Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Go ’Bart!

STICKS IN THE MUD.

The Hobart lacrosse team, ca. 1908. The intercollegiate sport began at Hobart 10 years prior, and early games were rough in every sense. The 1898 Echo recounts the inaugural competition: “The 12 Hobart men, indistinguishable from the Cornell team because of the mud, handled their sticks, with several exceptions, like shovels…All that afternoon, despite the driving rain and slippery mud, the first Hobart College lacrosse team ever to take the field held a powerful and more experienced Cornell team in check. Finally the game ended with Hobart the victor by a 2 to 1 score.”

BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK…

Hobart laxers celebrating in the midst of the legendary run of 10 consecutive NCAA Division III Championships under the tutelage of Coach Dave Urick. The Statesmen still hold the record for the most D-III national lacrosse championships, with 13 titles between 1980 and 1993.

UNDEFEATED.

In 1954, the Statesmen were the only undefeated football team in the state, finishing the season 8–0. The Echo predicted they would “be looked upon in future years as one of the finest ever to display the Purple and Orange.” Nearly 70 years on, the ’54 squad is still the only Hobart football team to go unbeaten, though teams in the early ’70s and 2010s came close, reviving that high scoring, steamrolling momentum.

EXTRA INNINGS.

Intercollegiate baseball was played at Hobart beginning in 1860, making it the College’s first athletics program. After a nearly 30-year hiatus, the sport returns to varsity status this fall. The 1992 team — honored as a Team of Distinction in 2013 — posted a 25–12–1 overall record and earned the program’s first NCAA Championship bid.

VICTORY LAP.

“Win or lose, the Hobart warriors and the Hobart rooters never said quits,” observed journalist Arch Merrill, 1920. The determination of the Statesmen and their fans has fueled success on the water, the ice, the court and the field. Since 1995, Hobart teams have won more than 40 conference championships, including two each for squash and tennis, three each for basketball and soccer, six for hockey, 11 for football and a staggering 15 consecutive Liberty League championships for rowing.

SMOOTH SAILING.

The Hobart Navy, a.k.a. the Boating Club or the Hobart Aquatic Association, was founded in the late 1800s — a precursor to the HWS sailing team, which in 2005 won the ICSA National Championship for both Coed Dinghy and Team Race.