La Salle Explorers is the name of the athletic teams from La Salle University

La Salle University

La Salle University is a private, co-educational, Roman Catholic university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Named for St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, the school was founded in 1863 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. As of 2008 the school has approximately 7,554...

. The school's 23 varsity sports teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and are a member of the Atlantic Ten Conference

Atlantic Ten Conference

The Atlantic 10 Conference is a college athletic conference which operates mostly on the United States' eastern seaboard. It also has two member schools in Ohio: Dayton and Xavier, located in Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. Another member, Saint Louis is located in St. Louis, Missouri...

. The American football team previously played in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. MAAC teams compete in the NCAA's Division I. Most of the members are Catholic or formerly Catholic institutions; the only exception is the private but secular Rider...

 Football League and competed in the Division I-Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). The men's and women's basketball teams are also part of the Philadelphia Big 5

Philadelphia Big 5

The Philadelphia Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is not a conference; indeed the five schools that are members of the Big 5 are members of three separate conferences: the Atlantic 10, the Big East, and the Ivy League.The five...

. The Explorers nickname derives from a famous mistake made by a local Philadelphia sportswriter. The writer thought the university was named after the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 explorer Sieur de La Salle, when in fact it is named after St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle

Jean-Baptiste de La Salle

Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle or John Baptist de La Salle was a priest, educational reformer, and founder of Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools...

. However, the nickname caught on, and has remained ever since.

La Salle's teams have won two national championships: The 1954 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

1954 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

The 1954 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 24 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 8, 1954, and ended with the championship game on March 20 in Kansas City, Missouri...

 and the 1980 AIAW Field Hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 Championship. The school also won the 1952 National Invitation Tournament

1952 National Invitation Tournament

The 1952 National Invitation Tournament was the 1952 edition of the annual NCAA college basketball competition. The 1952 tournament was won by La Salle University. Tom Gola and Norm Grekin were co-MVPs.-Selected teams:...

 before the tournament became considered "second rate". La Salle's major historic rival has been the Hawks of the Saint Joseph's University

Saint Joseph's University

Saint Joseph's University is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic Jesuit university located partially in the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia and partially in Lower Merion Township and located in the Pennsylvania Main Line, Pennsylvania, United States.The school was founded in 1851 as Saint...

, especially in men's basketball. Not only are both schools situated in Philadelphia, but they are also both Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

, private

Private university

Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...

 institutions.

Despite La Salle's small undergraduate enrollment, the university has had quite a bit of success with its men's basketball program. The team has won eight City Championships (four were shared) and only Duke

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

 (7) has had more National Players of the Year than La Salle (3 - Lionel Simmons, Michael Brooks

Michael Brooks (basketball)

Michael Anthony Brooks is a retired American professional basketball player. At 6'7", he played as forward.-La Salle:...

, and Tom Gola

Tom Gola

Thomas Joseph Gola is a retired American basketball player.-Early Life:Gola was praised as a great all-around player as a high school student at La Salle College High School, where he led the Explorers to a Philadelphia Catholic League Championship...

) . Tom Gola was listed on "ESPN's Countdown to the Greatest" College basketball players as #17. In addition to the National Championship and NIT Championship, La Salle was also a national finalist in the 1955 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

1955 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

-West region:-National Championship:-External links:* on Shrp Sports * , source for much of the information on this page....

 and was named the 53rd "Greatest College Basketball Program of All-Time" by Street & Smith's in January 2005.

Supported Sports

Fall Men's Soccer Women's Soccer Men's Cross Country Cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road... Women's Cross Country Men's Crew Crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard... Women's Crew Women's Volleyball Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive... Field Hockey Field hockey Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

Winter Men's Basketball Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules... Women's Basketball Men's Indoor Track Women's Indoor Track Men's Swimming Swimming (sport) Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...  & Diving Diving Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one... Women's Swimming & Diving

Spring Baseball Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond... Softball Softball Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand... Men's Track & Field Women's Track & Field Men's Tennis Tennis Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all... Women's Tennis Women's Lacrosse Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh... Men's Golf Golf Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

Club Sports Ice hockey Ice hockey Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take... Men's Lacrosse Men's Rugby Rugby football Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:... Ultimate Frisbee Women's Rugby Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...

External links

• Official athletic website