The Chico State Wildcats (also CSU Chico Wildcats and Cal State Chico Wildcats) are the athletic teams that represent

California State University, Chico California State University, Chico (Chico State) is a public university in Chico, California. It was founded in 1887 as one of about 180 "normal schools" founded by state governments in the 19th century to train teachers for the rapidly growing ...

, located in Chico,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, in

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the 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 environment ...

intercollegiate sports. The Wildcats compete as an associate member of the

California Collegiate Athletic Association The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is a List of NCAA conferences, college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II, Division II level. All of its current m ...

for all 13 varsity sports. Since 1998, Chico State’s athletic teams have won 99 NCAA Championship berths, 40 CCAA titles, 24 West Region titles and 15 National titles. The school finished third in the 2004–2005

NACDA Director's Cup The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) to the colleges and ...

Varsity sports

Baseball

The Chico State baseball team plays at the 4,100–seat

Nettleton Stadium Nettleton Stadium is a baseball stadium in Chico, California, on the campus of California State University, Chico. It is the home field for the CSU Chico Baseball team, the Wildcats. It also served as the former home of the now-defunct Chico He ...

, known as Ray Bohler Field until its 1997 renovation. The Wildcats won the

national title in 1997 and 1999, and was runner-up in 2002 and 2006; all four appearances in the finals were under head coach Lindsay Meggs. The head coach since 2007 is Dave Taylor. Big Blue Bird is the 2019 All Star.

Softball

The Wildcats softball team won the first AIAW Division III national championship in 1980, led by pitcher Kathy Arendsen.

Men's soccer

The men's soccer reached the Division II College Cup final in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

, losing 2–1 to

Lynn University Lynn University is a private university in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. Founded in 1962, the university awards Associate degree, associate, Bachelor's degree, baccalaureate, Master's degree, master's, and Doctorate, doctoral Academic degr ...

Championships

Appearances

150px, Wordmark 2015–2020 The Chico State Wildcats competed in the NCAA Tournament across 13 active sports (6 men's and 7 women's) 220 times at the Division II level. * Baseball (20): 1978, 1987, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Men's basketball (14): 1958, 1974, 1981, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 * Women's basketball (13): 1987, 1988, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014 * Men's cross country (24): 1969, 1972, 1973, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Women's cross country (21): 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Men's golf (17): 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1977, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 * Women's golf (1): 2009 * Men's soccer (13): 1972, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1986, 1992, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2018 * Women's soccer (8): 1992, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2018 * Softball (12): 1982, 1983, 1984, 2002, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Men's outdoor track and field (45): 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Women's outdoor track and field (27): 1982, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993• 1994, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * Women's volleyball (5): 1992, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2016

Team

The Wildcats of Chico State earned 6 NCAA championships at the Division II level and one NCAA championship at the Division III level. * Men's (6) **

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

(2): 1997, 1999 **

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

(1): 1966 ** Swimming and diving (3): 1973, 1974, 1976 ** Swimming and diving (1): 1975 Results Chico State won 1 national championship at the Division III level. * Men's swimming and diving: 1975 Below is one national championship that were not bestowed by the NCAA: * Softball – Division III (1): 1980 (

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

) Below are five national club team championships: * Women's rugby: 2001, 2018 (

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

) * Co-ed wakeboarding: 2010, 2012 ( USA Wakeboarding) // 2012 ( College Wake)

Individual

Chico State had 59 Wildcats win NCAA individual championships at the Division II level. At the NCAA Division III level, Chico State garnered 6 individual championships.

Former varsity sports

Football

Chico State ended its football program in 1997, citing rising insurance costs, in addition to an increased bias in favor of other athletic programs. College Football Hall of Fame

Swimming & diving

CSU Chico won the NCAA Division II national championships in men's swimming and diving in 1973, 1974 and 1976. In 1975, the program was moved to Division III despite objections by the team, its coach and the community at large. The team responded by winning the Division III Championship with a record number of points (465), and the largest margin of victory to that point by an NCAA Swimming program. In 1976, back in Division II, the team set a record for total points scored by a Division II swim team (428) while winning their 4th straight NCAA team championship. The program was eliminated after the 1991 season. At that time, the team had finished in the top 7 at the NCAA championship meet for 19 straight years, 16 of those finishes being top 4 or better.

Other sports

Rugby

Chico State's team plays

college rugby College rugby is played by men and women throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Seven-a-side and fifteen-a-side variants of rugby union are most commonly played. Most collegiate rugby programs do not fall under the auspices of ...

in Division I-AA in the California Conference, playing alongside Fresno State, Stanford, San Jose State, UNR, and Sacramento State. In 2001, the women's rugby team won a Division I national championship. In 2019, the men's rugby team won the Pacific West Conference and went on to the Division I-AA national championship game.

References

External links

* {{California Collegiate Athletic Association navbox