Texas A&M Aggies

The Texas A&M Aggies claim three national titles and have won 20 conference titles. They have produced two Heisman Trophy winners–John David Crow in 1957 and Johnny Manziel, the first redshirt freshman to ever win the award, in 2012.[2] A&M has had two perfect seasons, having gone undefeated and unscored upon in both 1917[3] and 1919.[4] The football program experienced a period of little success lasting from 1944 to 1971, when the Aggies won only two conference titles. With Emory Bellard as head coach beginning in 1972, the Aggies returned to prominence with two 10 win seasons during his short tenure. He was replaced by Tom Wilson who had little success at Texas A&M before Jackie Sherrill took over the program. Sherrill won three consecutive conference titles and two Cotton Bowl Classic postseason games while paying players. His defensive coordinator, R. C. Slocum, replaced him as head coach in 1989. Slocum finished in the top 25 during 10 of his 14 years at Texas A&M[5] and won 4 conference titles, including the school's only Big 12 title in 1998. Slocum also owns the Aggies' last undefeated season, in 1994, though they were ineligible for the conference title or postseason play due to NCAA sanctions.

In late 2002, Dennis Franchione left his position as head coach at the University of Alabama to take over Texas A&M's football program from Slocum. He finished the 2003 season at 4-8. Franchione finished the 2004 regular season with a 7-4 mark and an invitation to the Cotton Bowl Classic, a game the Aggies lost to Tennessee. The 2005 team regressed to 5-6 and defensive coordinator Carl Torbush was fired, and replaced by Gary Darnell. Due to the much-needed improvements on defense, the Aggies finished the 2006 regular season with a 9-3 record and a 5-3 mark in Big 12 play, including a 12-7 victory over the Texas Longhorns in Austin, the first over the Longhorns in 6 years.

In the 2007 season, the Aggies finished in a three-way tie for third place with Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in the Big 12 South, leading only Baylor, which finished last. Although the team pulled out a 38-30 victory over the Longhorns on the day after Thanksgiving, Franchione was forced to resign due to fallout from a secret email newsletter that violated NCAA and conference rules. Former Green Bay Packers coach Mike Sherman was announced as his replacement three days later. Unfortunately, Sherman's first year at A&M resulted in one of the worst records in years, finishing at 4-8.[6] The 2009 season showed some improvement with a 5-2 home record and a 6-7 overall record.[7] More coaching changes were made after the 2009 season and the hiring of Tim DeRuyter lead the media coverage. In 2008, DeRuyter was the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Airforce where his defense finished 11th in the NCAA in total defense, and 5th in pass defense.[8]

The Aggie Football team was featured in the ESPN movie, The Junction Boys. The film dramatized Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's grueling football practice sessions in 1954 in Junction, Texas.[9]

Player introductions during the 2007 Lone Star Showdown at Reed Arena

Texas A&M basketball had been dormant for much of its recent history until the mid-2000s. The Aggies have won 11 conference championships, two conference tournament titles, and have 10 NCAA tournament appearances. Under former head coach Billy Gillispie, the Aggies finished fourth in conference in 2006 only two years removed from having zero wins in conference play. Gillispie then led the Aggies to their first NCAA tournament berth since 1987, playing as a 12 seed, and to A&M's first NCAA tournament win since 1980 over fifth seed Syracuse. The Aggies were one point short of advancing to the Sweet Sixteen over fourth seed LSU, with a final score of 57-58. In the 2007 season, A&M spent most of the season ranked in the top 10 of the polls and became the first Big 12 south team to win against the University of Kansas in Lawrence since the Big 12 was formed. The Aggies finished with a 27-7 record and finished 2nd in the Big 12. They earned a number 3 seed in the NCAA tournament where they made it to the sweet 16, but fell to the University of Memphis 64-65. Acie Law IV was named an All-American. Billy Gillispie left for the University of Kentucky soon after the season. Mark Turgeon was named head coach a few days later, and has amassed a 73-31 record in his first three years in College Station, along with three more NCAA tournament appearances and a 3-3 NCAA tournament record.

The women's basketball team had two NCAA tournament appearances, an NWIT title, and a Southwest Conference tournament title before entering the Big 12. The program experienced little success in the new conference until current head coach Gary Blair took over the program. Blair's teams advanced to the NCAA tournament multiple times. He led the 2011 team to the NCAA national championship.

Ground broke on the Cox-McFerrin Center in November 2006, a 68,000-square-foot (6,300 m²) expansion to Reed Arena which includes new locker rooms, meeting rooms, practice gyms, training rooms, player lounges, and reception areas.

