Santa Clara Broncos men's basketball

Santa Clara and San Francisco first met in 1908, and have met 211 times since. Santa Clara has leads the series, 111-101. As two comparably sized Jesuit institutions within an hours drive of each other, the Broncos and Dons are natural rivals. The rivalry was heightened in the 1950s, with Santa Clara advancing to the Final Four in 1952, and San Francisco winning the tournament in 1954 and 1955. In a time when the NCAA tournament field was limited to 16 teams, the winner of the rivalry series was often the WCAC representative. The rivalry has remained competitive to the present day, however, it has lost some of its luster following San Francisco's self-imposed death penalty in 1981. Up to that point, the Dons had been one of college basketball's powerhouses, and the Broncos had played the role of foil. Santa Clara has won a majority of the match-up since the San Francisco program was revived in 1985.

Saint Mary’s and Santa Clara first played in 1910, and Santa Clara leads the all-time series, 131-83. The rivalry between the two schools has been most intense in football, and was less competitive in basketball. However, with both schools dropping football and Saint Mary’s recent rise to prominence in basketball have heightened the rivalry.

Santa Clara and Pacific own the oldest intercollegiate basketball rivalry in California, with the series beginning in 1904. Santa Clara leads the all-time series 89-51. The rivalry was initially one of proximity, as Pacific was founded in Santa Clara and later moved to San Jose. When the basketball rivalry began, the schools were located a stone’s throw from one another. When Pacific relocated to Stockton in 1923, the rival lessened somewhat. Pacific was a founding member, along with Santa Clara, of the WCAC conference in 1952. However, the rivalry took another hit when Pacific moved to the 1971 to join the Big West Conference. However, the teams remained fixtures on one another’s schedules. With Pacific returning to the WCC in 2013, the rivalry will take-on renewed significance.

Stanford and Santa Clara first met in 1912, and Stanford leads the all-time series 51-25. Both universities are in Santa Clara County, and have long shared a rivalry on and off the court. The two teams have not met on the court since 2008. Former Bronco head coach Dick Davy served as an assistant at Stanford from 2008-2012 following his retirement as head coach of Santa Clara in 2007. Santa Clara’s Kevin Foster passed Stanford’s Todd Lichti as the leading scorer in Bay Area college basketball history. The series is set to resume in 2019.

A newer rivalry for the Broncos has been with the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The teams first met in 1946, but did not become regular competitors until Gonzaga joined the West Coast Conference in 1979. Gonzaga leads the all-time series 49-31. In 2007, Santa Clara became the first, and to date, one of only two WCC members to beat Gonzaga in the McCarthey Athletic Center. In 2012, the attendance at the Santa Clara-Gonzaga game was 4,907, a Leavey Center record.

The Broncos have appeared in 11 NCAA Tournaments. Their combined record is 11–13.

The Broncos win over Arizona in 1993 was the second time in tournament history that a 15 seed has upset a 2 seed.

The Broncos have appeared in four National Invitation Tournaments. Their combined record is 2–4.

The Broncos have appeared in one College Basketball Invitational. Their record is 5–1 and were the 2013 champions.

The Broncos have appeared in one CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Their record is 5–0 and were the 2011 champions.

• Ralph Giannini (1939–40)
• Bob Feerick (1941–42)
• Ken Sears (1954–55)
• Bud Ogden (1969-69)
• Dennis Awtrey (1969–70)
• Mike Stewart (1971–72)
• Steve Nash (1995–96)
• John Bryant (2008–09)

• Ken Sears (1953, 1955)
• Dennis Awtrey (1969, 1970)
• Mike Stewart (1972)
• Kurt Rambis (1980)
• Steve Nash (1995, 1996)
• Marlon Garnett (1997)
• Sean Denison (2007)
• John Bryant (2009)

Santa Clara has retired seven jerseys.

The San Francisco Civic Center was a frequent home for Santa Clara into the 1950s.

The earliest Santa Clara Bronco home games were played at the San Jose YMCA, located down the Alameda from the campus. By 1927, however, the Broncos had adopted Kezar Pavilion, about 50 miles north of campus in San Francisco, as their home arena. In 1932, the Broncos began splitting time between the San Francisco Civic Center and Kezar. Though it may seem strange in a modern context to play games so far from campus, before the post-war boom, the vast majority of the Bay Area's population lived in San Francisco, and with them, the majority of Santa Clara's alumni and fans. Santa Clara's campus was considered rural and isolated at the time. With the Construction of the Seifert Gymnasium on campus in 1935, some less marquee match-ups were scheduled to be played on campus, much to the delight of the student body.

San Jose Civic Hosted the Broncos from 1935 until 1975.

With its construction in 1935, San Jose finally had a building worthy of hosting intercollegiate basketball. Though the Broncos would still play 'home' games in San Francisco intermittently until 1951, San Jose Civic became Santa Clara's true home. The San Jose Civic Auditorium was designed for stage productions, giving the building a unique feeling during basketball games. Those sitting on the ground floor had an intimate view of the game, and opposing students were often state on opposite sides of the balconies. During the Second World War, due to wartime travel restrictions, most home games were played at the smaller, on-campus, Seifert Gymnasium.

Following Santa Clara's successful run in the late 1960s, boosters and fans clamored to move the team to a modern, spacious, on-campus home. The Civic Auditorium was small for major college basketball tenant, and scheduling was made difficult by sharing the space with both concerts and productions, as well as the rival San Jose State Spartants basketball team, who also called the venue home. With funds raised, Santa Clara began construction on Toso Pavilion in 1974. Once it was completed in 1975, the Broncos moved, for the first time, to an on-campus home with modern amenities. The facility featured an air supported vinyl fabric roof supported by 11 large fans constantly producing a higher air pressure inside the dome than outside, similar to the Pontiac Silverdome or BC Place Stadium. The inside of the facility featured the main activity floor, two recreation areas, and team locker rooms. The building was named for Hal Toso, a basketball player at Santa Clara in the 1920s, and a major donor, supporter, and member of the Santa Clara Athletic Hall of Fame.

The Bronco's current home

The roof of Toso Pavilion developed several tears, and by 2000, the decision was made to renovate the building. A more permanent roof structure was built, and the interior of the building was renovated and brought to modern standards at a cost of $14 million. The newly christened 'Leavey Center' was named for Thomas Leavey, a 1922 Santa Clara Alumnus who founded Farmers Insurance. The Leavey Center contains the whole of the Athletic Department, and locker rooms for all team, excluding baseball, are in the building. The Capacity was reduced from 5,000 seats to a listed capacity of 4,500 with the renovation, due to the addition of chairback seats. However, larger crowds have been known to watch the Broncos play, with 4,907 on hand to watch the Santa Clara-Gonzaga game in 2012. The Leavey Center has also played host to nine West Coast Conference Basketball championships, most recently in 2005.[7]