Appalachian State Mountaineers

Appalachian's first baseball team took the field in 1903. The Mountaineers are coached by Billy Jones. The Mountaineers won regular season conference titles in 1973, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 2012. They also won the Southern Conference Baseball Tournament in 1984 and most recently on May 18, 2012, the Appalachian State Baseball team beat Western Carolina University, becoming Southern Conference baseball champs.

The head coach of the Appalachian State men's basketball team is currently Dustin Kerns, previously of the Presbyterian Blue Hose. Notable past coaches include Press Maravich and Bobby Cremins. The Mountaineers have appeared in the NCAA Tournament twice, 1979 and 2000,[9] and appeared in the National Invitation Tournament in 2007. Appalachian State plays all home basketball games at the George M. Holmes Convocation Center, having opened in 2000 to replace Varsity Gymnasium on the campus of Appalachian State University.

The Appalachian State women's basketball team, coached by Angel Elderkin, was one of the top teams in the Southern Conference, laying claim to six SoCon tournament titles and six regular season championships in a 26-year span. On February 19, 2011, the Appalachian State Mountaineer Women's Basketball Team won the 2011 Southern Conference regular season title, the last time they had won the title was 1996.

The Mountaineers are led by head coach Shawn Clark. The 2005, 2006, and 2007 seasons were successful, with the Mountaineers winning three consecutive FCS national championships. Before Appalachian left the Southern Conference for the Sun Belt Conference and FBS football in 2014, it had developed intense rivalries with fellow conference members Furman, Georgia Southern, and Western Carolina, The Appalachian–Georgia Southern rivalry continues in FBS, as both teams moved together to the Sun Belt. The Mountaineers and Catamounts played annually for the Old Mountain Jug until Appalachian's departure for the Sun Belt.

The Mountaineers achieved perhaps their biggest win in program history with a road upset of the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines, 34–32, on September 1, 2007. With the win Appalachian became the first ever FCS (I-AA) team to defeat an AP nationally ranked FBS (I-A) team. This victory was seen by some analysts to be one of the greatest upsets in NCAA football history.[10][11][12][13][14] Following the win, they were featured on the cover of the following week's issue of Sports Illustrated.[15]

Numerous players from ASU have gone on to play in the National Football League. They include Harold Alexander, Kerry Brown, Dexter Coakley, Dino Hackett, Larry Hand, Jason Hunter, Dexter Jackson, Corey Lynch, Rico Mack, Marques Murrell, Mark Royals, John Settle, Matt Stevens, Troy Albea, Daniel Wilcox, and Armanti Edwards.

The women's field hockey team were members of the single-sport Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference (NorPac) until that league's demise after the 2014 season, playing the next two seasons as a Division I independent, as the Sun Belt does not sponsor this sport. The Mountaineers joined the Mid-American Conference as an affiliate starting in 2017.[16]

The Mountaineers wrestling team is coached by JohnMark Bentley and holds their home matches in Varsity Gymnasium. Notable former Mountaineer wrestlers include former Olympians, Al Crawford (1948), Herb Singerman (1968), Ike Anderson (1988 and 1992), and Dale Oliver (1988). In 2017, Denzel Dejournette was named an All-American, the first wrestler to earn the honor since Kyle Blevins and Austin Trotman in 2012. Wrestling will continue to participate in the Southern Conference in wrestling as the Sun Belt Conference does not sponsor wrestling.

As of April 4, 2016, Appalachian State has 3 NCAA team national championships.[17]

• Men's (3)
  • Football (FCS) (3): 2005, 2006, and 2007
• see also:
  • Sun Belt Conference NCAA team championships
  • List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships

Yosef the Mountaineer

Yosef is the mascot for Appalachian State. The origin of the name Yosef comes from mountain talk for "yourself", the idea being that if you are a fan, friend or alumnus and have a heart of black and gold, you are Yosef.[21] Yosef first appeared in the 1942 edition of The Rhododendron, Appalachian's annual yearbook. He was presented as a member of the freshman class with the name Dan'l Boone Yoseff from Appalachian. The second "f" was dropped from Yoseff in January 1947.[21] Since his inception, Yosef has gone through many appearance changes with the current design being adopted prior to the 1983–84-year. The 2006 football season saw the return of Yosef's rifle which was fired after every Appalachian touchdown.