Milwaukee Panthers

The UW-Milwaukee Panthers (casually known as the UWM Panthers or Milwaukee Panthers) are the athletic teams of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. A total of 15 Panthers athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I. Panthers currently rank 64th out of all 336 NCAA Division I schools in this years NACDA Director's Cup standings. ^[1] Panthers also have now won the McCafferty Trophy as the Horizon League's all-sports champion for three straight and four of the last six years, ranks eighth in the nation among non-Division I-A programs and second among institutions that do not sponsor football at any level. ^[1]

Before 1990, the University's athletics program has spent the majority of its history at the NCAA Division III and II levels, as well as several years at the NAIA level. All non-Division I sports moved to the NCAA Division I level for the 1990-91 academic year. The athletic teams are nicknamed the Panthers. UWM and its predecessor institutions have had three mascots and nicknames: Green Gulls (1910-1956), Cardinals (1956-1964), and Panthers (1964-present).^[2]

In just the last decade, the UW-Milwaukee Panthers have qualified for NCAA Tournaments at the team level a total of 24 times in six different sports, making Milwaukee the second most successful college athletic program in the state of Wisconsin (trailing only the Wisconsin Badgers of the Big Ten Conference).

The university received national media attention with an appearance in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2005 Men's Basketball NCAA Tournament. Other sports that Milwaukee competes in include baseball, women's volleyball, men's and women's cross-country, men's and women's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field, men's and women's Swimming and Diving, and women's tennis.

In 1988, the current Athletic Director Bud Haidet came to the school and quickly moved the program from NAIA to NCAA Division I. Milwaukee currently ranks 64th out of all 336 NCAA Division I schools in this years NACDA Director's Cup standings conducted by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics(NACDA).^[1] Formerly known as the Sears Directors' Cup, the annual contest awards points for NCAA post-season appearances and performances in all sports. Milwaukee, which has now won the McCafferty Trophy as the Horizon League's all-sports champion for three straight and four of the last six years, ranks eighth in the nation among non-Division I-A programs and second among institutions that do not sponsor football at any level. ^[1] The Panthers have earned 75 total points through the fall and are just 3 points behind North Carolina State University. Milwaukee currently sits tied with several schools, including the University of Missouri, and holds a 2 point lead on Northwestern University. After picking up 50 points in women's soccer (NCAA Tournament 2nd round) and 25 points in women's volleyball (NCAA Tournament 1st round) in the fall, Milwaukee looks to maintain its edge on cross-city rival Marquette University (91st place) and catch Horizon League leader Youngstown State (66th) this spring.^[3]

The UW-Milwaukee Panthers men's basketball team has flourished under the helm of Athletics Director Bud Haidet and his knack for finding successful head coaches. In 1999, Haidet hired then UW-Platteville head coach Bo Ryan. In Ryan's two seasons (99-00 and 00-01) he led Milwaukee to its first back-to-back winning seasons in eight years before accepting the head coaching position at UW-Madison.

In 2001, Bruce Pearl was hired to replace Ryan and continue the success of the previous two seasons. It took Pearl only two seasons to take UW-Milwaukee to its first ever "Big Dance" in March 2003, where the Panthers came only a missed buzzer-beater away from pulling off a come-from-behind "12-5 upset" over Notre Dame. Milwaukee lost, 70-69, and Notre Dame went on to advance to the Sweet Sixteen in impressive fashion over fourth seeded Illinois. The following year, Pearl would lead Milwaukee to its first ever Division I postseason victory in men's basketball in the 2004 NIT with a crushing home victory over Rice, 91-53 at the U.S. Cellular Arena.

In March 2005, UW-Milwaukee's men's basketball program entered the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as the 12th Seed in the Midwest regional bracket. After ousting fifth-seeded Alabama in the first round and fourth-seeded Boston College (coach Bruce Pearl's alma mater) in the second round, Milwaukee entered for the first time ever the "Sweet 16". The Panthers would go on to lose to the top-seeded eventual tournament runner-up, Illinois, 77-63 in its Sweet Sixteen matchup. It was an Illinois team that included future NBA players Deron Williams, Dee Brown, James Augustine and Luther Head. Milwaukee's entrance into the Sweet Sixteen was due in part to Pearl's full court press playmaking style, or as the Boston Globe would call it, the "UWM Press". After their appearance in the NCAA Tournament, Bruce Pearl was hired away by the University of Tennessee.

