Ohio Bobcats
The Ohio Bobcats are the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio, United States. Ohio University is a charter member of the Mid-American Conference, is currently in the East Division of that conference, and sponsors teams in six men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The football team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level for college football.
Teams
Baseball and Softball
Ohio's baseball and fastpitch softball teams have storied programs. In 1892, the Ohio University baseball team became the first sports team sponsored at the school, and was followed by the football team in 1894.Baseball
The Ohio baseball program has won 14 MAC regular season titles in 1947, 1948, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1991. The team has also won MAC tournament titles in 1997 and 2015, and has made a College World Series appearance in 1970. There have been a total of 23 Bobcats in the major leagues, and hundreds more in the minors. Most notably, hall of famer Mike Schmidt was a Bobcat, selected 30th in the 1971 Major League Baseball draft by the Philadelphia Phillies following his senior season.Craig Moore is the current head coach for the baseball team; he is the 10th overall and was an assistant coach for the past eight years before becoming the interim head coach in 2020.
Fastpitch softball
Although softball at Ohio University began earlier than the 1970s, records were not well kept. Upon the creation of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, the current program began to take shape. The 1974 team, led by head coach Joyce King, went undefeated, boasting a record of 11–0–1. It was not until 1975 that the program made the switch from slow-pitch to fast-pitch. In that 1975 season, the team went 16–1 and made it to the AIAW Women's College World Series for the first time in program history, where it won two games and lost two. The early success continued as the 1976 team earned a spot in the Ohio State Invitational.The MAC and the NCAA did not begin to recognize women's softball until 1980 and both neglected to sponsor a tournament until 1982. The first MAC tournament featured the Bobcats as the runner-up, losing to their rival Miami of Ohio. In her second season, head coach Tracy Bunge led the Bobcats to the most wins in a season with a record of 39–22, winning their first MAC title and their first appearance in the NCAA regional play.
In the 2014 season, the softball program won its first MAC tournament title. They were able to receive an automatic bid for the NCAA Championship tournament. During this season, they tied their record for most regular season wins at 32, while reaching their first national postseason tournament in 19 years.
The current head coach of the Bobcats is Kenzie Roark, was named the 11th head coach in the history of the OU softball program on August 25, 2017. Her time of coaching at Ohio University has been remarkable, as in her first season the 'Cats posted a 34–21 record only having a losing streak of two during the season.
Basketball
Ohio's home basketball games are played at the 13,080-seat Convocation Center. Located on the West Green of Ohio University's main campus, the venue has a seating capacity of 13,080. Ohio is consistently one of the attendance leaders in the Mid-American Conference and has the ability to draw good crowds, win or lose. The arena was completed in 1968 and is the largest basketball facility in the Mid-American Conference. The Bobcats have won over 75% of their home games since the opening of The Convo. Prior to playing at the Convo, Ohio basketball games were first played in Bentley Hall and then at Grover Center, two buildings that today exist as office space and classrooms for the university. The Convocation Center brought in its largest crowd on February 28, 1970, when 14,102 fans were in attendance to watch the Bobcats men's basketball team defeat the Bowling Green Falcons 77–76.Men's Basketball
