Moores Hill College moved to Evansville and became Evansville College in 1919. The athletics program was begun with the opening of the new campus. A member of the
Missouri Valley Conference, the University of Evansville sponsors teams in seven men's and nine women's
NCAA-sanctioned sports.
Baseball runner on first base in
Baum Stadium. The first officially sanctioned
Evansville College baseball team was formed in 1924.
John Harmon was hired as the first
head coach of the then-Evansville College Pioneers. Their first game was against
Bethel College, which led to a 5–4 Pioneers victory, marking their first in school history. The Purple Aces have competed in the
Missouri Valley Conference since 1995. The Purple Aces play all home games on
German American Bank Field at Charles H. Braun Stadium. The team competed in two
NCAA Division II baseball tournaments before they started competing in Division I in 1995. Since then they have competed in four
NCAA Division I baseball tournaments and have won one regional championship. Five players from the Purple Aces baseball team have appeared in
Major League Baseball:
Andy Benes,
Sal Fasano,
Jamey Carroll,
Kyle Freeland, and
Rob Maurer.
Men's basketball honoring UE's championship tradition The University of Evansville athletics department was built upon a foundation of success in men's
basketball. In the early years of the men's basketball program the Purple Aces appeared in the
NAIA national tournament. The Purple Aces appeared 4 times in the
NAIA tournament (
1941,
1942,
1951, and
1955). The Purple Aces had a NAIA tournament record of 3–4. The furthest distance Evansville got in the NAIA tournaments was in third round (NAIA quarterfinals) in 1951, only to lose to
Regis University (Colo.) 70–68. Shortly after the 1955 season the Purple Aces would move up to the NCAA College Division, now called
NCAA Division II. The Evansville Purple Aces won five national championships in the NCAA College Division:
1959,
1960,
1964,
1965 (29–0 record) and
1971. This ranks second all-time. In 1977 UE began playing in
NCAA Division I athletics. That same year on December 13, a chartered
DC-3 carrying the entire UE basketball team
crashed in a field near the
Evansville Regional Airport en route to a game against
Middle Tennessee State. Every member of the team and coaching staff on the plane was killed. Legendary Aces coach
Arad McCutchan had retired after the previous season and was not on the plane. McCutchan was the first
NCAA College Division coach selected to the
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. One player was not able to attend the game and thus was not on the plane; not long after the plane crash, however, the player who was not on the plane was killed in a car accident along with his younger brother. Tremendous community support brought back the basketball program the next year.
Brad Leaf played for the Evansville Purple Aces from 1979 to 1982, and was a co-captain in his last year. As a sophomore, he set the then-Evansville season free throw percentage record at 81.1%. In 1981–82, he led the school to its first NCAA Division I tournament. He was the school's first
All-American in NCAA Division I. Leaf was 5th in school history in
field goals (621), 6th in
field goal percentage (52.2%), 7th in points (1,605), and 9th in
free throws (363). two trips to the NIT (
1988,
1994), three trips to the
CollegeInsider.com (CIT) tournament (
2009,
2013, and
champions in 2015), and two trips to the
College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament (
2011 and
2012). On November 12, 2019, the Evansville team took down the #1 ranked
University of Kentucky basketball team in UK's home of
Rupp Arena, gaining national and global prestige for the upset.
Women's basketball The University of Evansville women's basketball team (historically the Lady Aces, though now also known as Purple Aces) have made two trips to the NCAA basketball tournament (
1999,
2009).
Football The University of Evansville first fielded a football team in 1898. Known early on as the 49ers, Evansville played in the
NCAA College Division through 1975, after which they played as an
NCAA Division III non-scholarship program. They were champions of the
Ohio Valley Conference in 1948 (shared with
Morehead State) with a 6–3 (3–1 OVC) record and 1949 with an 8–2–1 (3–1–1 OVC) mark. Following new NCAA regulations requiring university football and basketball teams to compete at the same division, Evansville became a charter member of the
Pioneer Football League (PFL), an
NCAA Division I non-scholarship league. They remained PFL members until their shut down following the 1997 season. Citing financial difficulties and a belief that the PFL was not sustainable, the Purple Aces closed the doors on their football program after almost a century on the gridiron. Evansville's all-time record stands at 268–381–26. Talk has existed since about 2007 about upgrading football again to a fully funded NCAA Division I team, but, after a year of investigation, the board of trustees voted against this in October 2012 as being too expensive.
Postseason games ==See also==