- Maine Black Bears
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Maine Black Bears 
University University of Maine Conference(s) America East Conference NCAA Division I Athletics director Steve Abbot (interim) Location Orono, ME Varsity teams 17 teams (8 men, 9 women) Football stadium Alfond Stadium Basketball arena Alfond Arena
Memorial GymMascot Bananas T. Bear Nickname Black Bears Fight song Stein Song and For Maine Colors Dark Blue and Light Blue Homepage Go Black Bears The Maine Black Bears are the athletic teams which represent the University of Maine. They compete in NCAA Division I athletics, with the majority of the teams playing in the America East Conference. The only exceptions are the ice hockey program, which competes in Hockey East, and the football program, which competes in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Contents
Ice hockey
See also: Maine Black Bears men's ice hockeyThe University of Maine men's ice hockey program was introduced in 1977. The team has been successful and have won the Hockey East title five times, appeared in eleven Frozen Fours, and won 2 National Championships. The Black Bears compete in the Hockey East conference, a very competitive conference including teams such as Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern and New Hampshire. The program has produced many professional ice hockey players, such as Paul Kariya, Eric Weinrich, Keith Carney, Garth Snow, Mike Dunham, Dustin Penner, and Jimmy Howard. The team is best known for its 1992–93 season, in which the team only lost one game, finishing with a record of 42–1–2. The team is noted for its head coach Shawn Walsh, who coached the team for seventeen seasons. Walsh is credited with turning the team into such a successful program, as well as turning the Alfond Arena into one of the most intimidating arenas in college hockey. Walsh died of renal cell carcinoma on September 26, 2001.
Football
Maine's football team competes in the Colonial Athletic Association. Previous to the 2007 season, the CAA football league was sponsored by the Atlantic 10 Conference. The football program has produced many professional football players, such as Pro Bowl linebacker Lofa Tatupu, who transferred to USC after his freshman year, center Mike Flynn, linebacker Stephen Cooper, offensive lineman Justin Strzelczyk, wide receiver Phil McGeoghan, running back Montell Owens, quarterback Mike Buck, defensive back Daren Stone, tight end Matthew Mulligan, defensive lineman Mike DeVito, linebacker Jovan Belcher and defensive back Brandon McGowan. Current Iowa coach, and 2002 AP National Coach of the Year Kirk Ferentz began his head coaching career at Maine. The team also received brief publicity when the Oakland Raiders selected wide receiver Kevin McMahan as the last player in the 2006 NFL Draft, affectionately known as Mr. Irrelevant. The University of Maine is known currently to have the most active players on NFL rosters at the Division 1 FCS level.
The team has played several FBS opponents and is slowly progressing to develop into a division I FBS program. The team has played teams in recent years such as Iowa, Rutgers, Hawaii, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Connecticut, Syracuse, and to play the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. In 2004, The Maine Black Bears defeated Mississippi State University 9-7. This marked the first time that Maine defeated a Division I FBS opponent. The largest crowd that the Black Bears have ever played in front of was 77,469 fans at Memorial Stadium, when Maine fell 25-7 to the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln. The team currently plays their collegiate games at Harold Alfond Stadium. The team is scheduled to play BCS games at ACC's Boston College in 2012 and the Big Ten's Northwestern in 2013.
Basketball
The university's basketball team, as well as all other sports teams, participate in the America East Conference. The current Clemson University head coach Jack Leggett also attended the university, as well as NBA head coach Rick Carlisle (although Carlisle transferred to Virginia and finished his college career there). Other notables include Rufus Harris, European player Kevin Reed, and several Maine high school stars including Bangor's Jon McAllian and Edward Little's Troy Barnies. A prominent current player is San Diego-native Gerald Mclemore. The mens team has enjoyed a very good 09-10 season after two mediocre seasons. The women's and men's basketball teams play their collegiate games at Alfond Arena. On October 20, 2011 Maine announced that Men's and Women's Basketball teams will have 11 home games played at Memorial Gym in Orono. UMaine played home basketball games at Memorial Gym from its opening in 1935, but held some games at the Bangor Auditorium from 1980 through the early part of the 1990-91 season. The remaining men’s and women’s home games will be played at Alfond Arena, UMaine’s basketball home since January 1992. The men’s team has held a total of eight games at [[[Memorial Gymnasium (University of Maine)|Memorial Gym]] since 2003-04. [1]
The women's basketball team is particularly noted for producing one-time WNBA player Cindy Blodgett, who also served as an assistant coach at Boston College and Brown.
The men's basketball team in recent years has made progress as in the 2009-10 season the team finished the season in second place in the America East conference with a 19-11 overall record with recording one of its biggest wins in recent years with a 52-51 win over ACC conference team Boston College and in the 2010-11 season defeating the University of Massachusetts 68-56 and Penn State 74-64.