The first Ohio basketball game occurred in 1907 when the Bobcats defeated the Parkersburg YMCA 46–9. Since that day, Ohio has posted a.571 winning percentage over their 100-year history and a.566 winning percentage in their 65 years in the Mid-American Conference. The Bobcats have won 7 Mid-American Conference tournament titles in 1983, 1985, 1994, 2005, 2010, 2012, and 2021. As well as 10 MAC regular-season titles in 1960, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1985, 1994, and 2013. Prior to joining the MAC, the 'Cats won an Ohio Athletic Conference title in 1921 and three Buckeye Athletic Association championships in 1931, 1933, and 1937. In addition, Ohio has played in the NCAA tournament 14 times, appearing in 1960, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1983, 1985, 1994, 2005, 2010, 2012, and 2021. The Bobcats have been selected for the National Invitation Tournament 5 times in 1941, 1969, 1986, 1995, and 2013, while also appearing in the College Basketball Invitational in 2008 and 2016, they made 2 appearances in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament in 2011 and 2014. As a result of the storied tradition of Ohio Bobcats basketball, the program was recently ranked 86th in Street & Smith's 100 Greatest Basketball Programs of All Time, published in 2005.Some of Ohio's famous men's basketball coaches include Jim Snyder, Danny Nee, Larry Hunter and John Groce. Jim Snyder led the Bobcats for 26 years and helped Ohio to 7 NCAA Tournament appearances and one NIT appearance. Snyder's teams compiled a 355–255 record, good for a.581 winning percentage. Former Ohio coach Danny Nee led Ohio for 7 years from 1980 to 1986. Nee helped rebuild the program from several years of losing records, and he helped lead the team to 2 MAC Tournament titles, 2 NCAA Tournament appearances, and one NIT appearance. Following Nee's tenure at Ohio, he took a job as head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Today Nee is the head coach of the Duquesne Dukes. Larry Hunter served as head coach of Ohio from 1989 to 2001, compiling a winning percentage of.580. His teams made one NCAA Tournament appearance in 1994, an NIT appearance in 1995, and won the Pre-Season NIT in 1994. Despite his record as coach of the Bobcats, Hunter was relieved of his duties in 2001 for a lack of postseason success. Hunter later was the head coach of the Western Carolina Catamounts.
Ohio's head coach from 2001 to 2008 was Tim O'Shea. Coach O'Shea resigned on Monday, June 23, 2008, in order to become the head coach of Bryant University in Rhode Island. Coach O'Shea had arrived at Ohio in 2001 after 4 seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Boston College. He came to Athens on March 29, 2001, and vowed to take the Ohio men's basketball program to what he called the "next level". This next-level was realized in 2005 as he led to Bobcats to a 21–11 record, a MAC Tournament Title, and an NCAA Tournament appearance in which 13 seed Ohio nearly upset 4 seed Florida. O'Shea's 2005–2006 team proved successful as well, posting a 19–11 record with wins over teams such as Rhode Island and Samford, and a close loss to Kentucky. The 2006–2007 team also posted 19 wins, with a final record of 19–13. A 20 win campaign was had in the 2007–2008 season, including notable non-conference wins over Maryland, St. John's, George Mason, and Bucknell. The team was extended an invite to the College Basketball Invitational, where the Bobcats advanced to the second round. On June 27, 2008, former Ohio State Buckeyes associate head coach John Groce was named the sixteenth head coach in Bobcats history. Groce brings fourteen years of assistant coaching experience to Athens, along with a pair of outright Big Ten regular-season titles, two NCAA tournament appearances, a berth in the 2007 NCAA National Championship game and the 2008 NIT title.
On March 18, 2010, the men's basketball program recorded a 97–83 blowout of the Georgetown Hoyas. The upset marked the first time in NCAA tournament history that a fourteen seed defeated a three seed by double digits. Ohio defeated 4th seeded Michigan in the 2012 Tournament. They followed up the 2012 victory over Michigan with a 62–56 win over 12th seeded South Florida, reaching the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 1964. On March 28, 2012, John Groce left the program to coach at the University of Illinois. He was replaced by Texas Christian University head coach Jim Christian on April 3, 2012. Christian became Ohio University's highest-paid faculty member in school history, having a base salary of $425,000 a year. He was replaced two years later on the same day after he got a coaching job at Boston College by Saul Phillips. Phillips was the head coach of North Dakota State.
Ohio hired Jeff Boals to replace Phillips as the head coach for the Bobcats on March 17, 2019. Boals spent the past three seasons as the head coach at Stony Brook going 55–41 overall and 31–17 in America East play. Boals is a 1995 graduate of Ohio and was a two-time captain while garnering four varsity letters under the leadership of his head coach, the late Larry Hunter. The 2021 season culminated with another NCAA tournament berth and an upset victory over Virginia, followed by a large crowd taking to Court Street to celebrate.