For the defunct professional baseball team, see Troy Trojans (MLB team).

The Troy Trojans are the sports teams of Troy University. They began playing in the NCAA's Division I-A in 2001, became a football only member of the Sun Belt Conference in 2004, and joined that conference for all other sports in 2005. Troy University's athletics nickname was the Red Wave until the early 1970s when the student body voted to change the name to Trojans.

Prior to becoming a member of NCAA Division One athletics in 1993, Troy University was a member of the Gulf South Conference of the NCAA Division II ranks. At the time, Troy's primary rivals were Jacksonville State University, Livingston University (now the University of West Alabama), and the University of North Alabama. The rivalry between Troy and Jacksonville State was arguably the fiercest of those. However, since Troy University moved to Division I-A participation in football and because Troy and JSU no longer share the same conference affiliation, this once heated rivalry has cooled significantly. Currently, the Trojans' most prominent rivals include Middle Tennessee State in football (the teams play every year in the "Battle for the Palladium"), and the University of South Alabama in basketball.

Troy University's director of athletics is Steve Dennis, an alumnus of the University of Georgia, who was a standout defensive back for head coach Vince Dooley.

Football

Troy University has fielded a football team continuously since 1946. Prior to that year, the team was fielded with only a few interruptions from 1909 to 1942. Eight years were skipped due to lack of participation and later World War I from 1913-1920, while the Wall Street Crash of 1929 kept the team from playing that year. Having moved up from Division I-AA, the team has competed in the NCAA's Division I since 2001.

A Troy Trojans football player during a game in October 2007.

Troy football head coach Larry Blakeney is entering his 18th season as head coach. He has led the program to three Southland Football League titles and two Sun Belt Conference titles, as well as guided the Trojans to seven FCS playoff appearances and two FBS bowl games. Blakeney boasts an overall record of 136-68-1 as head coach at Troy. Blakeney is the winningest coach in the Troy University history and he is the 4th winningest collegiate coach all-time in the state of Alabama, only behind greats Paul "Bear" Bryant, Cleve Abbott, and Ralph "Shug" Jordan. Blakeney is just one of two coaches to ever take a football program from Division II to I-A (the other is UCF?s Gene McDowell).

Troy's only perfect regular season record in football came at the conclusion of the 1995 season as the Trojans finished 11–0 and were crowned champions of the Southland Football League heading into the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

The Troy football program currently has 12 players playing professional football, with 9 of them in the NFL, 2 in the CFL, and 1 in the AFL.

Troy won the NAIA national football championship in 1968 and the NCAA Division II national football championship in 1984 and 1987.

Troy Football Coaches

Men's Basketball

The Troy University men's basketball team is currently under the direction of head coach Don Maestri. Head coach Don Maestri is the winningest coach in Troy University history and has won numerous conference coach-of-the-year awards during his tenure. The Trojans appreared in the 2003 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament as a 14 seed after winning the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament and faced 3-seeded Xavier in the first round but lost 71–59. The Trojans were the champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2003 and defeated the University of Central Florida for the conference tournament championship in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2004, the Trojans participated in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) in Buffalo, New York, against Niagara University. On June 7, 2008, Maestri was inducted into the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Dothan, Alabama.

The Trojan basketball team is recognized in recent Division I Basketball history for leading the nation in 3-pointers from 2004–2006, making 1068 3-pointers over the course of 89 games (11.66 per game) during those three seasons. Troy's most famous claim to fame, however, is their game against DeVry Institute of Atlanta on January 12, 1992 when the Trojans came out victorious by the NCAA-record score of 258-141. This game is the current highest scoring game in NCAA basketball history http://www.troytrojans.com/index.php?s=&change_well_id=2&url_article_id=360.

In 1997, the Troy University women's basketball team, under the direction of head coach Jerry Hester, won the Mid Continent Conference (now the Summit League) tournament championship in Buffalo, New York, and received an automatic berth to the NCAA Division One tournament where the Trojans traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, and fell in the first round to the University of Virginia by a score of 96–74.

Baseball

Troy University Trojans baseball player Shohei Fujita attempting to turn a double play in a baseball game in March 2008.

Rodeo

Troy University has one of the top collegiate rodeo programs east of the Mississippi River. The program's governing body is the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. In 2007, Troy calf roper Ben Mayworth won the calf roping national championship at the National Finals College Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming. The rodeo program's home facility is the Pike County Cattlemen's Arena in Troy where it hosts a three-day rodeo each October that features college rodeo programs from throughout the southern region of the United States.

External links

• Official athletics site

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