:RIT Tigers

Men's basketball at RIT started with the 1915–16 season. In the 1955–56 season under coach A. Leo Fox, they went undefeated with 17 wins and 0 losses, success that led local media to dub the team "Tigers". (The college then adopted the nickname for all athletic teams, replacing "Techmen".)

They participated in the NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament in 1976, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, and 2009.{{cite web |title=Men's Basketball Records |url=https://ritathletics.com/documents/2022/3/29/MBBallRecords2122.pdf |website=RIT Athletics |access-date=November 22, 2022 |language=en |date=February 2022}}

The Tigers were coached by Bob McVean for 40 seasons from 1983 to 2024. For three seasons in a row from 1994 to 1997, McVean earned EAA Coach of the Year honors as the Tigers finished with 20 or more wins and qualified for the NCAA tournament each year.{{cite web |title=Men's Basketball Coach Bob McVean announces retirement |url=https://ritathletics.com/news/2024/3/18/mens-basketball-coach-bob-mcvean-announces-retirement.aspx |website=RIT Athletics |publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology |access-date=10 April 2024 |language=en |date=18 March 2024}}

File:Basketball shot, RIT yearbook 1968 page 272.jpg

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File:Players with coach, RIT yearbook 1988 page 155.jpg

Women's basketball began at RIT with their first varsity match on January 6, 1988, when they lost to the Brockport Golden Eagles 73–39. Their first postseason appearance took place in the 2007 Empire 8 tournament. They appeared in the NCAA Division III tournament in 2017, 2018, and 2019.{{cite web |title=Women's Basketball Records |url=https://ritathletics.com/documents/2022/3/9/WBBallRecords_2022.pdf |website=RIT Athletics |access-date=November 22, 2022 |language=en |date=March 2022}}

File:Football team in color, RIT yearbook 1978 page 35.jpg

RIT had an early football team that ceased playing circa 1922. In 1968, a club football team was formed, and in 1971, football became a university-sanctioned sport as the team joined NCAA Division II.{{cite news |title=Grid program discontinued |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RIT_NandE_1978_Jan9_Complete.pdf?page=10 |work=RIT News and Events |date=January 9, 1978 |page=10 |language=en}} They moved to NCAA Division III in 1973.{{cite web |url=https://stats.ncaa.org/teams/history/MFB/580 |title=RIT Football history |website=NCAA Statistics |access-date=November 22, 2022 |lang=en}} In January 1978, after seven seasons, RIT discontinued its football program on the basis that they would not be able to commit sufficient funding to the team.

{{main|RIT Tigers men's ice hockey}}

File:RIT Men's Hockey vs RMU Feb 23 2019.jpg

The men's ice hockey at RIT dates back to an amateur team founded by an RIT student in 1957.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} Men's ice hockey became a varsity sport at RIT when they debuted in NCAA Division II in the 1962–63 season.{{cite web |title=RIT Men's Ice Hockey History |url=https://stats.ncaa.org/teams/history/MIH/580 |website=NCAA Statistics |access-date=November 21, 2022 |language=en}} They won the 1983 NCAA Division II tournament and the 1985 NCAA Division III tournament. They moved up to NCAA Division I for the 2005–06 season.{{cite web|url=http://www.ritathletics.com/news/2004/12/15/mhock121504.aspx?path=mhock|title=Men's Hockey Going Division I}}

{{main|RIT Tigers women's ice hockey}}

The RIT women's hockey team began with the 1975–76 season. They won the 2012 NCAA Division III tournament before moving up to NCAA Division I the following season. They now compete in College Hockey America, part of NCAA Division I.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

File:Lacrosse action shot 2, RIT yearbook 1987 page 139.jpg

The RIT Tigers men's lacrosse team dates back to 1964, when a lacrosse club was organized on campus. The club played their first season in the spring of 1966.{{cite book |title=Techmila '67 |date=1967 |publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology |page=219 |url=https://www.rit.edu/alumni/DrupalFiles/yearbook/pdfs/1967.pdf#page=224 |language=en |format=PDF}} In 1968, men's lacrosse became a university-sanctioned sport and the Tigers played their first season in NCAA Division II. They moved down to Division III beginning with the 1974 season.{{cite web |title=RIT Men's Lacrosse History |url=http://stats.ncaa.org/teams/history/MLA/580 |website=NCAA Statistics |access-date=8 February 2022 |language=en}}

In 2021, the RIT Tigers won the 2021 NCAA Division III tournament, defeating the Salisbury Sea Gulls in the championship game to cap off an undefeated season.{{cite web |last1=Finnerty |first1=Bob |title=Celebrating the Tigers' national championship season |url=https://www.rit.edu/news/celebrating-tigers-national-championship-season |website=RIT |access-date=8 February 2022 |language=en |date=June 2, 2021}} The team would repeat as national champions in 2022 when they defeated Union College, 12–10.{{cite web |last1=Mlodzinski |first1=Mat |title=RIT men's lacrosse repeats as Division III national champions |url=https://www.whec.com/sports/rit-mens-lacrosse-repeats-as-division-iii-national-champions/6486078/?cat=571 |website=WHEC News10NBC |access-date=30 May 2022 |language=en |date=29 May 2022}}

File:Men's soccer celebrates goal vs Fredonia, RIT NandE Vol16Num10 1984 Nov15 Complete.jpg

RIT's men's soccer team records go back to 1960. They play in NCAA Division III. {{as of|2021|post=,}} their best performance in the NCAA Division III men's soccer tournament came in 1988, when they lost 3–0 in the final game to the UC San Diego Tritons.{{cite web |title=RIT Men's Soccer Records |url=https://ritathletics.com/documents/2021/12/9/2021_Men_s_Soccer_Records.pdf |website=RIT Athletics |access-date=November 21, 2022 |language=en |date=December 2021}}

