The Grand Canyon Antelopes (more commonly referred to as the Lopes) are the 20 athletic teams representing

Grand Canyon University Grand Canyon University (GCU) is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit Christian university in Phoenix, Arizona. The university offers degrees in over 200 areas of study and is administrativel ...

, located in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. Most of the university's athletic teams compete at the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division 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 athlet ...

level in the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

. Beach volleyball competes in the

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...

(MPSF) having joined in 2024–25, the first season for MPSF beach volleyball. The university will become a full member of the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

in 2026.

History

Grand Canyon College was founded in 1949. The Antelopes began play during the college's first academic year, initially only with a men's basketball team due to the school's small size. GCU was a member of the NAIA until the early 1990s when it transferred to NCAA Division II, in which it competed until 2013. The university has undergone a transition from a small struggling non-profit liberal arts college to a large modern for-profit private university. Along with the general campus upgrades has come an increase in athletics and athletic facilities. On November 27, 2012, Grand Canyon University announced that it had accepted an invitation to join Division I's

, effective July 1, 2013. This move made Grand Canyon the only for-profit institution with a Division I athletic program.

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

officials initially took issue with GCU's business model before eventually reversing course. In July 2013, the chief executives of all 12 members of the sent a joint letter to the NCAA asking that the organization review whether for-profit institutions have a place in Division I sports. Later that year,

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

issued a separate statement questioning the school's allegiance to the NCAA's business model. GCU president Brian Mueller accused ASU president Michael Crow of being behind the Pac-12 letter. Crow would later double down on his accusations, falsely claiming in 2017 that 11 of the 12 Pac-12 schools would not play GCU because of its for-profit business model, and also asserting that GCU sought to play Pac-12 schools solely for exposure on the

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N), sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks, was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities were headquartere ...

Counter to Crow's 2017 assertion, 10 Pac-12 members had scheduled GCU in at least one sport since the Antelopes' move to Division I, although only

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

had faced GCU in men's basketball. The controversy quickly dissipated, as Arizona State and Grand Canyon routinely compete athletically including in men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball and softball. The university announced a five-year sponsorship deal with

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

on May 27, 2015, as a part of Grand Canyon's athletic expansion. On August 23, 2017, the NCAA officially approved Grand Canyon's move to Division I, elevating the university to active membership status. GCU immediately became eligible for postseason competition. The women's golf program became the first team to represent the school in NCAA DI postseason in 2018. GCU quickly thrived in the WAC, winning six straight Commissioner's Cups for fully completed school years as the conference's top-performing athletics department. The university announced on May 10, 2024, that it will become a full member of the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...

on July 1, 2025. On November 1, the university announced that it would instead join the

no later than July 1, 2026.

Sports

Grand Canyon University sponsors teams in 9 men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports:

Baseball

GCU Baseball has won four

NAIA Baseball World Series The NAIA World Series (officially branded as the Avista NAIA World Series for sponsorship purposes from 2013) is a double-elimination tournament, held since 1957, to determine the baseball champion of the National Association of Intercollegiate A ...

in 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1986.
A number of Alumni have gone on to

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

careers. The program advanced to its first NCAA tournament in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

after winning the WAC baseball tournament and followed it up in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

with its first at-large bid.

Men's basketball

Men's basketball is coached by

Bryce Drew Bryce Homer Drew (born September 21, 1974) is an American college basketball coach and former player who is the head coach at Grand Canyon University. Previously, he served as the head coach at Vanderbilt and in the same capacity at his alma ma ...

of NCAA tournament lore. GCU won three

NAIA Men's Basketball Championships The NAIA men's basketball national championship has been held annually by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics since 1937 to determine the national champion of men's college basketball among its members in the United States and ...

at the NAIA Division I level in 1975, 1978, and 1988, the 2007 PacWest Conference Championship and a berth in the

2007 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament The 2007 NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament was the 51st annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States. Officially culminating the 2006–07 ...

