The Seattle Redhawks — known as the Seattle Chieftains prior to January 2000 — are the intercollegiate varsity athletic teams of Seattle University of Seattle , Washington . Informally and colloquially, they are referred to as Seattle U. They compete in the NCAA's Division I as a member institution of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The university will become a full member of the West Coast Conference on July 1, 2025.
33-588: Between 1950 and 1971, Seattle competed as an NCAA Division I independent , then joined the West Coast Athletic Conference (now West Coast Conference) in 1971. The Chieftains gained national attention in early 1952 when the basketball team defeated the Harlem Globetrotters . Seattle was led by the O'Brien twins, Eddie and Johnny , of South Amboy, New Jersey ; Johnny became the first college player to score 1,000 points in
66-562: A different level of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), which governs the sport at club level. On March 23, 2022, Lindenwood announced that it would launch a Division I men's varsity program starting in the 2022–23 season, while maintaining its ACHA program. This announcement came shortly after the school announced it was starting a transition from Division II to Division I in July 2022, joining
99-818: A known abusive priest. In 2024, the men's basketball team won the 2024 College Basketball Invitational . On May 10, 2024, the university announced that it would rejoin the West Coast Conference as a full member on July 1, 2025, following a 45-year absence. Seattle University is credited with three official team championships, two at the NAIA level and one NCAA championship. Seattle University sponsors teams in nine men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports: The women's rowing team competes as an independent. NCAA Division I independent schools (basketball) NCAA Division I independent schools are four-year institutions that compete in college athletics at
132-512: A particular sport. No schools are competing as full independents for the 2024–25 season. The most recent full independent, Chicago State, joined the Northeast Conference (NEC) after the conclusion of the 2023–24 season. One school will be competing as an independent in baseball for the 2025 season (2024–25 academic year). Oregon State announced that they would be competing as a baseball independent after their home conference,
165-587: A season and both were named All-Americans . The 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) twins led Seattle to the NIT in Madison Square Garden in 1952 , and then onto its first NCAA Tournament berth in 1953 . The O'Briens were selected in the 1953 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Hawks but were also standouts in baseball. Upon graduation, Eddie and Johnny opted for the diamond and played together in
198-677: A transition from NCAA Division II to Division I in July of 2022, joining the Atlantic Sun Conference . (Another school that started the same transition in 2022, Stonehill, joined the field hockey-sponsoring Northeast Conference . ) However, the ASUN does not sponsor field hockey, and Queens has yet to announce a future field hockey affiliation for its program. As of the current 2024 college football season, three NCAA Division I FBS schools are football independents. The ranks of FBS independents dropped by one when Army departed to join
231-471: A transition from NCAA Division II to Division I in July of 2024, joining the Northeast Conference . However, the NEC does not sponsor men's wrestling, and Mercyhurst has yet to announce a future affiliation for its program. One program previously competed as an independent in the most recent 2023-24 season. Morgan State University added a wrestling team for the 2023-24 season, becoming the only HBCU to field
264-516: A truncated divisional structure in which members of both Division I and Division II compete under identical scholarship limits for a single national championship . Thirteen men's volleyball programs play as independents; all but one are D-II members. Maryville, Missouri S&T, and Rockhurst will leave the independent ranks after the 2025 season once their primary home of the Great Lakes Valley Conference starts sponsoring
297-563: Is a full Division I-AAA member (no football) in all 20 sports. During the 2010–14 NCAA conference realignment , the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) saw a large number of their members leave. From 2011 to 2013, twelve schools left the WAC. In June 2011, the WAC invited Seattle to join as a full member beginning July 2012. Seattle accepted soon after for all of the sports it sponsors at the varsity level except rowing, which
330-761: The American Athletic Conference as an affiliate for football. UMass will become a full member of the Mid-American Conference in 2025. As of the 2024 season, two schools, Merrimack and Sacred Heart, are playing as FCS independents. Both left the football-sponsoring Northeast Conference for the non-football Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference at the end of the 2023–24 school year. There are currently five NCAA Division I independents in men's ice hockey—the University of Alaska Fairbanks (branded athletically as simply "Alaska"),
