Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
Encyclopedia
The Blue Raiders are the men's and women's athletic teams at Middle Tennessee State University
. MTSU athletic teams participate in NCAA Division I (Bowl Subdivision in football) in the Sun Belt Conference
. MT competed in the Ohio Valley Conference
until 2000.
The university's athletic teams simply refer to the school as "Middle Tennessee" or "MT", abandoning the words "State University".
, a Confederate
General. Because of Forrest's ties to the Ku Klux Klan
, the mascot was later changed to a blue-colored scent hound
dog
named "Ole Blue" in the 1970s.
MTSU's current mascot is a blue winged horse
named "Lightning," adopted as the mascot in 1998, when the athletics department updated its image in preparation for the 1999 upgrade to Division I-A football and subsequent transfer to the Sun Belt Conference. Lightning symbolizes the university's aerospace program and the region's heritage in the walking horse industry. It also symbolized the university "taking flight" as part of its "Soarin' To The Sun" public relations campaign when the school joined the Sun Belt.
NCAA
-sanctioned athletic teams include:
MEN:
WOMEN:
MT also fields teams in club sports such as rugby union
, ice hockey
and inline hockey
. These "club sports" are not sanctioned by the university, though each team does receive funding as a student organization. They are also authorized to use school logos, wordmarks, and identities. These teams do not compete at the NCAA level, though they do compete against other colleges and universities within unofficial intercollegiate organizations.
MT also has a very active equestrian team which competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in both huntseat and western division. Though a club team, the members have won several individual national championships and were as a team the 2003 National Western Reserve Champions.
MT has won two NCAA national championships in team sports: golf
(1965) and men's tennis doubles (2007). However, seven individuals have won national championships. All were in golf or track. The most recent of these came in 2003 when sprinter Marty Scales captured the NCAA Men's 100 meter sprint title.
MTSU Track has a storied history including 43 conference titles, 18 NCAA top-25 finishes and 80 All-American awards. The program has been led since 1965 by legendary coach Dean Hayes.
The MTSU Baseball program has enjoyed a storied history as well. The Blue Raiders have won 16 conference titles. For the last 35 seasons the Blue Raiders have been coached by two men. The last 21 of those years it has been Steve Peterson at the helm. The Blue Raiders have made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances. Their best turnout was in 1982 when the Blue Raiders fell one game short of making the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. In 2009, Rawley Bishop, Nathan Hines, and Bryce Brentz all broke several team and league records to lead the Blue Raiders to the 2009 Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament titles.
MTSU's football program has enjoyed success as well. The Blue Raiders have won 12 conference titles, the most recent being in 2006. That year, the Blue Raiders won their second Sun Belt Conference championship and received a bid to play in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, Mich., the programs first major Division 1-A bowl game. In 2009 the team became the first Sun Belt Conference team to reach 10 wins in a single season. The team finished the season 10-3 with their first bowl win over Southern Mississippi in the New Orleans Bowl. MTSU has had 13 head coaches including Johnny "Red" Floyd, the man who the football stadium is named after. Floyd has the highest winning percentage of any of the MTSU head football coaches. Also possibly the most famous coach in MTSU history was Charles Murphy. Murphy has the longest tenure of any Blue Raider football coach and also has the most wins. In fact in one four year period from 1956–1959, Murphy's teams won four straight Ohio Valley Conference championships. The Blue Raiders are currently led by Rick Stockstill.
The MTSU Women's Basketball program, currently coached by Rick Insell, has a long record of success including a number of appearances in the NCAA and WNIT basketball tournaments dating back to the 1970s. The Blue Raiders won the Sun Belt Conference championship in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009, receiving the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Women's Tournament
. In 2008, the team lost in the Sun Belt Championship game, and received a bid to play in the WNIT. The MTSU Women's team has been home to the NCAA's leading scorer for the past two consecutive seasons: Amber Holt
in 2008, and Alysha Clark
in 2009.
The MTSU Women's Volleyball program has developed into a national power with consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships and NCAA tournament bids in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 the Blue Raiders advanced to the NCAA tournament second round and followed that up in 2007 with a "sweet 16" appearance to conclude the best season in team history.
