Fresno State Bulldogs


The Fresno State Bulldogs are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent California State University, Fresno. The university is a member of NCAA Division I's Mountain West Conference. It was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1992 until 2012, when it left for the Mountain West alongside fellow WAC member Nevada.
Fresno State had also been a member of the Big West Conference since the 1969–70, and a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association from its beginning in the 1939–40 season.
The university has won two NCAA Division I Championships, in softball and baseball.
Fresno State currently sponsors nine men's and thirteen women's sports at the varsity level.

Sports sponsored

All varsity teams representing Fresno State participate in the Mountain West Conference for conference play excluding lacrosse in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, water polo in the Golden Coast Conference, and equestrian and wrestling in the Big 12 Conference.

Football

Fresno State's football team is currently coached by Jeff Tedford. During its tenure in the Western Athletic Conference from 1992 to 2011, it shared three WAC titles; in 1992 and 1993 under Head Coach Jim Sweeney, and in 1999 with the University of Hawaii, the only title for Pat Hill. However, Hill garnered a reputation for being willing to play any top-ranked opponent, anytime, anywhere. Fresno State achieved success with a 10-8 record against teams from BCS conferences, the most by any program not in a BCS conference. This has provided the Bulldogs a following among college football fans who admire its willingness to challenge the best teams. However, their success in their non-conference games hasn't translated to championships in conference play. After 1999, the Bulldogs did not win the WAC title before leaving for the MW in 2012. In 2013, the first season after the MW expanded to 12 football members and launched a conference championship game, the Bulldogs claimed the MW title.
Fresno State often travels between 10,000-20,000 miles during its football season, between its MW games and its non-conference schedule, as the conference itself is spread from the Colorado Front Range to Honolulu. During Fresno State's time in the WAC, its travel was on the higher end of the range, as that conference's footprint extended even farther to the east than that of the MW. Boise State and Hawaii are two of Fresno State's major in-conference rivals. Boise State joined the MW in 2011, a year before Fresno State, while Hawaii joined for football only at the same time Fresno State joined in all sports.
The Fresno State Bulldogs men's football team have an NCAA Division I FBS Tournament record of 12–13 through twenty-four appearances.

Basketball

Bulldog basketball squads play at the Save Mart Center. This facility used to house the ECHL's Fresno Falcons hockey team and is regularly on the Pollstar list of top 25 concert and entertainment venues by attendance.
The Women's Basketball program has enjoyed its best run of success in recent years under coach Adrian Wiggins. He is the only Fresno State coach in program history to not have a losing season and is averaging 23 wins per season in his five full seasons. More impressive is that Wiggins has guided the program to its only four NCAA tournament appearances in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. With Fresno State moving to the Mountain West Conference, the 2011–2012 season is the last chance for the Bulldogs to win a 5th straight Western Athletic Conference championship.
The Men's Basketball program achieved its greatest moment winning the 1983 National Invitational Tournament Championship. Coach Boyd Grant guided the Bulldogs through the 32 team NIT field, winning the final 69-60 over DePaul. Hundreds of fans known as the Red Wave followed the team from Fresno's Selland Arena, its home court at the time, to Madison Square Garden in New York. Jerry Tarkanian followed Grant as Coach. Coach Steve Cleveland took over in 2005 and made an immediate impact on the troubled basketball program which was still facing sanctions from the Jerry Tarkanian and Ray Lopes era. Cleveland's "Built to Last" approach placed a paramount emphasis on graduating student-athletes. Cleveland's system produced the program's first Academic All-District VIII honoree when sophomore forward Nedeljko Golubovic received the elite recognition in February 2009, which he repeated for back-to-back-to-back CoSIDA accolades as the only University Division student-athlete from a California college honored in any district in each season. In 2009, Golubovic was also the lone representative from a Western Athletic Conference school honored. The WAC also designated Golubovic and freshman guard Brandon Sperling for Academic All-WAC accolades for their accomplishments during 2008-09.
However, due to a lack of winning, and mounting pressure from the community, Coach Cleveland stepped down as Head Coach in 2011.
He was replaced by Rodney Terry, the top assistant from the University of Texas. Terry will be the 18th head coach in Bulldog history. Known as an outstanding recruiting and bench coach while at Texas, Terry's resume includes coaching two national players of the year and 11 appearances in the NCAA tournament.