Head coach Rob Childress (right) with two players in 2008

The Aggie baseball team plays home games at Olsen Field, which went through major renovations and is now Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. The team is coached by Rob Childress, who joined the program in the 2006 season, after leaving his assistant coach position with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Since conference play began in 1915, the Aggies have won 15 Southwest Conference titles, three Big 12 regular-season and two tournament titles, and have made five College World Series appearances. 1989 was the high-water mark when the Aggies were ranking #1 for numerous weeks before ending the season ranked #2.

Aggie softball player at the Aggie Softball Complex

The softball team formed in the 1972–73 season. The team won NCAA championships in both 1983 and 1987,[10] and an AIAW championship in 1982. It also has eleven College World Series appearances.[11] The team is coached by Jo Evans, who has led the program since 1996. Under her leadership, the Aggies have won two conference regular season championships (2005 and 2008), one conference tournament championship (2008), appeared in the NCAA Regionals nine times, winning two, and the Super Regionals thrice, winning two. They have also made two Women's College World Series appearances under her coaching and finished 7th in 2007 and 2nd in 2008.[12] At the end of 2018, the team played their first games in the new Davis Diamond, the top-of-the-line 2,000-seat stadium, which opened officially in the 2019 season.[13][14]

Women's soccer is coached by G Guerreri, who has led the program since its inception in 1993.[15] His Aggies have won 12 Big 12 titles (7 regular season and 5 tournament), including 4 straight regular season titles from 2004 to 2007. The Aggies have made 17 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament since 1995. Of those 17, 4 are Elite 8 finishes, and 6 are Sweet 16 finishes. Since 1999, the Aggies have advanced at least as far as the Sweet 16 during all but four of their NCAA Tournament appearances. The Aggies have never been eliminated in the round of 64.[16]

Texas A&M does not currently sponsor a varsity men's soccer program. The Aggies fielded a varsity men's soccer squad for just one season in 1981.[17]

The Aggie volleyball team is coached by Laurie Corbelli, who has been at Texas A&M since 1993. The Texas A&M volleyball team participated in 13 consecutive NCAA postseasons, from Corbelli's first year in 1993 to 2005, reaching the Elite Eight twice and Sweet Sixteen three times. After several lean years, the Aggies returned to the NCAA tournament, advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2010 and the second round in 2011.

Track and field is coached by Pat Henry. In his 17 years at LSU, Henry won 27 national titles, 17 SEC titles, 15 SEC Coach of the Year awards, and five National Coach of the Year awards. Henry was hired by Texas A&M before the 2005 season, taking over a program that had never won a title in women's track. Within three years, in 2007, his teams won both women's indoor and outdoor Big 12 Conference titles. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, he won both the men's and women's NCAA outdoor titles, a feat he has accomplished four times and duplicated by no other coach.[18] Since arriving in College Station, Henry has won two National Coach of the Year and six Big 12 Coach of the Year awards.

Jessica Beard was the 2011 women's winner[19] and Deon Lendore was the 2014 men's winner of The Bowerman,[20] an award that honors collegiate track & field's most outstanding athlete of the year.

Men's golf is coached by J.T. Higgins, who has been with the program since 2001. He has led the team to 12 appearances and 5 top-10 finishes at the NCAA tournament. His 2009 team captured the NCAA title. They have won 11 conference championships:

• Southwest Conference (10): 1926, 1948, 1960–63, 1967, 1969, 1982, 1987
• Big 12 Conference (1): 2012

Women's golf has been coached by Trelle McCombs since the summer of 2007 making 2007–08 her first year as head coach. The golf team won the Big 12 title in 1998, 2006, 2007, and 2010. In 2006, the team finished 19th at the NCAA Championship tournament. In 2008, the team was fifth in their regional advancing to the NCCA Championship tournament. In 2011, the team finished 7th at the NCAA Championships, which they hosted at the Traditions Championship Golf Course.

In its third annual College Golf Guide, Golf Digest ranked both the men's and women's golf programs among the best in the nation in the team's scoring average, player growth, academics, climate, and facilities/coaches. The men's program ranked as the best in the Big 12 Conference and No. 15 nationally. The women's program ranked as the second best in the Big 12 Conference and No. 20 nationally.[21]

