Let’s Go Violets! Dive into Sports at NYU (2024)

This year marked NYU Athletics’ best year ever. NYU Athletics has 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports at its New York City campus. It also has seven intercollegiate teams at NYU Abu Dhabi and six at NYU Shanghai. In New York City, the Women’s Basketball team had a perfect 31-0 season. And they won the NCAA Division III National Championship. The women’s cross-country team finished as the national runner-up. The women’s swimming and diving team finished third—the program’s best—while the men’s team landed in fourth place at the NCAA Division III Championship. Additionally, the men’s and women’s volleyball teams made it to the NCAA Division III Final Four. What’s more, NYU Athletics completed the 2023 winter season as the No. 1 NCAA Division III school in the nation.

But it wasn’t just a year of stellar performances. NYU Athletics also moved into its new home at the John A. Paulson Center in August 2023. The Paulson Center offers varsity and non-varsity athletes as well as active students access to state-of-the-art fitness resources and facilities.

While this year will certainly go down in history, it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to athletic success at NYU. Read on to learn more about NYU’s unique history and offerings in the world of sports.

No one knows exactly where the nickname “Violets” came from. Some think the violets that once grew abundantly in Washington Square Park inspired it. Others believe it’s because the ancient Greeks used it as a symbol of education and knowledge. Regardless, the Violets is the name NYU athletes have competed under for more than 100 years. And for a short stint in the 1980s, students dressed up as violets at athletic competitions. Though creative, students quickly determined a flower wasn’t intimidating enough to be the school’s mascot. So in search of something that truly captured the NYU spirit, the University turned to the BOBst Library card CATalog: BobCat. And from there the Bobcat mascot was born.

While NYU no longer has American football among its varsity athletic teams, it has a rich history in the sport. NYU was one of the first colleges in the nation to house a college football team when it took the field in 1873. Additionally, the Heisman Trophy, awarded to college football’s most valuable player every year, was modeled after 1930s NYU football star Ed Smith.

More recently, NYU Athletics made history when Kim Wyant became the first-ever female head coach of an NCAA men’s soccer team. Wyant, a former goalkeeper for the USA Women’s National Team, took the program’s helm in 2015 and has had tremendous success since.

Off the playing field, court, and pitch, NYU students have access to numerous opportunities to follow their passion for sports. For example, at the Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport, undergraduates can focus their studies on sport management. This degree program prepares students for careers in sports-related jobs around the globe. What’s more, the faculty members are professionals from all disciplines in the arena. For example, you can study sports law with Olympian Cameron Myler. Or enroll in the How Basketball Can Save the World course with best-selling author and sports business adviser David Hollander.

Students are also involved in the annual NYU Sports Film Festival. In fact, students run it. The festival was created to showcase and celebrate the powerful intersection of sports and film. Lecturers from HBO Sports, NFL Films, and ESPN, among others, are featured. This year Olympic gymnast and NYU Tisch School of the Arts student Laurie Hernandez gave the opening remarks.

And finally, New York City is a mecca of sports entertainment. So it should be no surprise that NYU students intern at some of the top sports leagues, networks, agencies, and businesses in the world. Additionally, Real World courses at NYU’s School of Professional Studies offer students insight into networks like ESPN and FOX Sports and leagues like the NBA and the NFL.

Kelly McHugh-Stewart is Assistant Director of Content Strategy and Development for NYU’s University Relations and Public Affairs Office of Marketing Communications. Through her writing, she seeks out and enjoys telling stories that help people understand the world through a new lens. Kelly holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School and a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kansas State University. Her reporting and personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, CNN Opinion, and Sports Illustrated, among others.