Baseball

The Fresno State baseball team is currently coached by Mike Batesole and has made 4 trips to the College World Series in its history, most recently to the 2008 College World Series. On June 25, 2008, the Fresno State Bulldogs defeated the Georgia Bulldogs to win the 2008 College World Series.
Beiden Field was the former home of the Pacific Coast League farm team of the San Francisco Giants. The Fresno Grizzlies moved to their current downtown stadium in May 2002. Beiden Field is often listed by Baseball America as a top-25 NCAA baseball facility. It hosted the 2006 WAC baseball tournament.

Cross country

The Fresno State Bulldogs men's cross country team appeared in the NCAA Division I Tournament one time, with that appearance being 22nd place in the 1973–74 school year. The Fresno State Bulldogs women's cross country team never made the NCAA Division I Tournament.
1973MenNo. 22584

Soccer

The Fresno State Bulldogs women's soccer team have an NCAA Division I Tournament record of 0–4 through four appearances.
1999First RoundCal PolyL 1–2
2005First RoundSanta ClaraL 0–5
2008First RoundUCLAL 0–5
2010First RoundUCFL 1–2

Softball

The perennial national power Bulldog women's softball team has had a lengthy tradition of winning since the inception of the sport. The Bulldogs have appeared in twelve Women's College World Series in 1982, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998 and 1999, playing in the title game five times. The softball team owns the distinction of winning the school's first team NCAA National Championship in 1998. Fresno State defeated then-top ranked Arizona 1–0 in the 1998 NCAA championship game in Oklahoma City due to the strong arm of All-American pitcher Amanda Scott and the bat of All-American Nina Lindenberg, who scored the game's only run on a solo home run. The Bulldogs finished the season with a 52–11 record and ranked No. 1 in the nation. Arizona entered the 1998 national championship game against Fresno State with a 67–3 overall record.
Through the 2010 season, Fresno State was the nation's only softball team to have earned bids to all 29 NCAA Division I championship tournaments. In addition to Fresno State's 1998 NCAA championship, the Bulldogs reached the NCAA championship game four other times. The Bulldogs were coached by Margie Wright, the nation's winningest Division I coach in the sport, up until 2012, when she retired. Wright, who has led Fresno State to 10 Western Athletic Conference championships in the last 13 years and 18 league crowns overall, finished her 25th season as the head coach Bulldogs in 2010. She entered the 2009 season having won 1,307 games in her career. After Wright, the Bulldogs were coached by Trisha Ford, who previously coached at Stanford. Since Ford had taken the reins, the Bulldogs have had some very strong seasons, including the 2016 season, where the Bulldogs quickly reached 24th in the nation after just their first weekend of play. The Bulldogs are now coached by Linda Garza
The Bulldogs currently have the most women in NCAA history who have sported a sub 1.00 ERA with 7.

Men's golf

The men's golf team has won 13 conference championships:
Their best finish in the NCAA Championship was fifth in 1990.
Bulldogs who have had success at the professional level include: Jerry Heard, Tim Norris, John Erickson Kevin Sutherland, and Nick Watney

Volleyball

The Fresno State Bulldogs women's volleyball team have an NCAA Division I Tournament record of 2–4 through four appearances.
1984First Round
Regional Semifinals
Regional Finals		UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly
San Jose State		W 3–1
W 3–2
L 1–3
1991First RoundUC Santa BarbaraL 0–3
1998First RoundArizonaL 0–3
2002First RoundUC Santa BarbaraL 1–3

