Display 1201: (Brief) Athletic History of SSU

    Intercollegiate athletics at Savannah State began with a Thanksgiving Day football game in 1902 and for over a generation football remained the institution's main intercollegiate sport.  Women's varsity basketball was added in the 1927-28 season and remained the only female varsity competitive sport until the 1980's.  Men's baseball and tennis had been added to the athletic program by the late 1920's, while 1927 was the earliest documented men's varsity basketball team.  Baseball participation has been documented beginning in 1916.  Track participation was a post-war phenomenon for men, inaugurated in 1949, while Golf and Swimming intercollegiate athletics date from 1968 & 1969 respectively.  Women's participation in varsity tennis, volleyball, and cross-country at Savannah Sate date from the mid 1980's influenced by new NCAA gender equity regulations.

    During the 1920's, Savannah State played in the Georgia-Carolina League.  By the 1930's, the institution began competing in the South Atlantic Athletic Conference along with other charter members, Allen, Claflin, Paine, Haines, Seneca, and Voorhees.  Varsity competition across the South was in limbo during World War II (1944-45) and following the war, Savannah State joined the Southeastern Athletic Conference (1947).  In 1952 Savannah joined National Collegiate Athletic Conference, in 1969 becoming a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.  In 1981 Savannah moved from NCAA Division III to Division II and in 2001 affiliated with Division I.

Source: Charles J. Elmore, Athletic Saga of Savannah State College (n.d.)

under construction; but meanwhile...

"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
--Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark