Talk:Springfield College

Athletics
The men's volleyball team has six non-NCAA national titles in the now-defunct Molten Invitational championship, an event for NCAA Division III schools that ran from 1997 through 2011, and also won the first three NCAA Division III Men's Volleyball Championships in 2012 through 2014 and again in 2017 and 2018. Head coach Charlie Sullivan also served on the United States Men’s Volleyball National Team Coaching Staff for the 2016 Olympic Games—the year the team earned a bronze medal. Springfield College has since been selected to host the 2026 NCAA Division III Men’s Volleyball Championship. The women’s lacrosse team won the NEWMAC Championship in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2019, all under the guidance of head coach Kristen Mullady.[11] The men's lacrosse team won six straight titles (2008–2013) in the now-defunct Pilgrim Lacrosse League, which has since been absorbed by NEWMAC. Since then, the men’s lacrosse team won the first six NEWMAC Men’s Lacrosse Championship from 2014-2019 [12]. Head coach Keith Bugbee is one of only five coaches in the history of the sport of lacrosse to achieve 400 career victories, having done all during his 38-year career at Springfield College[34]. The women’s soccer team took home seven NEWMAC Championships (2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012-2015) and won the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship in 2016 and 2017.

In 2019, the football team averaged 357.4 rushing yards per game—the eighth time in program history that Springfield College led the country in rushing.

In 1940, Springfield was one of eight teams to make the 1940 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. In 2018, the men’s basketball team advanced to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship’s Final Four event. That year, the final D3hoops.com National Poll ranked Springfield College No. 4, and in response, head coach Charlie Brock received the 2018 Glenn Robinson Award.

For the 2018-2019 year, the Division III Learfield IMG College Directors' Cup ranked Springfield College Athletics 38th nationally—the 11th instance in the past 12 years the school ranked within the organization’s top 40 programs.

Springfield College was awarded the Olympic Cup Certificate in 1920. In 2021, student Mikali Charlemagne participated in the Tokyo Summer Olympics, swimming on behalf of Saint Lucia in the 50-meter freestyle race. HummingbirdBert (talk) 21:44, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

History of Basketball
Springfield College is known as the "Birthplace of Basketball", a game created by alumnus and faculty member James Naismith under the founding head of the Physical Education department Luther Gulick Jr. in 1891. Gulick is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which is named for Naismith.

Naismith was then an instructor in physical education at the International Young Men's Christian Association Training School. He created what became basketball as an indoor alternative to football and basketball, using two half-bushel peach baskets as goals and a soccer ball. Each basket was 10 feet above the floor, and teams included nine players. Balls had to initially be retrieved manually when a player scored a goal. Naismith based it on a rock-tossing game he played as a child.

In 1892, the Triangle, the college’s newspaper, published a list of 13 rules for playing basketball.

In 1894, Naismith asked A.G. Spalding to develop the first basketball. HummingbirdBert (talk) 22:58, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Academics
The School of Arts and Sciences programs are accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education for Educator Preparation Programs. The School of Physical Education, Performance, and Sport Leadership programs are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, and the Council on Accreditation for Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Related Professions. The School of Health Sciences programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education of the American Occupational Therapy Association, the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education, and the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. The School of Social Work and Behavioral Sciences programs are accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs and the American Psychological Association. HummingbirdBert (talk) 00:32, 30 July 2022 (UTC)

Notable alumni and faculty
Mimi Murray – Professor of Exercise Science and Sports Studies[43]; head coach of the undefeated women’s undefeated gymnastics team (1968-1974), which won five Eastern Regional Championships and three Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) Division I National Championships; wrote Women’s Gymnastics: Coach, Participant, Spectator (1979); coached the U.S. women’s gymnastic team to the World University Games. HummingbirdBert (talk) 19:49, 28 October 2022 (UTC)