. GCU has seen two Lopes basketball alumni go on to careers in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

, including:

Horacio Llamas Horacio Llamas Grey (born July 17, 1973) is a Mexican former professional basketball player. He played two seasons with the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA), becoming the first Mexican-born player in NBA history. He curr ...

, the first Mexican-born player to play in an NBA game.; and

Bayard Forrest Bayard Forrest (born July 8, 1954) is a retired American professional basketball player. He was a 6'10", 235 lb center who played at Grand Canyon University before being drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1976 NBA draft. Forrest nev ...

, former basketball player with the

Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (commonly shortened to Sonics) were an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The SuperSonics competed in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Division (1967–1970), and ...

and

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

. Croatian national team player

Emilio Kovačić Emilio Kovačić (born 11 January 1968 in Zadar) is a Croatian professional basketball scout and former player. At a height of 2.08 m (6'10) tall, he was a center with great rebounding skills and decent defensive abilities. He played for many y ...

played his first university basketball seasons in Grand Canyon, before leaving to

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

.Worries Tinge Success for Biola's Kovacic
Mitch Polin,

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

, February 26, 1991 In 2021, the Lopes won their first WAC championship and made their first NCAA appearance. In 2024, making their third NCAA tournament appearance in four years, the Lopes claimed their first tournament win by upsetting Saint Mary's.

Women's basketball

Women's basketball won the 2007 PacWest Conference Championship and a berth in the 2007 NCAA Women's Division II Basketball tournament.

Men's golf

Men's golf is coached by Mark Mueller whose father is GCU president Brian Mueller.

Men's soccer

Men's soccer won the 1996 NCAA Men's Division II Soccer Championship with a 3–1 win over

Oakland University Oakland University (OU or Oakland) is a public university, public research university in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson and husband ...

. The program qualified for its first NCAA Division I tournament in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

after winning the WAC tournament as the No. 4 seed. The program also qualified in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

and

with at-large berths.

Softball

Softball was added in 2004 and in 2010 the team made its first NCAA tournament appearance in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. 2010 also saw the Lopes set a new program record for most wins in a season going 42–11. Under first-year head coach Shanon Hays, the program qualified for its first NCAA Division I tournament in 2022 after winning the WAC Tournament.

Women's tennis

Women's tennis won the 1981 NAIA national women's tennis championship.

Men's track and field

Men's track team won the 2012 NCAA Division II men's Indoor Track and Field Championship scoring 54 points.

Sports sponsorship timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1949 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote active sports. id:Former value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote discontinued sports. PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:Full from:1949 till:2030 text:

Men's 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 (appro ...

(1949–present) bar:2 color:Full from:1952 till:2030 text:Men's Tennis (1952–present) bar:3 color:Full from:1953 till:2030 text:

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 ...

(1953–present) bar:4 color:Full from:1969 till:2030 text:Men's Golf (1969–present) bar:5 color:Full from:1981 till:2030 text:Women's Volleyball (1981–present) bar:6 color:Full from:1984 till:2030 text:Women's Tennis (1984–present) bar:7 color:Full from:1985 till:2030 text: Men's Soccer (1985–present) bar:8 color:Full from:1988 till:1997 text:Cross Country (1988–1997) bar:8 color:Full from:2006 till:2030 text:(2006–present) bar:9 color:Full from:1988 till:2030 text:

Women's Basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It was first played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large parts via women's college compet ...

(1988–present) bar:10 color:Full from:1996 till:2030 text:

Women's Soccer Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and about 200 national teams partic ...

