UMass Minutewomen
| UMass Minutemen | |
|---|---|
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| University | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Conference |
Atlantic 10 for most sports Hockey East (hockey) Colonial Athletic Association (lacrosse) Independent (football) |
| NCAA |
Division I (FBS in football) |
| Athletic director | Ryan Bamford |
| Location | Amherst, Massachusetts |
| Varsity teams | 19 varsity teams |
| Football stadium |
Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium Gillette Stadium |
| Basketball arena | William D. Mullins Memorial Center |
| Mascot | Sam the Minuteman |
| Nickname | Minutemen/Minutewomen |
| Fight song | Fight Mass |
| Colors | Maroon and White |
| Website | umassathletics |
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The UMass Minutemen are the athletic teams that represent the University of Massachusetts Amherst; strictly speaking, the Minutemen nickname applies to men's teams and athletes only — women's teams and athletes are known as Minutewomen. The Minutemen and Minutewomen compete in NCAA Division I sports competition primarily as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. UMass is one of only 15 universities in the nation that plays Division I FBS football and Division I men's ice hockey (six of which are in the Big Ten Conference). The nickname is also applied to club teams that do not participate within the NCAA structure.
When athletic teams were first fielded by Massachusetts Agricultural College, the popular nickname was "Statesmen", in honor of the roles of Massachusetts statesmen in the founding of the country. Although "Aggies" was also used, by 1948 the school, which had changed their name to the University of Massachusetts the year before, decided a new nickname was in order. From the leading choices, Redmen was chosen, both for the roles Native Americans served in the history of the Commonwealth and for their "strength and fierceness in defending his lands."
However, by 1972, Native Americans in the region were calling the choice of nickname into question for the derogatory connotations of the name. The administration began requesting that the name was used as little as possible, and by the end of the 1972 spring semester, the Board of Trustees chose to change the nickname to Minutemen, one of the choices that was a finalist in 1948. The name was chosen for its ties to the history of the Commonwealth, as the Minutemen were instrumental in the early stages of the American Revolution. Though there was some controversy in the 1990s over the mascot being perceived as "a symbol of oppression," the mascot has remained the Minutemen and Minutewomen.
The school's colors are maroon and white. Their mascot is Sam the Minuteman, a colonial based on the Concord Minute Man's imagery.
A member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, the University of Massachusetts sponsors teams in ten men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports:
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