Binghamton University Athletics

From humble beginnings to prominence in the 21st century ... Binghamton athletics has mirrored the University's growth, in size and stature as both celebrate 75 years in 2021. 
 
Known as Triple Cities college, the school opened in Fall of 1946 as an extension of Syracuse University. Men’s basketball, tennis and track were the first sports offered and over the next decade, TCC added four more sports, changed its name to Harpur College and moved from Endicott to its current Vestal location. The first building erected on the 376 acres of land was the East Gymnasium and that building served as home for a young athletics program that by 1960 had grown to eight sports.  
 
Early stars included Hall of Fame hoopsters Jim Davis and Mickey Greenberg in the 1960s. The first women’s sport added was swimming in the 1969-70 season. The 1970s brought national achievements by the men's soccer and wrestling programs with the soccer team advancing to the NCAA tournament three straight years and the wrestling program twice placing in the nation’s top-5. Wrestling also crowned the school’s first national champion when Steve Cavayero won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1977 and 1978.
 
In 1980, the men’s soccer team won two NCAA tournament games to reach the national quarterfinals – the furthest advancement of any team in school history. 
 
Also in the 1980s, women's sports began to blossom. In all, men's and women's track and field, wrestling and men’s soccer yielded 36 All-American Colonial student-athletes and national team distinction for several programs. The wrestling program crowned two more NCAA champions when Tom Pillari and Mark Gumble captured national titles in 1984 and 1988 respectively.
 
The pinnacle of the University's Division III success was reached in the mid-1990s. The athletics program was the No. 1 rated program in New York State in 1996 – ahead of traditional powers Cortland, Ithaca and Rochester, and also was one of the nation's top-15 overall athletics programs for two straight years. Women’s soccer, softball, men’s tennis and golf all earned acclaim with top-10 national rankings in the decade.   
 
Incomparable track and field athlete Monique Hacker steered the success in the late 1990s with a career that included five NCAA triple jump championships and a staggering 14 All-America honors in jumps, sprints and hurdles. Hacker’s teammate Jewdyer Osborne was BU’s very last to compete as a Division III athlete and he capped Binghamton’s era in style by winning the NCAA 110-meter hurdles in 1998. The next year, long jumper Brian Hamilton soared to an NCAA title of his own, becoming the school’s first and only Division II national champion.    
 
A bold decision to elevate to Division I status followed and the reward was swift. Now competing as Bearcats, men's soccer advanced to the second round of the 2003 NCAA tournament and played in six straight conference title games. Baseball won four straight regular season conference titles and saw its first player reach the Major Leagues when Scott Diamond was named Pitcher of the Year for the Minnesota Twins in 2012.
 
Binghamton pushed its recruiting overseas and elite international swimmer Wing Chew made history by becoming the school’s first Division I All-American in 2002 – just six years after swimming for China in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.     
 
In 2004 the picturesque 38 million-dollar, 156 thousand-square-foot Events Center complex opened and continues to serve as the hub of all athletics activity.
 
The school crowned its first Division I national champion in 2008 when pole vaulter Rory Quiller soared more than 18 and a half feet high to become the best in the land.
 
In 2009, the men’s basketball team broke through with its first conference championship and with it, a national TV audience on CBS for its NCAA first round game against Duke.
 
To stay on that national stage, Binghamton has continued to attract talented recruits, who now practice and compete in state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor facilities. Nearing the end of construction, the new 60 million dollar baseball complex rivals any venue in the country. Binghamton’s vast, modern athletics facilities are among the finest in the Northeast and draw thousands of visitors each year.   
 
Now 20 years into its Division I and America East Conference membership, Binghamton enjoys a strong reputation for “excellence with honor.” Spanning 21 teams, our student-athletes combine distinction in competition and coursework and also display their leadership in community volunteerism and activism.   
 
Now an expansive research institution with a respected NCAA Division I athletics program, Binghamton has come a long way in a relatively short time. Proud and inspired by our early pioneers. Motivated by our coaches and teammates. Driven by the grit and determination within. We are poised to reach even greater heights.
 
Happy 75^th Anniversary Binghamton Athletics … and many, many more!!