363-631: The Central Collegiate Hockey Association without the WCHA's three geographic outliers—the two Alaska schools, along with Alabama–Huntsville . Of these three schools, Alaska was the only one that did not initially drop hockey. Alaska-Anchorage's hockey program was suspended in 2020 by the University of Alaska System due to a reduction in state funding, along with the skiing and gymnastics programs. The 2020–21 season
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#1732790569769396-523: The Division of Girls' and Women's Sports (DGWS) — which later evolved into the current NCAA women's golf championship). In March 1980, due to a recession that crippled the region, the administration contemplated dropping intercollegiate athletics. Two months later, SU voluntarily downgraded its athletic program from NCAA Division I to the small-college NAIA , the Chieftains competed at this level for
429-518: The NCAA Division I level, but do not belong to an established athletic conference for a particular sport. These schools may however still compete as members of an athletic conference in other sports. A school may also be fully independent, and not belong to any athletic conference for any sport at all. The reason for independent status varies among institutions, but it is frequently because the school's primary athletic conference does not sponsor
462-502: The Pac-12 , collapsed following the 2023–24 season . Bowling, like beach volleyball, is currently a women-only sport at the NCAA level that holds a single national championship open to all NCAA members. As of 2024–25 season, eight bowling programs compete as independents. One school is a Division I independent in the current 2024 field hockey season. Queens University of Charlotte began
495-513: The University of Kentucky . Seattle was led by consensus All-American and future NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor of Washington, D.C. , who was named most outstanding player of the tournament. In the semifinal on Friday night against tournament favorite Kansas State , he scored 23 points and grabbed 22 rebounds as Seattle won by 22 points in an upset rout, 73–51. In the final the next night, John Castellani 's Chieftains led by three points at
528-558: The major leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1953 to 1958 . Eddie (1930–2014) was later the baseball coach and athletic director at SU. Seattle has eight wins (plus two consolation game victories) in eleven NCAA basketball tournament appearances (all from 1953 to 1969 ); half of the wins came in 1958 when the Chieftains advanced to the championship game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky , against
561-542: The 2022–23 season, but due to the WCHAs aforementioned disbanding, they resumed play as an independent alongside the Nanooks. LIU announced in late April 2020 that it would launch varsity men's hockey for the 2020–21 season. The Sharks have yet to announce a conference home, but played their first season as a scheduling partner of Atlantic Hockey . In 2021–22, Lindenwood fielded two separate men's club teams, each playing at
594-595: The Big Sky in 2014 (& Sun Belt for football), Seattle became the second-longest tenured WAC school after just three seasons in the league. Since joining the conference, the Redhawks have claimed five team titles and three individual titles, and have had four student-athletes named player of the year. Stephanie Verdoia , women's soccer forward, was named two-time WAC Player of the Year, two time Academic All-American and
627-420: The NCAA not sponsoring a championship event at that level. (All other D-II schools with varsity men's ice hockey play under D-I regulations.) Neither Lindenwood nor Stonehill has announced a conference home for its men's hockey program. The most recent departure from the independent ranks was Delaware State, who joined the Northeast Conference as an affiliate in women's soccer in 2023. Men's volleyball has
660-533: The National Collegiate level, the de facto equivalent to Division I in that sport, since the 2018–19 season. In that season, five schools— Franklin Pierce , Post , Sacred Heart , Saint Anselm , and Saint Michael's —competed as independents, all participating in the nascent New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA), which had originally been established in 2017 as a scheduling alliance among all of
693-475: The USA Davis Cup teams in the 1970s. Janet Hopps (tennis) and Pat Lesser (golf) were trailblazers in the advancement of women's sports in the 1950s competing nationally as a part of the men's teams. Seattle native Ruth Jessen attended for a year and was a top LPGA tour player in the 1960s. In 1953, Patricia Lesser won the women's individual intercollegiate golf championship (an event conducted by
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#1732790569769726-493: The University of Alaska Anchorage, Lindenwood University, Long Island University (LIU), and Stonehill College. Alaska became a men's independent after the 2020–21 season due to the demise of its former league, the men's side of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (the WCHA remains in operation as a women-only league). The seven Midwestern members of the men's WCHA left to reestablish