The 2008 Blue Raider Men's Golf team advanced to the NCAA tournament final round (16 teams) and finished ranked 15th in the nation.
The university's main athletics building, the Charles M. Murphy Center
, lies on the northwest corner of MTSU's campus. Inside the Murphy Center is Monte Hale
basketball arena, which seats 11,520. The Murphy Center also features athletic offices, classrooms, axillary gyms, and an indoor track.
Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium, named after a former MTSU football coach, lies adjacent to the Murphy Center. The stadium features 31,788 seats and a Sportexe PowerBlade playing surface, installed in 2006.
MTSU also features many smaller stadiums for various other sports. MTSU's baseball stadium, Reese Smith Jr. Field
, was recently renovated in 2008. It holds 3,000 seats. The MTSU softball stadium, located next to the Recreation Center, was renovated in 2006. The stadium seats over 1,000 fans. The Dean Hayes Track and Soccer Field, named for the very successful former MTSU track coach, lies on the northern edge of campus. Seating capacity is 1,500.
Because of MTSU's central location in the state, the athletic facilities at MTSU are the site of many Tennessee state high school championship games and matches.
Trojans
and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
. The chief basketball rival are the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
.
Plus, and can either be seen locally or on ESPN's pay-per-view "Gameplan" service. The Blue Raiders can also been seen occasionally on ESPN2.
MTSU men's basketball games can be heard on 1450 AM WGNS
, and 89.5 FM WMOT
.
MTSU women's basketball, plus occasional baseball and softball games, can be heard on 88.3 FM WMTS-FM
.
Cumulus Media
's ESPN
106.7 The Fan WNFN
in Nashville became the flagship station for MTSU football in August 2006. The football games also remain on WMOT.
MTSU also provides live audio and video broadcasts of women's soccer through their website www.GoBlueRaiders.com, with David Powell providing commentary since the 2006 season.
Middle Tennessee State University
Middle Tennessee State University, commonly abbreviated as MTSU, is a public university located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States....
. MTSU athletic teams participate in NCAA Division I (Bowl Subdivision in football) in the Sun Belt Conference
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , the higher of two levels of Division I football competition . The Sun Belt has member institutions...
. MT competed in the Ohio Valley Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the midwestern and southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Championship Subdivision , the lower of two levels of Division I...
until 2000.
Nickname
The nickname 'Blue Raiders' was coined by an MTSU football player, Charles Sarver, in 1934 Daily News Journal contest. No official nickname existed prior to 1934, when teams were called "Normalites," "Teachers," and "Pedagogues".The university's athletic teams simply refer to the school as "Middle Tennessee" or "MT", abandoning the words "State University".
Mascot
MTSU's original mascot was Nathan Bedford ForrestNathan Bedford Forrest
Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...
, a Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
General. Because of Forrest's ties to the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, the mascot was later changed to a blue-colored scent hound
Scent hound
Scent hounds are a type of hound that primarily hunts by scent rather than sight. The Scenthound breeds are generally regarded as having some of the most sensitive noses among canines....
dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
named "Ole Blue" in the 1970s.
MTSU's current mascot is a blue winged horse
Pegasus
Pegasus is one of the best known fantastical as well as mythological creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine horse, usually white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing...
named "Lightning," adopted as the mascot in 1998, when the athletics department updated its image in preparation for the 1999 upgrade to Division I-A football and subsequent transfer to the Sun Belt Conference. Lightning symbolizes the university's aerospace program and the region's heritage in the walking horse industry. It also symbolized the university "taking flight" as part of its "Soarin' To The Sun" public relations campaign when the school joined the Sun Belt.
Sanctioned sports
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
-sanctioned athletic teams include:
MEN:
- BaseballBaseballBaseball 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...
- BasketballCollege basketballCollege basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
- Cross CountryCross country runningCross 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...
- FootballCollege footballCollege football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
(See also: Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders footballMiddle Tennessee Blue Raiders footballThe Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team represents Middle Tennessee State University in NCAA Division I FBS football competition. The Blue Raiders, a member of the Sun Belt Conference, play their home games at Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.Rick Stockstill has...
) - GolfGolfGolf 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....
- TennisTennisTennis 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...
- TrackTrack and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
WOMEN:
- BasketballCollege basketballCollege basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
- Cross CountryCross country runningCross 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...
