A member of the Horizon League, Milwaukee sponsors teams in six men's and seven women's NCAA-sanctioned sports.
Baseball The Panthers are the only Division I college baseball team in the state of Wisconsin. They have also qualified for four NCAA tournaments since 1999, most notably recording an 8–4 win over regional host
Rice in the first round of the
1999 NCAA tournament. They also appeared in the
2001,
2002, and
2010 tournaments. The first Panther to appear in a
Major League Baseball game was outfielder
Daulton Varsho, who debuted for the
Arizona Diamondbacks in 2020. In 2025,
AJ Blubaugh became the second Panther and first UWM pitcher to play in MLB after debuting for the
Houston Astros.
Men's basketball The Panthers men's basketball team has had several high-profile head coaches, including
Bo Ryan (1999–2001), who was a national runner-up in 2014 as the head coach at
Wisconsin, and
Bruce Pearl (2001–2005), who made the 2019 Final Four as head coach at
Auburn. Milwaukee made one appearance in the
NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament in 1982 and two in the
NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament: one in 1960, and one where they reached the Elite Eight in 1989. As a Division I program, Milwaukee has made four NCAA tournaments since 2003, most notably, the
2005 tournament. As the twelfth seed in the Midwest regional, the Panthers upset fifth-seeded
Alabama in the first round and fourth-seeded
Boston College in the second round to reach the Sweet Sixteen. The Panthers would go on to lose in that round to the top-seeded eventual tournament runner-up
Illinois. The Panthers have made four postseason appearances outside of the NCAA tournament, including two in the
National Invitation Tournament and two in the
College Basketball Invitational. The Panthers have had five players selected in the
NBA draft. The highest selection is
Patrick Baldwin Jr., who was selected with the 28th pick in the first round by the
Golden State Warriors in 2022.
Women's basketball The Milwaukee women's basketball team began as a founding member of the
Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in 1972 before moving with the rest of the university sports to NAIA in 1982. The Panthers made their first NCAA tournament appearance at any level with the
2001 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, appearing again in
2006. They have also appeared in three
Women's National Invitation Tournaments and one
Women's Basketball Invitational.
Men's soccer The Milwaukee men's soccer team has made six NCAA tournaments since 2002, including four straight where they advanced to the second round. In the 2004 and 2005 tournaments, the Panthers lost to the top team in the country in the second round: 2004 against
UC Santa Barbara in double-overtime and 2005 against
New Mexico on penalty kicks. Panthers men's soccer holds the attendance record for
Engelmann Stadium, which was set during a match against cross-town rival
Marquette on September 3, 2015, with a crowd of 4,030.
Women's soccer Milwaukee's women's soccer team has won the Horizon League tournament and 12 times since 1997 and has made the NCAA tournament 16 times since then, including six straight from 2008 to 2013. The Panthers have also made every NCAA tournament since 2018, winning two tournament matches in that span. Milwaukee's highest end-of-season ranking is 23, which they achieved in 2011 following a Horizon League Championship and a win in the
NCAA tournament at home against
Illinois State.
Women's volleyball The women's volleyball team at Milwaukee has also enjoyed national success in recent years, qualifying for six of the last nine NCAA Tournaments and compiling an all-time record of 867–477–7 through the end of the 2006 season.
Football Milwaukee's now-defunct
football program competed at the NCAA College Division (now
NCAA Division II) level; due to lack of funds and a long string of losing seasons, they dropped the sport after the 1974 season. ==Gallery==