Team Durham (formerly Durham University Athletic Union, DUAU) is a student-run organisation responsible for sport at Durham University. Durham University's sports programme, run by Team Durham, has produced more professional sports people than any other UK university (141 as of 2022) and has twice seen Durham named Times and Sunday Times Sports University of the Year (2015 and 2023). It has ranked in the top three institutions in British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) every season since 2011–12. Six Team Durham alumni or current athletes have won seven Olympic and Paralympic medals since 1996.
Team Durham played first class cricket as Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence and Durham MCC University from 2001 to 2020. The rugby club plays in BUCS Super Rugby, BUCS's flagship competition and the highest level student rugby in the UK, and were league winners in 2019–20 and 2021–22. Team Durham compete as the Durham Palatinates in the top-level Women's British Basketball League.
Team Durham awards the Palatinate, an equivalent of the University Sporting Blue. Famous recipients of a Full Palatinate include cricketer Nasser Hussain, triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and rugby player Phil de Glanville.
Team Durham instituted a policy in 2016 allowing students to train and (if permitted by the national governing body) compete in the team that best fitted their gender identity. This was proposed to the National Union of Students as a model for a national policy.
History
Administrative history
The Durham Colleges Athletic Union was formed by the captains of the men's sports teams in the Durham division of Durham University in 1927, prior to which sports were run directly by the university. A federal Durham University Athletic Union was formed in 1929 with representatives from the Durham Colleges Athletic Union, from the Armstrong College and College of Medicine athletic unions in the Newcastle division of the university, and from the men's and women's university teams. From 1931 it was affiliated as a full member to the Universities Athletic Union (now British Universities and Colleges Sport; BUCS).
In 1946, the Durham Colleges Athletic Union merged with the Durham Colleges Women's Athletic Union, which had been formed in 1938. It became the Durham University Athletic Union in 1963, when the Newcastle division of the university became the independent Newcastle University. In 2002, Gabby Logan launched Durham University's "Team Durham" initiative to provide coaching and facilities for talented athletes. The athletics union was re-branded as Team Durham in 2006.
As a consequence of the Charities Act 2006, which removed exempt charitable status from students' unions, Team Durham was, along with a number of other student associations and some junior common rooms, legally incorporated into the university as a Durham Student Organisation in 2011.
Sporting history
Sport at Durham University dates back to the university's foundation, with boats having raced in the first Durham Regatta in 1834, at the end the first academic year. The first recorded university cricket match was in 1842.
After the formation of the athletics unions and joining the Universities Athletics Union, Durham's first national titles came in men's cricket, with victories in 1938 and 39. These were the only victories until after the Second World War, when victories came in women's netball in 1949, 50 and 51, men's tennis in 1949, men's rugby union in 1951 and 55, mixed rifles in 1951, men's fencing in 1952, 53, 59 and 60, men's golf in 1953, men's association football in 1956, men's badminton in 1957 and 59, men's table tennis in 1957, 58 and 59, women's fencing in 1959 and 62, and women's tennis in 1960, before the separation of the Newcastle division in 1963.
In recent years, Team Durham was ranked second (behind Loughborough) in the BUCS overall championship in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. They came third (behind Loughborough and Nottingham) in 2019 and 2022 (the 2019–20 season was incomplete, and the 2020–21 season did not happen, due to COVID). Durham were ranked top in BUCS for team sports in 2014-15, when they also became only the second team (after Loughborough) to gain over 4000 BUCS points. Both of these achievements were repeated in 2015-16. In 2016-17, Durham had 30 top tier BUCS teams, three more than closest rivals Loughborough, and had a total of 119 teams entered in BUCS competitions, the most of any UK university.
Durham University Boat Club held the BUCS rowing Victor Ludorum for ten years consecutively from 2004 until 2013 and regained it in 2015.