File:Women's soccer action, RIT yearbook 1985 page 115.jpg

RIT's women's soccer team dates back to 1982.{{cite web |title=RIT Women's Soccer Records |url=https://ritathletics.com/documents/2021/12/9/WSoccer_Records_2021.pdf |website=RIT Athletics |access-date=November 21, 2022 |language=en |date=December 2021}} They play in NCAA Division III.{{cite web |title=RIT Women's Soccer History |url=https://stats.ncaa.org/teams/history/WSO/580 |website=NCAA Statistics |access-date=November 21, 2022 |language=en}}

RIT was a long-time member of the Empire 8, an NCAA Division III athletic conference, but moved to the Liberty League beginning with the 2011–12 academic year. All of RIT's teams compete at the Division III level, with the exception of the men's and women's ice hockey programs, which play at the Division I level. In 2010, the men's ice hockey team was the first ever from the Atlantic Hockey conference to reach the NCAA tournament semi-finals: The Frozen Four.{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/college-sports/news/story?id=5034580 |title=RIT – RIT downs UNH, reaches Frozen Four |publisher=ESPN.com |access-date=2010-03-28}}

On March 17, 2012, the women's ice hockey team, after finishing the regular season with a record of 28–1–1, won its first NCAA Division III national championship, defeating the defending champion Norwich University 4–1. The women's team had carried a record of 54–3–3 over their past 2 regular seasons leading up to that point.{{cite web|url=http://ritathletics.com/news/2012/3/17/WHOCKEY_0317123829.aspx |title=RIT Women's Hockey wins NCAA Division III National Title |publisher=RIT Athletics |access-date=March 30, 2012}} Three days later, RIT successfully applied for the women's hockey team to move from Division III to Division I. Starting in the 2012–13 season, the women's team joined the College Hockey America conference, and was eligible for conference postseason play, but not NCAA postseason play. The moratorium on the NCAA postseason was lifted 2 years later beginning with the 2014–15 season.{{cite web|url=http://ritathletics.com/news/2012/3/20/WHOCKEY_0320123536.aspx |title=RIT Women's Hockey Making Move To Division I |publisher=RIT Athletics |access-date=March 30, 2012}}

Additionally, RIT has a wide variety of club, intramural, and pick-up sports and teams to provide a less-competitive recreational option to students.

Tom Coughlin, coach of the NFL's 2008 and 2012 Super Bowl champion New York Giants, taught physical education and coached the RIT Men's Varsity Football team in the 1970s.

Since 1968 the school's hockey teams played at Frank Ritter Memorial Ice Arena on campus, but in 2010, the school launched the "Power Play" campaign, in which it hoped to raise 15 of the 30 million dollars it would cost to build a new arena.{{cite web|url=http://www.rit.edu/powerplay |title=RIT Power Play Campaign |publisher=Rochester Institute of Technology |access-date=March 30, 2012}} On November 11, 2011 it was announced that B. Thomas Golisano and the Polisseni Foundation were donating 4.5 million to the new arena, which came to be named the Gene Polisseni Center.{{cite web|title=Future RIT Hockey Arena to Become the Gene Polisseni Center|url=http://www.ritathletics.com/news/2011/11/11/MHOCKEY_1111115032.aspx}} The new 4,300 seat arena was completed in 2014 and the Men's and Women's teams moved into the new facility in September for the 2014–15 season.

File:Tigers bench championship celebration, RIT NandE Vol14Num46 1983 Mar24 Complete.jpg

File:Rochester Institute of Technology Bengal Tiger statue.jpg

RIT's athletics nickname is the "Tigers", a name given following the undefeated men's basketball season of 1955–56. Prior to that, RIT's athletic teams were called the "Techmen" and had blue and silver as the sports colors. In 1963, RIT purchased a rescued Bengal tiger which became the Institute's mascot, named SPIRIT. He was taken to sports events until late spring, when he was moved to the Seneca Park Zoo. A year and a half later, when X-rays revealed he was suffering from genetic pelvic and leg joint problems, he was humanely euthanized.{{cite web |url=http://www2.rit.edu/175/ritmemories.html |title=RIT – 175 Year Anniversary |publisher=.rit.edu |access-date=2010-07-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620165242/https://www2.rit.edu/175/ritmemories.html |archive-date=2010-06-20 }} The original tiger's pelt now resides in the school's archives at the on-campus library. RIT helped the Seneca Park Zoo purchase a new tiger shortly after SPIRIT's death, but it was not used as a school mascot. A metal sculpture in the center of the Henrietta campus now provides an everlasting version of the mascot.

RIT's team mascot is a version of this Bengal Tiger named RITchie. RITchie was the selected name entered in 1989 by alumnus Richard P. Mislan {{cite web|url=http://www.mislan.com/awards.aspx |title=Mislan Awards |publisher=.mislan.com |access-date=2012-08-04}} during a College Activities Board "Name the RIT Tiger" contest. After it was announced that the RIT men's hockey team was moving from Division III to Division I in 2005, RITchie was redesigned and made his debut in the fall of 2006.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Scott|first1=Pitoniak|title=Frozen in Time: the History of RIT Hockey|date=2015|publisher=RIT Press|location=Rochester, NY|isbn=978-1939125170}}

{{commons cat}}

• {{Official website}}
• [https://stats.ncaa.org/team/index?org_id=580 RIT] at NCAA Statistics

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