University Occidental College Athletic director Jaime Hoffman | NCAA Division III Varsity teams 21 | |
Conference Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Location Los Angeles, California | ||
The Occidental Tigers is the nickname for athletics at the Occidental College. Oxy is also a nickname for the college. The team has been using the nickname Tigers since the 1920s; prior to that, they were referred to as the "Presbyterians" or (when in Highland Park) the "Highlanders". The Tigers compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) at the NCAA's Division III level.
Contents
Traditions
Every year Occidental plays two football games for rivalry trophies. One game is against Pomona-Pitzer and the winner is awarded "The Drum." The Drum rivalry is the oldest rivalry game in Southern California, having been contested since 1895. The two teams have met 119 times, with Oxy holding a 63-48-0 edge. The other game is against Whittier College and the winner is awarded "The Shoes," which are a pair of bronzed cleats from a 1940 graduate from Whittier named Myron Claxton.
Teams
The Tigers have 10 varsity men's teams and 11 varsity women's teams. They also have 7 club sport teams.
Men's
Women's
Club
Conference championships
Here are a few of the SCIAC titles that Oxy has won:
Men's basketball
For the last decade, under alumnus and winningest coach in school history Brian Newhall, the Tigers have found great success on the court. In that time span the program has compiled a 146-59 (.712) record and have won a pair of SCIAC conference championships (2006–07, 2007–08). Furthermore under Newhall, the Tigers have earned regional and national rankings, produced the only perfect 14-0 record in SCIAC history and triumphed in two NCAA playoff games to reach the NCAA III Elite 8 in 2003. Some Oxy players have pursued professional careers overseas, including four players from Oxy's 25-3 Elite 8 team, have gone overseas. One example is Oxy alumnus Blair Slattery, the all-time career scoring and rebounding leader who signed on with the Munster Basketball Club in Germany in 1993.
The program plays its games in the Frank Neill Rush Gymnasium with a seating capacity of 1,800.