *In 1999, the Tigers were the #4 seed in the NCAA Division II South Regional baseball Tournament *In 2013, the Tigers were the co-champions of the MEAC Southern Division and won the conference baseball tournament and the conferences automatic NCAA bid.

Team awards and NCAA records

Season-by-season record

Team awards and NCAA records

*Savannah State holds the

records of 46 consecutive victories in baseball and 46 consecutive victories to start of a season (2000). The team also hold the NCAA Division II records of 12.59 average runs per game in a season (2000), 58 total triples in a season (1998) and 1.18 average triples per game in a season (1998). *Theophalus Gregory established the

record of 1.92 average stolen bases per game in 1974 as a member of the Savannah State baseball team. *Gerald Smith, held the 2005 NCAA Division I top slugging percentage (.785) as a member of the Savannah State baseball team. *Savannah State baseball player Brett Higgins (2000) holds the NCAA Division II record of 32 doubles in a season (in 49 games) with four other players and led the NCAA in RBIs (93), slugging percentage (1.010), and total bases (193) in 2000. *Willie Melendez, former Savannah State baseball player holds the NCAA Division II record of 16 triples in a season (1998).

Notable players and coaches

Some notable Savannah State baseball players and coaches include:

Women's basketball

Savannah State Lady Tigers basketball is a

(MEAC) member. They currently play in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Lady Tigers started playing in 1928 and in 1974 joined Division II. They compiled a 339–394 record in Division II before moving on to Division I in 2002. In Division I, the Lady Tigers are 148–260. The Lady Tigers won 6 total SEAC Championships. The Lady Tigers will move back to Division II

(SIAC) after the 2018–19 season

Women's tennis

The current coach is Don Andrews who entered his first season as head coach in 2008.

Team awards and records

The Women's Tennis Team won the SIAC championship in 1991, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998. In 2014, the Women's Tennis team set the program record for Division I wins. The Women's tennis team started playing in 1984–85. They joined the MEAC during the 2011–12 season.

Women's volleyball

The current head coach is Jolanta Graham who replaced Schannon Gamble in 2012. Savannah State's Women's volleyball team began play in 1985 before they moved to Division I in 2002. They began MEAC play in 2011. Savannah State's Women's volleyball has not had much success in their previous 34 seasons.

Women's softball

The current head coach is Jose Gonzalez who entered his first season in 2008. In 2012, the Lady Tigers softball team completed their first .500 season and won a MEAC division title.

Men's golf

The current coach is Art Gelow.

Track and field

The current coach is Ted Whitaker who entered his first season as head coach in 1999.

References

External links

* {{College sports in Georgia