San José State Spartans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

San Jose State Spartans
University San Jose State University
Conference Western Athletic Conference
NCAA Division I
Athletics director Tom Bowen
Location San Jose, CA
Varsity teams
Football stadium Spartan Stadium
Basketball arena San Jose State Event Center
Baseball stadium San Jose Municipal Stadium
Other arenas Sharks Ice at San Jose
Mascot Sammy Spartan
Nickname Spartans
Fight song Hail Spartans Hail
Colors Gold and Blue

             
Homepage SJSU Spartans

The San Jose State Spartans are the names of the athletic teams representing San Jose State University. SJSU sports teams compete in the Western Athletic Conference or WAC in NCAA at the Division I (I-Bowl Subdivision for football) level. The university has participated in athletics since it fielded a baseball team in 1890.

The school has achieved an international reputation in judo, having won 42 out of 46 national championships in the sport (as of 2007).[1] Additionally, SJSU students and alumni have won more than half of the U.S. Olympic medals in judo. The SJSU men's club ice hockey team was ranked #1 in the west (ACHA) for the 2005–2006 season. San Jose State University sports teams have also won NCAA titles in track and field, golf, and boxing.

SJSU alumni have won 18 Olympic medals through the years, dating back to the first gold medal won by Willie Steel in track and field in the 1948 Olympics. Alumni have won medals in track and field, swimming, judo and boxing. Due to pressures created by Title IX, several of these programs have been eliminated, including the historical track team known as "Speed City" which produced Olympic medalists and social activists John Carlos and Tommie Smith.

San Jose State University was a boxing powerhouse during the latter years of NCAA sanctioned intervarsity boxing. The university is one of only a select number of colleges that sponsor a top-flight intercollegiate boxing team.

Contents

[edit] Nickname and Mascot History

Because of the school's background as a teacher's college, the original mascots changed many times for several years before finally adopting the Spartans as the official mascot and nickname in 1925. Mascots and nicknames prior to 1925 included the Daniels, Teachers, Pedagogues, Normals, and Normalites.

After 1887 the official name of the San Jose campus was the "State Normal School at San Jose". The school's athletic teams initially played under the "Normal" identity as indicated in the photo at left. But they gradually shifted to the State Normal School identity, as evidenced by images of the SNS football and basketball squads from this era. Despite the SNS identity the school continued to be referred to as the "California State Normal School, San Jose" in official publications like the 1919 school bulletin at right. The recent historial diaplsy in the in The Martin Luther King Library on the San Jose State campus featured a number of pieces of State Normal School memorabilia, including an "SNS" pennant.

[edit] Football

See San Jose State Spartans Football

[edit] Judo

The San Jose State Judo program was established in 1937 for the Police Studies Department. In 1940, sophomore biology major Yosh Uchida was hired as the student-coach. The program was disbanded during World War II, and reestablished in 1946 upon Uchida's return to the college.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Uchida and University of California, Berkeley coach Henry Stone established rules to allow their students to compete with each other, including a weight class system. Uchida and Stone convinced the Amateur Athletic Union to sanction judo as a sport, and San Jose State hosted the first AAU national championship in 1953.

In 1962, the Spartans won the first National Collegiate Judo Championship. They would continue to dominate the event to the present day, winning their forty third national championship in 2008.[2]

In 2005, alumni and coach Mike Swain announced the establishment of the Swain Scholarship, the first full athletic scholarship in judo at an American university. In 2008, the SJSU judo program was named one of six National Training Sites by USA Judo.

[edit] Notable SJSU judoka

  • Yosh Uchida, head coach 1964 United States Olympic Judo Team
  • Ben Nighthorse Campbell, gold medalist, 1963 Pan American Games
  • Gerardo Padilla, gold medalist, 1979 and 1983 Pan American Games
  • Bobby Berland, silver medalist, 1984 Olympic Games
  • Kevin Asano, silver medalist, 1988 Olympic Games
  • Mike Swain, bronze medalist, 1988 Olympic Games
  • Joe Wanang, gold medalist, 1991 Pan American Games
  • Krazy George Henderson

[edit] Olympic medalists

Athlete Event Year Medal
Kevin Asano Judo 1988 Silver
Chuck Adkins Boxing 1952 Gold
Bob Berland Judo 1984 Silver
John Carlos Track and Field 1968 Bronze
Jim Doehring Track and Field 1992 Silver
Lee Evans Track and Field 1968 Gold (2)
Mitch Ivey Swimming 1968 Silver
Mitch Ivey Swimming 1972 Bronze
John Powell Track and Field 1976 & 1984 Bronze (2)
Ronnie Ray Smith Track and Field 1968 Gold
Tommie Smith Track and Field 1968 Gold
Willie Steele Track and Field 1948 Gold
Jill Sudduth Synchronized Swimming 1996 Gold
Mike Swain Judo 1988 Bronze
Lynn Vidali Swimming 1968 Silver
Lynn Vidali Swimming 1972 Bronze

[edit] Notable Sports Alumni

SJSU Alumni Bill Walsh and Spartans Head Football Coach Dick Tomey
SJSU Alumni Bill Walsh and Spartans Head Football Coach Dick Tomey
Krazy George at a San Jose State Spartans home football game.
Krazy George at a San Jose State Spartans home football game.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rainier Ramirez. "Judo team wipes out field, claims 42nd national title", The Spartan Daily, San José State University, April 4, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-07-16. ;
  2. ^ 2008 USA Judo Youth and Scholastic National Judo Championships. National Collegiate Judo Association. Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
  3. ^ "Dick Vermeil, Head Coach", Kansas City Chiefs
  4. ^ Bill Walsh Of The 49ers Is Named SJSU's 2001 Tower Award Winner, 2001, CSU Newsline
v • d • e
Sports teams based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Baseball
Basketball
Football
Hockey
Soccer
Lacrosse
Intercollegiate
v • d • e
Western Athletic Conference (WAC)
Languages