In March 2006, for the third time in four years, UW-Milwaukee won the Horizon League Championship to enter the NCAA Tournament as an 11th Seed under first-year coach Rob Jeter. In the first round, the Panthers faced the sixth-seeded Oklahoma Sooners in Jacksonville, Florida, and won easily, 82-74. The Panthers never trailed against the Sooners, and led by as much as 14 late in the 2nd half. Milwaukee bowed out of the 2006 NCAA Tournament in the second round at the hands of the eventual National Champion Florida Gators.

Beginning with the 2007-08 season, UW-Milwaukee Panthers basketball radio broadcasts will move to AM-1130 WISN, the former home of cross-town rival Marquette University before the station choose to not renew their contract. [1] The move gives the Panthers the largest listening audience in the city of Milwaukee for their games. [2]

After leading the Lady Panthers to their first regular-season title since 2001 and second NCAA Tournament appearance in school history, UW-Milwaukee women’s basketball coach Sandy Botham was named the 2006 Horizon League women's basketball coach of the year. Botham had been voted the league’s top coach two times previously in her 10 years at Milwaukee.

The UW-Milwaukee men’s soccer team has a rich history of achievements in its 34 years as a Division I program. Milwaukee is regularly ranked in the top 25 of the country, and was as high as eighth in 2002. Milwaukee men's soccer began the 2006 season ranked 24th in the nation. ^[4] Since first fielding a team in 1973, Milwaukee men's soccer has compiled an impressive all-time record of 396-223-53 and an all-time NCAA Tournament record of 4-7-1 in eight appearances. ^[5] Milwaukee has won four of the past five Horizon League Tournament Championships and four of the past six regular season crowns, as well as qualified for five consecutive NCAA Tournaments (2001-2005). In the second round of both the 2004 and 2005 NCAA Tournament, Milwaukee fell to the #1 team in the nation in either double overtime (2004, #1 UC-Santa Barbara), or in a penalty kick shootout (2005, #1 New Mexico). Both those teams eventually advanced to play in each year's national championship game. On September 13th, 2006, Milwaukee smashed their previous home attendance record by more than 30% as they hosted their first-ever night match under the newly installed lights at Engelmann Field on the UWM campus. Milwaukee's come-from-behind victory over Marquette, 3-2, allowed them to retain possession of the coveted Milwaukee Cup, and moved their all-time (Division I) record vs their cross-city rival to 25-7-2. The standing-room only record crowd of 3,256 broke the Engelmann Field attendance record by over 1,000. The previous mark, set in 1990, had been 2,250 fans.^[6]

UW-Milwaukee's women's soccer team has also been a regular at the NCAA Tournament in recent years, including advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year in 2006.

As the only Division I college baseball team in the state of WI, the UW-Milwaukee Panthers have seen much success, including posting six 30-win seasons in the last nine years. They have also qualified for three NCAA Tournaments since 1999, including a win over #1 ranked Rice in the first round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament.

UWM's now-defunct football program competed at the NCAA Small College (now Division I-AA) level; due to lack of funds they dropped the sport after the 1974 season. UWM now has a club team known as Milwaukee Panther Football which has been very successful in its first few years of creation, going 4-0 in its first year, 2003. UWM's club football team shares an ultra-competitive history and rivalry (although one-sided in recent years in favor of Milwaukee) with the cross-town Marquette University team. On October 14th, 2006, the Milwaukee Panther club football team claimed another victory over Marquette. The traveling trophy in the rivalry is the Golden Keg, a spray-painted gold wooden keg that embodies the brewing history of the city of Milwaukee.

The women's volleyball team at UW-Milwaukee has also enjoyed national success in recent years, qualifying for six of the last nine NCAA Tournaments and compiling an all-time record of 867-477-7 through the end of the 2006 season.

At the club level, UW-Milwaukee's men's and women's teams are some of the most successful in the country. The Milwaukee men's rugby team, for the first time since its creation in 1983, won a Midwest Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA Division II National Tournament for the 2005-06 season. Having beaten the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ohio University to qualify, the fourth-seeded Panthers competed in the 2006 USA Rugby Collegiate Championships. ^[7]

• History records of UW-Milwaukee Panthers

• Jimmy Banks
• Bill Carollo
• Sasho Cirovski
• Tighe Dombrowski
• Manny Lagos
• Tony Sanneh

• Sandy Botham
• Bob Gansler
• Bruce Pearl
• Bo Ryan
• Brian Tompkins

• UW-Milwaukee Panthers official athletics website
• UW-Milwaukee Panthers message board
• GoUWM.com, official fan website
• UWM Post sports blog, covering all Milwaukee Panthers athletics for the university's newspaper
• UWM Women's Rugby website
• UWM Men's Rugby website
• UWM Wrestling website