LIU Sharks


The LIU Sharks are the athletics teams representing Long Island University's campuses in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York. The Sharks compete in NCAA Division I athletics and are members of the Northeast Conference. The LIU Sharks are the result of the July 1, 2019 unification of the athletic departments which had previously represented two separate campuses of LIU, the NCAA Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the NCAA Division II LIU Post Pioneers.

History

Following Long Island University's founding in 1927, its sports teams wore blue uniforms and became known as the Blue Devils. After the school's uniforms were changed to black in 1935, a Brooklyn Eagle reporter from the Midwest saw the new look as the basketball team dribbled up and down the court and stated that the team looked like the blackbirds from back home; the comment struck home, and a new nickname was born. During the 1930s and '40s, the basketball team was often called the "Beemen," while they were coached by the legendary Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach, Clair Bee. LIU Post opened in 1954 as C.W. Post College and began athletic competition in 1956–57.
The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and LIU Post Pioneers combined for 23 national championships, 215 conference titles, and 362 All-Americans.

Unification

On October 3, 2018, Long Island University announced that it was unifying the athletic programs of its two campuses into one Division I program, effective with the 2019–20 academic year. The unified LIU program will continue to sponsor all varsity sports that either campus sponsored before the merger. The new program's nickname of Sharks was announced on May 15, 2019.
The LIU Sharks inherited the Northeast Conference membership of the Brooklyn campus. The Division II LIU Post teams for sports that had not been sponsored by LIU Brooklyn immediately moved to Division I without the usual transition period for an institution moving to a different division. Teams for sports sponsored by both campuses were merged. LIU added two completely new women's sports effective in 2019–20. Shortly before the athletic merger was announced, LIU Brooklyn announced that it would add women's ice hockey and shortly after the merger announcement, LIU announced it would add women's water polo, placing that sport in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
The university incorporated athletic facilities on both the Brooklyn and Brookville campuses with basketball, bowling, fencing, ice hockey, swimming, track and field, volleyball, and water polo based out of the Brooklyn campus while baseball, cross country, esports, equestrian, field hockey, football, golf, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, softball, tennis, and wrestling operating from the Brookville campus.

Teams

Long Island University fields 29 teams that compete in 10 men's and 18 women's sports and a co-ed Esports team. Most teams compete in the Northeast Conference. The new water polo team competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference ; the wrestling team joined the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association ; and the new ice hockey team joined the nascent New England Women's Hockey Alliance ; women's rugby competes in the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association ; and the new Esports team competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference ; the equestrian and fencing teams are independents. In March 2020, the school announced that women's gymnastics would be added for the 2020–21 season, as part of the East Atlantic Gymnastics League.

NCAA team championships