by John Spugnardi
From a group of 13 young men in 1950 to a robust 500 men and women proudly wearing scarlet and silver, Bellarmine Athletics mirrors the university with its dynamic growth and competitiveness that includes multiple national championships and dozens of conference and individual titles.
Bellarmine Athletics began with new coach, Norb Raque, posting a notice announcing tryouts for a new athletic team, basketball. The Pioneers (Bellarmine’s first athletic nickname) made their debut on Dec. 27, 1950, soon expanding its athletic offerings. Baseball made its debut in the spring of 1951, followed by golf, tennis, and track. Knights replaced the Pioneers’ nickname to pay homage to Founding President Msgr. Alfred F. Horrigan’s lifelong fascination with the Arthurian legend and the Knights of the Round Table.
By the 1960s, the Knights were competing in the college division of the NCAA (later called Division II) and made their first appearance in the NCAA basketball tournament in 1963. Later in the decade, the Ursuline merger brought coeducational academics, and women’s sports quickly followed, when women’s basketball made its debut in 1971.
Alumnus and longtime athletic director Jim Spalding ’55 was a driving force in Bellarmine Athletics’ expansion and helped found the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) in 1978.
Bellarmine was a stalwart in the league, competing in men’s and women’s soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, cross country, track and field, (women’s-only) softball and volleyball, and (men’s) baseball.
Bellarmine dance owns two National Dance Alliance titles, taking the Division II crown in 2015 and 2019.
In 2020, Bellarmine transitioned all sports to NCAA Division I status and joined the Atlantic Sun Conference for the bulk of its competition. By year two in the league, men’s basketball won the conference title at home, initiating an outpouring of national media coverage.
Of the Knights’ many championships over the years, of particular note is the sole NCAA national title in school history: men’s basketball (2011). Finishing 33-2, the team’s run culminated with a heart-pounding 71-68 victory over BYU-Hawaii in front of a national television audience on CBS.