Men's tennis debuted in 1978. Richard Barker coached the inaugural season, compiling a 9–12 record. David Kent took over in 1979, and coached until 1996. Under Kent, the Aggies made two NCAA Tournament appearances in 1985 and 1994, finishing in the First Round in both. The Aggies also appeared in the NCAA Region IV Championships from 1994 to 1996, winning the 1994 championship. Tim Cass replaced Kent in 1997, coaching until 2006. In Cass's ten seasons at A&M, he won three Big 12 tournament titles and one conference title. He resigned in July 2006 to accept a position as senior associate athletic director at the University of New Mexico, his alma mater. In 2006, former ATP Tour player and Texas A&M–Corpus Christi head coach Steve Denton was named the new head men's tennis coach. Former Trinity University coach Bob McKinley became his assistant. Denton won three Southland Conference regular-season titles, two tournament titles, and had an overall conference record of 19-2, including two undefeated regular seasons, in his five years with the Islanders. In 2008, he was inducted into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame, joining former A&M coach David Kent, who was inducted in 1998, and McKinley, who was inducted in 2003. With both of the coaching staff in the ITA Hall of Fame, the A&M men's tennis program is the only program in the country with two ITA Hall of Fame coaches.[22] In 2011, the No. 3 seeded Texas A&M Men's Doubles team of Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek defeated the No. 4 seeded Stanford University Men's Doubles team of Bradley Klahn and Ryan Thacher for the NCAA Men's Doubles Crown.

The women's tennis program started in 1980. The women's team has been coached by Bobby Kleinecke since 1985. In 2003 and 2004, he was voted Big 12 Coach of the Year. Kleinecke led the Aggies to two conference titles in 1986 and 2003 and a tournament title in 2004. The Aggies have also made a total of 13 NCAA Tournament appearances under Kleinecke.[23] In 2011, Howard Joffe, previously at Maryland, was named head coach after Kleinecke's contract was not renewed.[24]

The Student Rec Center, home of the swimming and diving natatorium

Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams compete in the Student Rec Center Natatorium. Long-time assistant Jay Holmes, who has worked at Texas A&M since 1987, became the head coach of the men's swimming program in 2004. Women's swimming is led by Steve Bultman, who has been the head coach since 1999. The diving program is led by Jay Lerew.

The Texas A&M women's swimming program has several notable current and former swimmers. This includes 2008 Summer Olympics medalist Christine Marshall, who swam for the US, 2012 Summer Olympics gold medalist Breeja Larson and Olympian Cammile Adams, both who also swam for the US, Triin Aljand, who swam for Estonia, Alia Atkinson, who swam for Jamaica, and Julia Wilkinson, who swam for Canada. Team members Kristen Heiss and Emily Neal are members of the US National Team and competed in the 2009 Summer World University Games .[25]

The women's program has won four of the last six Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championships, including in 2012. They finished tenth in the 2011 NCAA championships. The men finished 13th, cracking the top 25 for the fifteenth consecutive year.

Coached by Tana Rawson, the women's equestrian team has been a varsity sport at Texas A&M since 1999. Although a group of administrators and coaches are working to make equestrian an NCAA-recognized sport,[26] A&M competes with 18 other equestrian teams from Division I schools.[27]

For seven years, from 2000 to 2006, the program participated in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championship, winning the Western division national title three times. The Aggies ended their participation in IHSA in 2006, and the program now competes only in the Varsity Equestrian National Championship, in which A&M won the overall national championship in 2002 and Western division titles in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010. Additionally, in 2010, Texas A&M won two individual national titles, with Caroline Gunn winning the national title for the second time in a row in Horsemanship, and Maggie Gratny winning the national title in reining.

Texas A&M won the inaugural Big 12 Classic in 2007, a competition between Big 12 programs with equestrian teams, which includes Baylor, Kansas State, and Oklahoma State.

Founded in 1968, Texas A&M Rugby plays in Division 1-A in the Allied Rugby Conference against traditional rivals such as Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma.[28][29] The Aggies are led by Head Coach James Lowrey. Texas A&M offers scholarships to in-state and out-of-state rugby players, and qualifying out-of-state rugby players may attend Texas A&M at the in-state tuition rate.[30]

Texas A&M finished the 2011-12 season ranked 16th in the country.[31] The Aggies won the 2012 Allied Rugby Conference 7s tournament, racking up wins against Oklahoma and Texas Tech along the way.[32] The Aggies also won the 2012 Southeastern Collegiate Rugby Conference 7s, defeating Georgia in the final 28-10. This victory qualified the Aggies for the 2012 USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships,[33] where they reached the quarterfinals. In the 2012-13 season, Texas A&M defeated Texas to win the Allied Rugby Conference.[34]

Women's archery was a varsity sport at Texas A&M from 1999 to 2004. It was added in 1999 when the NCAA designated archery as an emerging varsity sport for women. Archery was cut from varsity status in 2004, however, due in part to the lack of growth of varsity NCAA programs at other universities. Archery now continues at Texas A&M as a club sport.