- GolfGolfGolf 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....
- Soccer
- SoftballSoftballSoftball 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...
- TennisTennisTennis 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...
- TrackTrack and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
- VolleyballVolleyballVolleyball 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...
MT also fields teams in club sports such as rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, 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...
and inline hockey
Roller hockey
Roller Hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using skates with wheels. The term "Roller Hockey" is often used interchangeably to refer to two variant forms chiefly differentiated by the type of skate used. There is traditional "Roller Hockey," played with quad roller skates, and...
. These "club sports" are not sanctioned by the university, though each team does receive funding as a student organization. They are also authorized to use school logos, wordmarks, and identities. These teams do not compete at the NCAA level, though they do compete against other colleges and universities within unofficial intercollegiate organizations.
MT also has a very active equestrian team which competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in both huntseat and western division. Though a club team, the members have won several individual national championships and were as a team the 2003 National Western Reserve Champions.
MT has won two NCAA national championships in team sports: 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....
(1965) and men's tennis doubles (2007). However, seven individuals have won national championships. All were in golf or track. The most recent of these came in 2003 when sprinter Marty Scales captured the NCAA Men's 100 meter sprint title.
MTSU Track has a storied history including 43 conference titles, 18 NCAA top-25 finishes and 80 All-American awards. The program has been led since 1965 by legendary coach Dean Hayes.
The MTSU Baseball program has enjoyed a storied history as well. The Blue Raiders have won 16 conference titles. For the last 35 seasons the Blue Raiders have been coached by two men. The last 21 of those years it has been Steve Peterson at the helm. The Blue Raiders have made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances. Their best turnout was in 1982 when the Blue Raiders fell one game short of making the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. In 2009, Rawley Bishop, Nathan Hines, and Bryce Brentz all broke several team and league records to lead the Blue Raiders to the 2009 Sun Belt Conference regular season and tournament titles.
MTSU's football program has enjoyed success as well. The Blue Raiders have won 12 conference titles, the most recent being in 2006. That year, the Blue Raiders won their second Sun Belt Conference championship and received a bid to play in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, Mich., the programs first major Division 1-A bowl game. In 2009 the team became the first Sun Belt Conference team to reach 10 wins in a single season. The team finished the season 10-3 with their first bowl win over Southern Mississippi in the New Orleans Bowl. MTSU has had 13 head coaches including Johnny "Red" Floyd, the man who the football stadium is named after. Floyd has the highest winning percentage of any of the MTSU head football coaches. Also possibly the most famous coach in MTSU history was Charles Murphy. Murphy has the longest tenure of any Blue Raider football coach and also has the most wins. In fact in one four year period from 1956–1959, Murphy's teams won four straight Ohio Valley Conference championships. The Blue Raiders are currently led by Rick Stockstill.
The MTSU Women's Basketball program, currently coached by Rick Insell, has a long record of success including a number of appearances in the NCAA and WNIT basketball tournaments dating back to the 1970s. The Blue Raiders won the Sun Belt Conference championship in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009, receiving the conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Women's Tournament
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Women's Division I Championship is an annual college basketball tournament for women. Held each April, the Women's Championship was inaugurated in the 1981–82 season...
. In 2008, the team lost in the Sun Belt Championship game, and received a bid to play in the WNIT. The MTSU Women's team has been home to the NCAA's leading scorer for the past two consecutive seasons: Amber Holt
Amber Holt
Amber Shirell Holt is an American professional basketball player. She currently plays for the Tulsa Shock in the WNBA. Holt went to Meadowcreek High School.- Early life :...
in 2008, and Alysha Clark
Alysha Clark
Alysha Clark is a professional basketball player in the WNBA. She was drafted in the second round of the 2010 WNBA Draft by the San Antonio Silver Stars.-Early life:...
in 2009.
The MTSU Women's Volleyball program has developed into a national power with consecutive Sun Belt Conference championships and NCAA tournament bids in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 the Blue Raiders advanced to the NCAA tournament second round and followed that up in 2007 with a "sweet 16" appearance to conclude the best season in team history.
The 2008 Blue Raider Men's Golf team advanced to the NCAA tournament final round (16 teams) and finished ranked 15th in the nation.
