Haverford Fords | |
---|---|
University | Haverford College |
Conference | Centennial Conference |
NCAA | Division III |
Athletic director | Wendy Smith '87 |
Location | Haverford, Pennsylvania |
Varsity teams | 23 (10 male, 12 female, 1 co-ed) |
Mascot | Black squirrel (unofficial) |
Website | www |
The Haverford Fords compete at the NCAA Division III level in the Centennial Conference. The program has a rich history in collegiate athletics. Haverford boasts the only varsity cricket team in the United States. Its men's and women's track and field and cross country teams are perennial powerhouses in their division. The outdoor track and field team won the first 16 Centennial Conference championships, and men's cross country has won all but two Centennial Conference championships. The soccer team is among the nation's oldest, having won its first intercollegiate match in 1905 against Harvard College. The lacrosse team has placed well nationally in the NCAA championships, while Haverford's fencing team has competed since the early 1930s.
Haverford has a long tradition of producing great tennis players, such as Natty Sergay and Alex Shin. Recently, the team has been known for recruiting the most athletes from the state of Hawaii out of all NCAA varsity athletic teams.
Haverford boasts the only varsity cricket team in the United States, and ESPN Magazine has called Haverford "the epicenter of Philadelphia's cricket craze". The team, which was started in 1833, is generally accepted as the first cricket club exclusively for Americans. Haverford has a strong rivalry with the University of Pennsylvania's club team. The first match in this series was played in 1864 and has been believed to be the third-oldest intercollegiate contest in America, after the 1852 Harvard-Yale crew and 1859 Amherst-Williams baseball matches. The Intercollegiate Cricket Association existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1881–1924), and Haverford won its championship 19 times (1884, 1890 (tie), 1892 (tie), 1893, 1895, 1896, 1898, 1902, 1903 (tie), 1904, 1905, 1906 (tie), 1910, 1915, 1916, 1919, 1922 (tie), 1923, 1924). Haverford's current team has a heavy contingent of students of South Asian heritage, and the XI team regularly travels to Oxbridge for games.