759-437: The WAC does not sponsor and, initially, men's swimming and diving, which the WAC did not sponsor at the time. Men's swimming and diving was added as a WAC-sponsored sport in 2013. The conference dropped football after the 2012 season and in the summer of 2013, only three members from the prior year remained in the conference (Seattle, New Mexico State , and Idaho ). The WAC added six new members in 2013, and when Idaho returned to
792-438: The conference membership to six. No schools are competing as independents in the 2025 season. The most recent men's lacrosse independent, Le Moyne , moved its program to the Northeast Conference following the 2024 season. In the 2025 season (2024–25 school year), no schools compete as independents. No school is independent in the current 2024 men's soccer season. No men's swimming & diving programs are independents in
825-593: The half, but Baylor soon picked up his fourth personal foul , which limited his effectiveness in the second half and Adolph Rupp 's Wildcats won by a dozen, 84–72. During a period in the 1960s, Seattle led the nation with the number of active players in the NBA. Notable basketball alums include Eddie Miles , Tom Workman , Rod Derline , and Clint Richardson , who won an NBA title with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983 . Tennis player Tom Gorman led SU before leading
858-578: The next 21 years. Under the leadership of university president Stephen Sundborg , SJ, Seattle changed its nickname from Chieftains to Redhawks in January 2000. Seattle rejoined the NCAA in 2001 and competed in Division III for a year, then in Division II from 2002 to 2009. For the 2009–10 academic year, Seattle's varsity teams played full schedules against Division I opponents. Although it
891-496: The non-hockey Ohio Valley Conference . On April 5, 2022, Stonehill, then a member of the D-II Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10), announced it was joining the Northeast Conference (which also does not sponsor ice hockey) that July, starting its own transition to D-I. Before this announcement, Stonehill had been one of seven NE-10 members that played men's ice hockey under Division II regulations, despite
924-780: The sport at the Division I level. However, their primary conference, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference , does not sponsor the sport, so they competed as an independent in that sport only. In September of 2024, however, it was announced that Morgan State would join the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association , a wrestling-only conference based in the Northeastern United States . No women's ice hockey teams have played as independents at
957-440: The sport, with Roosevelt and Thomas More joining them as affiliate members. Beach volleyball, currently a women-only sport at the NCAA level, holds a single national championship open to members of all three NCAA divisions. The following programs will compete as independents in the 2025 season (2024–25 school year). As of the current 2024-25 season, one school is a Division I independent in wrestling. Mercyhurst University began
990-482: The then-current National Collegiate independents. The NEWHA initially included six schools, but Holy Cross left after the inaugural 2017–18 NEWHA season to join Hockey East . The NEWHA officially organized as a conference in advance of the 2018–19 season, but was not officially recognized by the NCAA as a Division I league until the 2019–20 season, by which time the newly launched LIU program had joined to return
1023-696: Was named an All-American and the Academic All-American of the Year for women's soccer in 2014. Verdoia also received the Senior CLASS Award as the sport's top scholar-athlete nationally and was the named the 2015 Seattle Sports Commission Female Sports Star of the Year. In 2018, Seattle University's board of trustees renamed the Connolly Complex the Redhawk Center due to Archbishop Thomas Connolly's failure to act on
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1056-543: Was set to be its last, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic , they did not end up playing that season either. The Alaska Board of Regents told the hockey program they would be reinstated if they were able to collect 3 million dollars in donations and fundraising, so the team was on hiatus for both the 2020–21 and 2021–22 season while its future was uncertain. Ultimately, the money was raised, and the Seawolves were reinstated for
1089-608: Was then a Division I independent , the university had initially hoped to rejoin the West Coast Conference (where they played before leaving the NCAA in 1980), since all nine current members were private, religiously affiliated institutions (seven are Catholic and four share Seattle University's Jesuit affiliation ). Seattle also explored membership in the Big Sky Conference , although all of its members played FCS football . Seattle once again became eligible for Division I NCAA Championships beginning in 2012–13, and
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