The Weber State Wildcats are the varsity athletic teams representing

Weber State University Weber State University (pronounced ) is a public university in Ogden, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1889 as Weber Stake Academy and earned its current name in 1991. As of fall 2023, the student population reached 30,536 students, cons ...

Ogden, Utah Ogden ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the United States Census ...

in intercollegiate athletics, sponsoring 16 teams. The Wildcats compete in NCAA Division I FCS and are charter members (1963) of the

Big Sky Conference The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...

. The

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

is Waldo the Wildcat and team colors are purple and white, with black as an accessory color.

Sports sponsored

Football

The

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team plays in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The

team recently changed leadership, with the addition of new

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Ron McBride, former

of the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

, who began coaching the Wildcats in 2005. Coach "Mac" went 6–5 overall and 4–3 in conference play his first year with the ‘Cats. The 2008 season, the 'Cats finished 7–1 in conference which is the best single season record in school history. Overall they finished 10–4 and lost in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Playoff Quarterfinals. Ron McBride retired after the 2011 season. John L. Smith was hired in his place, but left to take the head coaching job in Arkansas before coaching even one game. Weber State hired Jody Sears as an interim head coach for the 2012 season, and was fired at the end of the 2013 season. The Wildcats hired coach Jay Hill at the start of the 2014 season.

Basketball

Men's team

Weber State's 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 ...

team (1,004–572), long hailed as a powerhouse in the

, acquired new

Randy Rahe for the 2006–2007 season. WSU Men's basketball team has the 24th highest winning percentage in NCAA Division I history. In 2005, Street and Smith magazine compiled a list of the greatest basketball programs in college basketball history, WSU made #51. The men's basketball team won its 18th overall Big Sky Conference championship in 2009. WSU is also famous for first round NCAA tournament upsets. In

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, Weber beat #3 seed Michigan State, and defeated #3 seed

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

Women's team

The women's team was in the NCAA tournament in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, along with a Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) appearance in 2016.

Softball

Weber State's softball team has appeared in the NCAA Division I softball tournament five times, in

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

, 1974,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

. WSU got their first NCAA Tournament win in 2019 over Cal State Fullerton.

References

External links

* {{Utah Sports