On May 23, 2007, Blodgett was named the Head Coach of Maine's women's team. She was released in March 2011.
The Black Bears' rivalry with the New Hampshire Wildcats is the longest continuous basketball rivalry between any two non-Ivy League schools: the men's teams have played each other 107 seasons in a row, from 1904-1905 to the present season (2010–2011).
The program has developed 2 NBA players those being former Los Angeles Clippers Jeff Cross and former Boston Celtics and current head coach of the Dallas Mavericks Rick Carlisle.
Baseball
The University of Maine baseball program has made several trips to the college world series & has produced numerous major league baseball players. The program has also made 16 NCAA tournament appearances, most recently in 2011 when they defeated FIU 4-1 in NCAA regionals.
Radio and television
Main article: Black Bear Sports NetworkThe current radio broadcast rights to all UMaine sports are held by Bangor, Maine Fox Sports Radio affiliate WAEI-FM/WAEI. TV coverage includes Bangor's WABI-TV (Most home football and basketball games and some hockey games). NESN also carries select hockey and basketball games (from American East TV and ESPN Plus). During the school year Black Bear Weekly is carried Sunday mornings on WABI.
In 2006 the University sold the advertising rights to athletic events to Missouri based Learfield Sports. Starting with the fall 2007 sports season, WVOM and WGUY split radio coverage, WGUY carrying men's and women's basketball and select baseball and softball games and WVOM carrying football and hockey broadcasts. After the 2008 fall sports season, WAEI-FM became the flagship for all Maine sports.
Many Black Bear games can also be heard on WMEB 91.9 FM, a student run, commercial free radio station located on campus.
Championships
National Championships
Men's Ice Hockey - 1993, 1999
Conference Titles
Men's Ice Hockey
Hockey East - 1989, 1992, 1993, 2000, 2004
Baseball
America East - 1990, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2011
Men's Cross Country
America East - 2004
Softball
America East - 1994, 2004
Football
Yankee Conference - 1949, 1951, 1952, 1961, 1965, 1974, 1982, 1987, 1989
Atlantic 10 - 2001, 2002
Women's Basketball
America East - 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004
Men's Outdoor Track
America East - 1995
Women's Outdoor Track
New England - 2003See also
References
- ^ Wager, Pete. "UMaine basketball teams to play 10 home games at Memorial Gym this season". Bangor Daily News. http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/18/sports/umaine-basketball-teams-to-play-11-home-games-at-memorial-gym-this-season/. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
External links
University of Maine UMaine Notable people • Orono • Collins Center for the Arts • Fay Hyland Botanical Plantation • Hudson Museum • Maynard F. Jordan Observatory • Museum of Art • University of Maine system
Student media Sports Maine Black Bears • Black Bear Sports Network • Men's ice hockey • Alfond Stadium • Mahaney Diamond
Organizations and Greek Francis Crowe Society • The Senior Skull Honor Society • Phi Eta Kappa • Wilde Stein Alliance for Sexual Diversity
Affiliates America East Conference Full members Albany Great Danes • Binghamton Bearcats • Boston University Terriers • Hartford Hawks • Maine Black Bears • New Hampshire Wildcats • Stony Brook Seawolves • UMBC Retrievers • Vermont Catamounts
Associate members Fairfield Stags (field hockey) • Providence Friars (women's volleyball)
Championships & awards Hockey East Men Boston College Eagles (Kelley Rink) • Boston University Terriers (Agganis Arena) • Maine Black Bears (Alfond Arena) • Merrimack Warriors (J. Thom Lawler Arena) • Northeastern Huskies (Matthews Arena) • Providence Friars (Schneider Arena) • UMass Minutemen (Mullins Center) • UMass Lowell River Hawks (Tsongas Center) • New Hampshire Wildcats (Whittemore Center) • Vermont Catamounts (Gutterson Fieldhouse)
Women Boston College Eagles (Kelley Rink) • Boston University Terriers (Walter Brown Arena) • Connecticut Huskies (Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum) • Maine Black Bears (Alfond Arena) • New Hampshire Wildcats (Whittemore Center) • Northeastern Huskies (Matthews Arena) • Providence Friars (Schneider Arena) • Vermont Catamounts (Gutterson Fieldhouse)
NCAA • Lamoriello Trophy • List of champions: Men / Women • Tournament sites: TD Garden / Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum Sports teams based in Maine Baseball 
Basketball Football IWFL: Southern Maine RebelsHockey Roller derby Soccer College athletics
(NCAA Div. I)Maine Black BearsCategories:- Maine Black Bears
- College sports teams in the United States by team
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