Texas A&M has a total of 19 team national championships, of which 13 were bestowed by the NCAA. The first two NCAA titles were won by the softball team in 1983 and 1987, while the third was won by the men's golf team in 2009. The fourth and fifth were won in 2009 by the men's and women's outdoor track teams, when the Aggies garnered double national titles. The men's and women's track teams also added the sixth and seventh titles in 2010, repeating the same title feat.[35] Both teams added yet another two in 2011. The women's basketball team won in 2011. The men's outdoor track and field team won the Aggies' eleventh national title at the 2013 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in its first year of SEC competition. The twelfth NCAA title was won by the women's outdoor track and field team in 2014. The thirteenth NCAA title was won by the men's indoor track and field team in 2017.

The softball team won the 1982 AIAW Women's College World Series, the last softball championship to be conducted by the AIAW, which governed women's intercollegiate athletics from 1972 to mid-1982 (the NCAA began sponsoring women's athletics in 1981). The 1939 football team was designated national champions by multiple selectors, including the Associated Press, the Helms Athletic Foundation, the National Championship Foundation, and the College Football Researchers Association.[36] In addition to the 1939 national title, in 2011 the football program laid claim to national titles for 1919 and 1927, each of which was chosen once to appear in different retroactive listings by two selectors in the 1970s. The equestrian team won the Varsity Equestrian overall national championship in 2002 and 2012, while winning the western-riding style component of that competition in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.[37] The team additionally won the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) western-style championship in 2002, 2003 and 2004.[38] Before it attained varsity status in 1999, the team had also won this title in 1994.

Texas A&M has won 13 NCAA team national championships.[39]

• Men's (6)

• Golf (1): 2009
• Indoor Track and Field (1): 2017
• Outdoor Track & Field (4): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013

• Women's (7)

• Basketball (1): 2011
• Outdoor Track and Field (4): 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014
• Softball (2):1983, 1987

Listed below are six national team titles in current and emerging NCAA sports that were not bestowed by the NCAA.

• Men's (3)

• Football (3): 1919^†, 1927^‡, 1939

• Women's (3)

• Equestrian (Varsity) (2): 2002, 2012
• Softball (1): 1982 (AIAW)

† Selected by two selectors in 1970 and 1980. Except for 1905–1907, all pre-1926 football selections were made retroactively.

‡ Selected by Jeff Sagarin in 1978.

Below are 141 national team titles won by Texas A&M varsity and club sports teams at the highest collegiate levels in non-NCAA sports:

• Men's (44)

• Archery (recurve) (14): 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2013, 2014
• Archery (compound) (10): 1995, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016
• Archery (bowhunter) (3): 2013, 2015, 2016
• Handball (American) (2): 2002, 2003
• Paintball (1): 2016
• Polo (11): 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2018, 2019[40]
• Powerlifting (2): 1983, 2015[41]
• Weightlifting (1^§): 1989

• Women's (44)

• Archery (recurve) (13): 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016
• Archery (compound) (13): 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016
• Archery (bowhunter) (1): 2016
• Equestrian (AQHA western) (4): 1994, 2002, 2003, 2004
• Handball (American) (6): 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994
• Polo (4): 1994, 1995, 2018, 2019[40]
• Powerlifting (2): 2010, 2019[40]
• Rodeo (1): 2002

• Combined (53)

• Adventure racing (1): 2013
• Archery (recurve) (16): 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013
• Archery (compound) (11): 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2012, 2013, 2014
• Archery (overall team) (5): 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
• Handball (American) (6): 1985, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2015 (Div. II)
• Powerlifting (3^§): 1991, 1992, 1993
• Team Tennis (WTT format) (5): 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
• Trap & Skeet Shooting (4^§): 1978, 1982, 2015 (Div. II), 2019[40]
• Wakeboarding (1): 2015 (College Wake)
• Water skiing (1): 2005 (Div. II)

^§ For this sport, some years may be missing from this list and hence remain uncounted.

Texas A&M has won a total of 173 team conference and tournament championships. 96 titles were won during play in the Southwest Conference (93 men's/3 women's) while 58 were won in Big 12 Conference play (19 men's/39 women's). Texas A&M has won 19 titles in the Southeastern Conference (6 men's/13 women's) with the 2019 Women's Swimming & Diving title being the most recent.

SWC = Southwest Conference   •   B12 = Big 12 Conference   •   SEC = Southeast Conference

Football (3)

• B12: 1997, 1998, 2010

Soccer (1)

• SEC: 2012

Volleyball (1)

• SEC: 2012

Men's Tennis (1)

• SEC: 2013

Women's Tennis (1)

• SEC: 2013