(1996–present) bar:11 color:Full from:2002 till:2030 text:Women's Golf (2002–present) bar:12 color:Full from:2004 till:2030 text:

Softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

(2004–present) bar:13 color:Full from:2007 till:2030 text:Swimming and Diving (2007–present) bar:14 color:Former from:2007 till:2016 text:Wrestling (2007–2016) bar:15 color:Former from:2009 till:2025 text:Men's Volleyball (2009–2025) bar:16 color:Former from:2010 till:2013 text:Men's Lacrosse (2010–2013) bar:17 color:Full from:2010 till:2030 text:Indoor Track and Field (2010–present) bar:18 color:Full from:2010 till:2030 text:Outdoor Track and Field (2010–present) bar:19 color:Full from:2013 till:2030 text:Beach Volleyball (2013–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1955 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(470-center) text:^"GCU Sport Sponsorship History" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Past sports

Men's lacrosse

Men's lacrosse made a brief appearance as an NCAA sport from 2008 to 2011. The team played its first game on February 10, 2008, an 18–8 loss to

( MCLA DI). In 2010, GCU and other NCAA DII lacrosse programs in the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

formed the

Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association The Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (WILA) was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II lacrosse-only college athletic conference composed of schools located in the Western United States. All schools are member ...

. In the Lopes' only season as a member of the WILA, the team recorded a 3–5 conference record. After a number of below .500 seasons combined with increasing travel costs due to lack of NCAA DII competition in the region, the university announced in March 2011 it would end Division II lacrosse competition.

Wrestling

In March 2016, the school announced that it would discontinue its wrestling program. The program went 6–32 in the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons and competed independent of a conference.

Men's volleyball

GCU discontinued men's volleyball in April 2025.

Club sports

The university has a robust club sports offering with programs not affiliated with the NCAA. With over 30 programs offered, GCU's club sports teams have dedicated coaching staffs, athletic trainers and sometimes travel for competition.

Men's lacrosse

After discontinuing its NCAA men's lacrosse program, GCU joined the

Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association The Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) is a national organization of non-NCAA men's college lacrosse programs. The MCLA oversees game play and conducts national championships for over 200 teams in ten conferences throughout the United ...

. The program joined the

Southwestern Lacrosse Conference The Southwestern Lacrosse Conference (SLC) is a lacrosse-only athletic conference affiliated with the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA). The conference incorporates teams from California and Arizona and is divided into three divisions, ...

(SLC) and plays in the MCLA Division I level in the SLC's Pacific Division. In 2015 and 2017, GCU won the MCLA Division 1 National Championship.

Rugby

Men's rugby was added as a club sport in 2013."Grand Canyon to Start Rugby with Over 50 Players"
Goff Rugby Report, August 4, 2014. The team began competing in the 2014–2015 academic year.

Ice Hockey

Men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

began as a club sport in 2016 at the ACHA DII and DIII levels until 2019 when the program was accepted at the DI level. Women's ice hockey began in 2017 and is a member of the WWCHL and competes in DI of the ACHA.

Athletic facilities

Grand Canyon University has several athletic facilities where its 21 NCAA athletic programs host home games. ;Notes

Gallery

file:Grand Canyon University Arena - Dusk.jpg, Global Credit Union Arena File:Brazell Stadium Grand Canyon Univ Diamond.jpg, Brazell Field at GCU Ballpark File:Grand Canyon University, 3300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85017 - panoramio (138).jpg, GCU Stadium file:Grand Canyon University, 3300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85017 - panoramio (66).jpg, Beach volleyball File:Grand Canyon University, 3300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85017 - panoramio (207).jpg, Prescott Field File:Grand Canyon University, 3300 West Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ 85017, USA - panoramio (37).jpg, Track and practice soccer File:Grand Canyon University, 3300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85017 - panoramio (133).jpg, Antelope Gymnasium File:Grand Canyon University, 3300 W Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85017 - panoramio (123).jpg, Performance Center

Athletic directors

* David Brazell (1962–1979)* * Bill Estes (1979–1982) * Gil Stafford (1982–1994) * Keith Baker (1994–2002) * John Pierson (2002–2004) * Keith Baker (2004–2014) * Mike Vaught (2014–2019) * Jamie Boggs (2019–present) *Brazell began working at the school as a coach and professor in 1953, but was first referred to as athletic director in 1962.

References

External links

*
Thunder mascot designer
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