The Tennessee State Tigers and Lady Tigers are the intercollegiate athletic teams of

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tenness ...

(TSU), located in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, United States. The Tigers athletic program is a member of the

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern and Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Divisi ...

(OVC) and competes in the

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

, including the

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the Football Bowl Subdivision. Sponsored by the National Collegiate Athleti ...

. The women's track team is also known as the Tigerbelles. As a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, Tennessee State is one of three

HBCU Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...

s competing in Division I that is not a member of an

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

made up entirely of historically black institutions (

MEAC 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 ...

and SWAC), the other two being

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

and

North Carolina A&T State University North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

of the

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...

. The TSU mascot is Aristocat the Tiger, and the school colors are blue and white. TSU's main rival was historically

Kentucky State University Kentucky State University (KSU and KYSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black land-grant university in Frankfort, Kentucky. Founded in 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons ...

, an HBCU located in

the capital ''The Capital'' (also known as ''Capital Gazette'' as its online nameplate and informally), the Sunday edition is called ''The Sunday Capital'', is a daily newspaper published by Capital Gazette Communications in Annapolis, Maryland, to serve ...

of Tennessee's northern neighbor, but that rivalry has faded since KSU is now 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 ...

Sports sponsored

A member of the

, Tennessee State University sponsors teams in seven men's and eight 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. The only TSU team that competes outside the OVC is the men's tennis team. After the 2021–22 season, the OVC merged its men's tennis league into that of the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

. All OVC men's tennis members, including TSU, became Horizon associates in that sport.

Athletic facilities

''Source:'' Men's Basketball:

Gentry Center Gentry Complex is a multi-purpose facility on the main campus of Tennessee State University (TSU) in Nashville, Tennessee. Opened in 1980 and named for Howard C. Gentry Sr., a long-time professor, coach and athletic director at TSU, the building ho ...

Women's Basketball: Gentry Center Football:

Nissan Stadium Nissan Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, it is primarily used for football and is the home field of the Tennessee Titans of the Natio ...

Hale Stadium Hale Stadium is a 10,000-seat outdoor stadium located on the campus of Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. Built in 1953 and nicknamed "The Hole", the stadium hosted TSU Tigers football games until 1999, when home games were moved t ...

Softball: Tiger Stadium Tennis: TSU Tennis Court Complex Indoor Track & Field: Gentry Center Outdoor Track & Field: Edward S. Temple Track Volleyball: Kean Hall

Highlights

In 1957, coach

John McClendon John B. McLendon Jr. (April 5, 1915 – October 8, 1999) was an American basketball coach who is recognized as the first African American basketball coach at a predominantly white university and the first African American head coach in any professi ...

and three-time All-American

Dick Barnett Richard Barnett (born October 2, 1936) is an American former basketball player who was a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Syracuse Nationals, Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. He won two NBA championship ...

led the then-Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University to become the first historically black college (HBCU) to win a national basketball title, winning 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 stu ...

(NAIA) championship. The school went on to win the NAIA title again in 1958 and '59. The women's track and field team won the championship of the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

national senior outdoor meet for all athletes 13 times in 1955–1960, 1962, 1963, 1965–1967, 1969 and 1978. The team likewise won the AAU national indoor championship 14 times in 1956–1960, 1962, 1965–1969 and 1978–1980. By 2009, approximately 100 TSU football players had been drafted by the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

. In 2014,

From the Rough ''From the Rough'' is a 2011 American sports drama film based on the true story of Catana Starks, a former Tennessee State Tigers swim coach, who became the first woman ever to coach a college men’s golf team. With drive, passion, and guts, she ...

was released which is a movie based on a true story about the successes and challenges of the first African-American woman (Dr.

Catana Starks Catana Rhoda Johnson Starks (December 30, 1944 – September 6, 2020) was an American athletics coach. She was the first African-American woman to coach a men's team at the collegiate level, when she coached the Tennessee State Tigers and Lady T ...

) to coach a Division I college men's golf team. Starks helped develop several noteworthy golfers at Tennessee State such as Sean Foley and

Robert Dinwiddie Robert Dinwiddie (1692 – 27 July 1770) was a British colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia from 1751 to 1758, first under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and then, from July 1756 ...

. In 2016, the men's basketball team ranked 17th in the nation for increase in home attendance. During the 2015-2016 basketball season, the men's team tied the school record for the most Division I wins with 20. The

Southern Heritage Classic The Southern Heritage Classic presented by FedEx is an annual historically black college football game between the Golden Lions of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) and the Tigers of Tennessee State University. UAPB replaced the Jackso ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

is annually one of the largest and most anticipated HBCU football classics in the nation.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , titlestyle = {{CollegePrimaryStyle, Tennessee State Tigers, color=white , list = {{Ohio Valley Conference navbox {{Horizon League navbox {{Tennessee Sports {{Tennessee College Sports Sports in Nashville, Tennessee