NCAA Division I Location Jacksonville, Florida | Athletic director Alex Ricker-Gilbert Varsity teams 20 | |
University Jacksonville University Conference Atlantic Sun Conference
MAAC (men's and women's rowing)
Southern Conference (men's lacrosse)
Pioneer Football League | ||
The Jacksonville University Dolphins are the athletics team of Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The Dolphins participate in NCAA Division I athletics, and are primarily members of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN). Some teams in sports that are not sponsored by the A-Sun play in other conferences. The football team plays in the Pioneer Football League, the men's lacrosse team is a member of the Southern Conference, and the men's and women's rowing teams are in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Contents
Sports sponsored
A member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), Jacksonville sponsors teams in seven men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports:
Baseball
The Jacksonville Dolphins baseball team began play in 1957. It competed in the small-school College Division until 1969, its first season in the University Division (which later became Division I). Its first conference membership was in the Sun Belt Conference, where it first played in 1978. The Dolphins were affiliated with that conference until 1998, when they joined the Trans America Athletic Conference (later renamed the Atlantic Sun).
The Dolphins have participated in 13 NCAA tournaments, beginning in 1968 in the College Division Tournament. The other 12 have come in Division I. Jacksonville's best showing in the NCAA tournament came in the 1976 South Regional, when they were one game away from the College World Series, but were eliminated by Auburn 7–5. The Dolphins also were part of the NCAA tournament in 1972, 1976, 1989, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011.
Men's basketball
The Jacksonville Dolphins men's basketball program was established in 1949.
Jacksonville has appeared in five NCAA Division I men's basketball tournaments, most recently in 1986. Their most successful tournament was the first they participated in, the 1970 NCAA tournament. The Dolphins, led by NBA Hall-of-Famer Artis Gilmore, the school's all-time leader in rebounds, blocks and field goals, and Rex Morgan, the career assists leader, advanced to the title game before losing to UCLA 80–69. During that 1969–70 season, the team became the first NCAA basketball program to average 100 points per game in a season.
The Dolphins have won one A-Sun regular-season title (2008–09), but have not yet won the conference tournament and the accompanying automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as an A-Sun member.
Football
The Jacksonville Dolphins football team competes in the Pioneer Football League, a Division I football-only conference. Their first season of play was in 1998, and they have been members of the Pioneer Football League since 2001.
They play their home games at D. B. Milne Field, which has a listed capacity of 5000 spectators.
The Dolphins won the PFL conference title in 2008 and 2010, and represented the PFL in the 2008 Gridiron Classic, losing to Albany.
Awards
Pioneer Football League Offensive Freshman of the Year
Pioneer Football League Defensive Player of the Year
Pioneer Football League Coach of the Year
Lacrosse
Jacksonville fielded both men's and women's NCAA Division I lacrosse teams starting with the 2010 season; both programs became the first in Florida to compete in an official game on February 6, 2010.
JU's lacrosse programs were founded by current Director of Lacrosse Mindy McCord, who also serves as the program's head women's coach. Assisting Mindy McCord are Brooke Richards Magnusson, a former University of Maryland standout and Maryland prep player of the year, and Jen Heup.
The women's team was a founding member of the National Lacrosse Conference. In addition to Jacksonville, the eight-team conference includes southern-based universities Davidson, High Point, Presbyterian, Liberty, and Longwood, as well as northern programs Detroit-Mercy and Howard. The conference was a provisional conference for two years by NCAA standards; it must exist for two years to earn a potential automatic qualifier into the NCAA tournament. The NLC disbanded after the 2012 season after the two all-sports conferences that contained most of that league's members, the A-Sun and Big South, began sponsoring women's lacrosse.
The men's team, the only men's Division I lacrosse team in Florida, is a member of the Southern Conference. The current coach of the men's team is Guy Van Arsdale.
Traditions and rivalries
Jacksonville University's most notable rivalry is with crosstown opponents the University of North Florida Ospreys. The two universities contest the "River City Rumble", in which the school with the most wins over the other across all sports receives a trophy, the SunTrust Old Wooden Barrel. JU holds the edge in the men's basketball series 15–11 in favor of JU after the 2014–15 regular season. However, UNF leads the series 10–7 since UNF became a full Division I member.