The Missouri Tigers intercollegiate athletics programs represent the University of Missouri, located in Columbia. The name comes from a band of armed Union Home Guards called the Fighting Tigers of Columbia who, in 1864, protected Columbia from Confederate guerrillas during the American Civil War.
The University of Missouri (often referred to as Mizzou or MU) is the flagship institution of the University of Missouri System. Mizzou is a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and is the only NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision program in Missouri. Its wrestling program, the only wrestling program sponsored by an SEC member school, competes as an affiliate member of the Big 12 Conference.
Prior to joining the SEC in 2012, Missouri was a charter member of the Big 12 Conference, which was created with the merger of the former Big Eight Conference and four schools from the former Southwest Conference (one of these schools, Texas A&M, joined the SEC with Missouri in 2012), and which began athletic competition in the 1996–97 academic year. Missouri competed in the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association starting in 1907, which officially changed its name to the Big Eight Conference in 1964.
Sports sponsored
Baseball
The first Missouri Tigers baseball team was in 1868. The first recorded season was in 1891, when the Tigers went 2–2. The Tigers won the National Championship in 1954. The presence of former Missouri Tiger baseball players in professional baseball continues to grow each year.
Former MU head coach Tim Jamieson has seen 40 players in his 13-year tenure sign pro contracts. Notable Tiger baseball alumni include Tim Laudner, who played for the 1987 World Champion Minnesota Twins, and Phil Bradley, who played for several teams in the 1980s and early 1990s, and former Major Leaguer Ian Kinsler. In 2006, pitcher Max Scherzer was selected in the first round with the 11th overall pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Scherzer went on to win the Al Cy Young Award with the Detroit Tigers in 2013. In 2008, pitcher Aaron Crow was picked 9th overall by the Washington Nationals.
Basketball
Men's basketball
The men's basketball program has produced several NBA players, including Anthony Peeler, Doug Smith, Jon Sundvold, Steve Stipanovich, Kareem Rush, Keyon Dooling, Linas Kleiza, Thomas Gardner, Jordan Clarkson and DeMarre Carroll. The Tigers were regularly a national power under Norm Stewart, whose tenure spanned four decades but which failed to include a Final Four appearance despite numerous conference championships. The team advanced to the Elite Eight under Quin Snyder in 2002, but inconsistent performance and various improprieties in his leadership of the program caused him to be fired in the midst of an abysmal 2006 season. He was replaced with then-UAB head coach Mike Anderson. In 2009 the team lost in the Elite Eight to the Connecticut Huskies. Then, after a first-round exit from the NCAA tournament in 2011, Anderson took the head coaching position with the University of Arkansas. The head coaching vacancy was filled in early April 2011 with Frank Haith, the former Miami (Florida) head coach who left after the 2013 season to go Tulsa. In 2014, Kim Anderson became the new head basketball coach. The program is now led by Dennis Gates.
The 1920–21 and 1921–22 teams were retroactively named national champions by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.
Women's basketball
The current head coach of the women's basketball program is Robin Pingeton, formerly of Illinois State. She was hired in April 2010 to replace Cindy Stein, who resigned under pressure from boosters and media after the 2009–10 season.