Facilities
Murphy Center
Charles M. Murphy Athletic Center is the name of the main athletic department building at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States. The building was built in 1973 and named in honor of Charles M. "Bubber" Murphy, a standout athlete at the college in the 1930s...
, lies on the northwest corner of MTSU's campus. Inside the Murphy Center is Monte Hale
Monte Hale (broadcaster)
Monte Hale was a radio personality and owner of the WMTS-FM radio station located at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee...
basketball arena, which seats 11,520. The Murphy Center also features athletic offices, classrooms, axillary gyms, and an indoor track.
Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium, named after a former MTSU football coach, lies adjacent to the Murphy Center. The stadium features 31,788 seats and a Sportexe PowerBlade playing surface, installed in 2006.
MTSU also features many smaller stadiums for various other sports. MTSU's baseball stadium, Reese Smith Jr. Field
Reese Smith Jr. Field
Reese Smith Jr. Field is a baseball venue located on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA. It is home to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders baseball team, a member of the Division I Sun Belt Conference. The park was built in 1979 and has a capacity of...
, was recently renovated in 2008. It holds 3,000 seats. The MTSU softball stadium, located next to the Recreation Center, was renovated in 2006. The stadium seats over 1,000 fans. The Dean Hayes Track and Soccer Field, named for the very successful former MTSU track coach, lies on the northern edge of campus. Seating capacity is 1,500.
Because of MTSU's central location in the state, the athletic facilities at MTSU are the site of many Tennessee state high school championship games and matches.
Rivals
MT's chief football rivals are the Troy UniversityTroy University
Troy University is a public university that is located in Troy, Alabama, United States. It was originally founded in 1887 as Troy Normal School. Its main campus enrollment is 7,194 students. The total enrollment of all Troy University campuses is 29,689...
Trojans
Troy Trojans
The Troy Trojans were a Major League Baseball team in the National League for four seasons from 1879 to 1882. Their home games were played at Putnam Grounds , Haymakers' Grounds , and Troy Ball Clubs Grounds , all in the upstate New York city of Troy. Overall, the franchise won 131 games and lost...
and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers is the name for all of the men's intercollegiate athletic teams that play for Western Kentucky University. Women's teams are known as Lady Toppers...
. The chief basketball rival are the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers is the name for all of the men's intercollegiate athletic teams that play for Western Kentucky University. Women's teams are known as Lady Toppers...
.
Media coverage
MTSU operates the "Blue Raider Sports Network", a radio network syndicating its sporting events to several stations across the area. Also, some of the football games are recorded onto video by students from the College of Mass Communications and are aired on the student run TV station, MTTV Channel 10. Occasionally, football games will be broadcast on ESPNESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
Plus, and can either be seen locally or on ESPN's pay-per-view "Gameplan" service. The Blue Raiders can also been seen occasionally on ESPN2.
MTSU men's basketball games can be heard on 1450 AM WGNS
WGNS
WGNS is a radio station based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States operating at 1450 kHz on the AM dial. It signed on the air on January 1, 1947. The call letters are an acronym representing the phrase, "Good Neighbor Station"...
, and 89.5 FM WMOT
WMOT
WMOT is a radio station featuring classical music, jazz music and news and talk programming, serving the metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee market. It is licensed to Middle Tennessee State University, located in nearby Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Its signal can be heard most clearly in the counties...
.
MTSU women's basketball, plus occasional baseball and softball games, can be heard on 88.3 FM WMTS-FM
WMTS-FM
' is a student run college radio station licensed to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA. The station is currently owned by Middle Tennessee State University....
.
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
's ESPN
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
106.7 The Fan WNFN
WNFN
WNFN is a Top 40 formatted radio station in the Nashville, Tennessee market, broadcasting a Top 40 format.Previously licensed to the affluent Nashville suburb of Belle Meade, and recently obtaining a permit for an increased signal, with a new license based in nearby Millersville, WNFN was...
in Nashville became the flagship station for MTSU football in August 2006. The football games also remain on WMOT.
MTSU also provides live audio and video broadcasts of women's soccer through their website www.GoBlueRaiders.com, with David Powell providing commentary since the 2006 season.
External links
- GoBlueRaiders.com - official athletics website