Conference NEWMAC Athletic director Tim Fitzpatrick Varsity teams 26 | NCAA Division III Location New London, CT | |
University United States Coast Guard Academy | ||
The United States Coast Guard Academy's intercollegiate sports teams are called the Bears and they compete in NCAA Division III as members of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Through the 2016 season, the Bears played football in the New England Football Conference, but after that season moved their football program into the NEWMAC, which will start sponsoring the sport in 2017.
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They field 26 varsity teams.
Origin of the name
The academy nickname is the Bears, after the USRC Bear, which made a dramatic rescue in Alaska in 1897, shortly after the opening of the academy.
In 1926, then-Cadet Stephen Evans (a future superintendent of the academy) brought a live bear to the academy and named it Objee for "Objectionable Presence." The tradition of keeping a live bear as the mascot was continued until the City of New London petitioned for its removal in 1984.
Facilities
The athletic facilities have been undergoing major upgrades since 2004, when the state-of-the-art FieldTurf synthetic surface was installed at Cadet Memorial Field (home of the football and soccer teams).
Rivalries
The Bears have an unofficial rivalry with neighboring Connecticut College. The rivalry is most evident during the Coast Guard–Connecticut College biannual club hockey game which draws large numbers of spectators from both schools.
The Bears also play for the Secretaries Cup, an annual rivalry trophy in football against the Mariners of the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
Sailing
The academy maintains a sailing fleet of over 150 vessels to support the offshore sailing and dinghy sailing teams, in addition to the summer sail training programs. In 2007, a USCGA cadet, then a freshman sailor from the class of 2011, Krysta Rohde was featured in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of the 27 December edition of Sports Illustrated. That year Rohde gained recognition by being the first academy cadet and second freshman ever to win the ICSA Women's Singlehanded National Championship.
Rugby
In 2006, the men's rugby club won the Division II National Championship at Stanford, California, after defeating the University of Northern Colorado.