The Yale Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. The school sponsors 35 varsity sports. The school has won two NCAA national championships in women's fencing, four in men's swimming and diving, 21 in men's golf, one in men's hockey, one in men's lacrosse, and 16 in sailing.
In 1970 the NCAA banned Yale from participating in all NCAA sports for two years, in reaction to Yale -- against the wishes of the NCAA -- playing its Jewish center Jack Langer in college games after Langer had played for Team United States at the 1969 Maccabiah Games in Israel with the approval of Yale President Kingman Brewster. The decision impacted 300 Yale students, every Yale student on its sports teams, over the next two years.
Championships
NCAA team championships
Yale has 29 NCAA team national championships.
Men's (27) Golf † (21): 1897, 1898, 1902, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1943 Ice Hockey (1): 2013 Lacrosse (1): 2018 Swimming (4): 1942, 1944, 1951, 1953 Women's (2) Fencing (2): 1984, 1985
Notable alumni
Sada Jacobson (born 1983), Olympic fencing saber silver and bronze medalist, and 2-time NCAA champion.
† The NCAA started sponsoring the intercollegiate golf championship in 1939, but it retained the titles from the 41 championships previously conferred by the National Intercollegiate Golf Association in its records. see also: Ivy League NCAA team championships List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships
Men's sports
Baseball
Major leaguers pitcher Craig Breslow (Oakland A's and Boston Red Sox) and catcher Ryan Lavarnway (Boston Red Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers), among others, played baseball for the Bulldogs. Perhaps Yale's most notable baseball player, however, was future U.S. president George H. W. Bush, who played for the Bulldogs in the late 1940s.
Breslow led the Ivy League with a 2.56 ERA in 2002. Lavarnway led the NCAA in batting average (.467) and slugging percentage (.873) in 2007, set the Ivy League hitting-streak record (25), and through 2010 held the Ivy League record in career home runs (33). In August 2012, Breslow and Lavarnway, playing for the Red Sox, became the first Yale grads to be Major League teammates since 1949.
Men's basketball
The men's basketball team has been named national champion on six occasions – in 1896, 1897, 1899, and 1900 by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll, which began retroactive selections with the 1895–96 season; and in 1901 and 1903 by the Helms Athletic Foundation, which began retroactive selections with the 1900–01 season. Penn and Yale played in the First College Basketball game with 5 men on a team in 1897.
Yale has won seven Ivy League championships – 1957, 1962, 1963, 2002, 2016, 2019 and 2020. It also won the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League, the forerunner to the Ivy League, eight times – 1902, 1903, 1907, 1915, 1917, 1923, 1933 and 1949.
Men's crew
Football
The football team has competed since 1876. They have won nineteen national championships when the school competed in what is now known as the FBS. They are perhaps best known for their rivalry with Harvard, known as "The Game". Twenty one former players have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Men's golf
The Yale Men's Golf Team has won 21 collegiate team championships (all except 1943 were bestowed by the National Intercollegiate Golf Association): 1897, 1898 (spring), 1902 (spring), 1905–13, 1915, 1924–26, 1931–33, 1936, 1943. They have crowned 13 individual champions: John Reid, Jr. (1898, spring), Charles Hitchcock, Jr. (1902, fall), Robert Abbott (1905), W. E. Clow, Jr. (1906), Ellis Knowles (1907), Robert Hunter (1910), George Stanley (1911), Nathaniel Wheeler (1913), Francis Blossom (1915), Jess Sweetser (1920), Dexter Cummings (1923, 1924), Tom Aycock (1929). Both are records. They have won 10 Ivy League championships since the League championship was started in 1975: 1984–85, 1988, 1990–91, 1996–97, 2003, 2011, 2018. Both the Men's and Women's Golf Teams play out of the Yale Golf Course which has been ranked the best collegiate golf course in the country by Golfweek.com as well as other news outlets.