Limerick Sport Eagles is an Irish

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 ...

team based in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2 ...

. The team competes in the National League Division One and plays its home games at the

University of Limerick The University of Limerick (UL) ( ga, Ollscoil Luimnigh) is a public research university institution in Limerick, Ireland. Founded in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in 1989 in accordance w ...

's Sport Arena.

History

Early years

Prior to the late 1990s, Limerick's presence in the Irish

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

was represented by Marathon Basketball Club. In 1999, Marathon's National League team became known as Burger King Limerick. In 2002, Burger King Limerick celebrated their first-ever Irish Cup title after defeating Star of the Sea in the final. A year earlier, American Cleotis Brown was named

Basketball Ireland Basketball Ireland (BI; ga, Cispheil Éireann) is the national governing body for the sport on the island of Ireland. Part of FIBA Europe, the European governing body, and of FIBA, the World governing body, BI is responsible for the promotion an ...

Foreign Player of the Year. In 2004, Marathon Basketball Club was renamed Limerick Lions Basketball Club, and thus, Burger King Limerick became Limerick Lions.

UL Eagles

In 2009, Limerick Lions Basketball Club parted ways with the National League team. As a result, the

absorbed the team and rebranded it as UL Eagles. In February 2012, UL Eagles won their first National Cup title since 2002 after defeating

UCC Demons UCC Demons are an Irish basketball team based in Cork. The team competes in the Super League and plays its home games at Mardyke Arena. The team is a division of Blue Demons Basketball Club and is directly associated with the University College ...

in the final. Eagles went on to win a historic National League title in March 2012, and backed that up in 2013 by defending their title. In February 2015, long-time servant of the team, Welshman Matt Hall, announced his retirement after 15 years of playing in Limerick. After finishing last in the Super League table in 2016/17, UL Eagles were demoted to the

Men's Division One National League for the 2017/18 season. However, in September 2017, the team withdrew from the National League entirely. The team returned as the UL Sport Eagles in the National League Division One in the 2018/19 season. They continued in Division One as UL Sport Eagles in the 2019/20 season.

Limerick Sport Eagles

In 2020, the team was renamed Limerick Sport Eagles. The 2020–21 Division One season did not go ahead due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The Limerick Sport Eagles are set to play in the 2021–22 Division One season.

Achievements

* 2× Irish National League champions: 2012, 2013Roll of Honour 1973 - 2014
/ref> * 2× Irish National Cup champions: 2002, 2012

References

External links

Limerick Sport Eagles
on

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{{Irish Super League Sport at the University of Limerick Super League (Ireland) teams