Wrestling

Wrestling was dropped from varsity status in 2006 following a string of lean budget years and gender equity issues. In 2014, University President Joseph Castro pledged to reinstate wrestling, along with the addition of at least one new women's sport. On February 28, 2015, newly appointed athletic director Jim Bartko announced his plan to reinstate wrestling. The process would include fundraising, hiring a coach, and recruiting in a state with only three Division I programs. To satisfy the Title IX requirement, Fresno State added women's water polo, bringing the total number of Bulldog teams to 22. Both teams started competition in the 2017–18 season. In May 2016, Fresno State named Troy Steiner, who won a national championship with Iowa in 1992, its head coach. In its first season back on the mat, the Bulldogs went 4-16 and had two NCAA qualifiers, finishing T62 out of 72 teams.
The wrestling team is an associate member of the Big 12 Conference, joining Mountain West conference rivals Wyoming and Air Force, since their primary conference does not sponsor wrestling.
In its first iteration, wrestling at Fresno State produced 33 All-Americans and 2004 Olympic silver medalist Stephen Abas. In its second year back, Josh Hokit became an All-American.
The Fresno State Bulldogs men's wrestling team appeared in the NCAA Division I Tournament thirty-four times, with their highest finish being 8th place in the 1992–93 school year.
1962MenNo. 401
1967MenNo. 2013
1968MenNo. 1918
1970MenNo. 551
1971MenNo. 441
1972MenNo. 473
1973MenNo. 561
1974MenNo. 432
1977MenNo. 511
1983MenNo. 326
1984MenNo. 2115
1985MenNo. 386
1986MenNo. 456
1987MenNo. 2513
1988MenNo. 348
1989MenNo. 3013
1990MenNo. 493
1991MenNo. 434
1992MenNo. 2512
1993MenNo. 837
1994MenNo. 1130
1995MenNo. 1332
1996MenNo. 2319
1997MenNo. 1135
1998MenNo. 1437
1999MenNo. 1634
2000MenNo. 474
2001MenNo. 1442
2002MenNo. 1924
2003MenNo. 3015
2004MenNo. 3410
2005MenNo. 504
2006MenNo. 543
2018MenNo. 62
2019MenNo. T2911

Notable non-varsity sports

Rugby

The Fresno State Rugby Football Club was founded in 1971, although rugby was played at the old Fresno State College as early as 1934. Fresno State plays college rugby in the Division 1 Pacific Western Conference.

Championships

Appearances

The Fresno State Bulldogs competed in the NCAA Tournament across 17 active sports 297 times at the Division I FBS level.
NCAA Tournament Appearances
Baseball : 1954 • 1955 • 1959 • 1961 • 1962 • 1966 • 1967 • 1977 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 2000 • 2001 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2011 • 2012 • 2019
Men's basketball : 1981 • 1982 • 1984 • 2000 • 2001 • 2016
Women's basketball : 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014
Men's cross country : 1973
Football : 1944 • 1961 • 1982 • 1985 • 1988 • 1989 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2017 • 2018
Men's golf : 1958 • 1960 • 1964 • 1967 • 1977 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987
• 1989 • 1990 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1998 • 2000 • 2002
Women's soccer : 1999 • 2005 • 2008 • 2010
Softball : 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2015 • 2016 • 2017
Women's swimming and diving : 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2013 • 2014
Men's tennis : 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2003 • 2004 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2019
Women's tennis : 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009 • 2011 • 2014 • 2018
Men's indoor track and field : 1965 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1990 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1998 • 1999
Women's indoor track and field : 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1993 • 1994 • 1996 • 1998 • 1999 • 2009
Men's outdoor track and field : 1934 • 1935 • 1939 • 1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1947 • 1948 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1968 • 1969 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1977 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1996 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2008
Women's outdoor track and field : 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1990 • 1991 • 1993 • 1996 • 1997 • 2004 • 2007 • 2009 • 2016
Women's volleyball : 1984 • 1991 • 1998 • 2002
Wrestling : 1962 • 1967 • 1968 • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1977 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2018 • 2019

Team

The Bulldogs of Fresno State earned 2 NCAA championships at the Division I level.
Results
Fresno State won 2 national championships at the NCAA Division II level.
Below are five national club team championships:
Fresno State had 19 Bulldogs win NCAA individual championships at the Division I level.
At the NCAA Division II level, Fresno State garnered 10 individual championships.

Sports facilities

The Cardinal was in emulation of the colors of Stanford University and the Blue in emulation of the colors of the University of California.