Trinity Tigers


The Trinity Tigers is the nickname for the sports teams of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. They participate in the NCAA's Division III and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. The school mascot is LeeRoy, a Bengal tiger. In the 1950s, LeeRoy was an actual tiger who was brought to sporting events, but today LeeRoy is portrayed by a student wearing a tiger suit. Early in its history, the school participated in Division I/II athletics, but by 1991 the entire program made the move to Division III, at which time it joined the SCAC.
Trinity fields strong teams, evidenced by its finishes in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Learfield Directors' Cup, which recognizes the strength of athletic programs by division. Since the Directors' Cup inception in 1995, Trinity has finished in the top 10 on five occasions out of over 400 Division Ill programs; it finished 31st in 2017-18.
In recent years, Trinity has reached the national Division III playoffs in several sports, including football, women's basketball, volleyball, baseball, women's cross country, men's and women's track and field, and men's and women's soccer. In 2011-12, the Trinity sports program reclaimed Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference "President's Trophy," awarded to the school in the conference that has the best overall sports record for the year, for the first time in seven seasons; as of 2017, the school has won the President's Trophy every year since. Prior to that drought the Tigers had won the award eleven out of the preceding twelve seasons.
In addition to team success, individual Trinity student-athletes have won a number of championships over the years which are detailed below.
Club sports include men's and women's Lacrosse, Water Polo, and Trap and Skeet.

Baseball

The Trinity University Baseball program has a motto, one that the players look to in the heat of battle and celebrate in victory. “The Tradition Continues” is a staple of the baseball program's team-first approach and commitment to the good of the whole, the belief that each player contributes to the proud tradition of Trinity Baseball every time they step on the field.
In May 2015, Trinity Baseball qualified for the Division III College World Series for the first time, falling one game short of the championship round and placing third overall.
Trinity won the NCAA Division III College World Series and became national champions in 2016. In a best-of-three format, Trinity defeated Keystone College 14-6 in game 1 and 10-7 in game 2. Trinity defeated the 2015 champion, SUNY Cortland, twice in the bracket rounds of the tournament en route to the national championship.
With Jeremy Wolf playing in the outfield, the team won the 2016 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. In 2016, Wolf hit.408/.508/.741 with 60 runs, 28 doubles, 149 total bases, 11 home runs, and 70 RBIs. He was named All-American First Team of both the American Baseball Coaches Association and D3baseball.com, was named the West Region Player of the Year by the ABCA and D3baseball.com, and was named Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year. In his college career Wolf hit 72 doubles, a Trinity record, over 189 games.
The 2019 Trinity Baseball Team was a SCAC Co-Regular Season Champion and also won the SCAC Conference Championship. The 2020 Baseball Team was ranked #4 in the country before the season ended early. Trinity won SCAC conference championships in 1995, 1999, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019.
A number of former Trinity baseball players have made names for themselves in the ranks of professional baseball teams around the country.
Tim Scannell is in his 22nd season as the Trinity University head baseball coach. After serving as an assistant coach for two seasons, Coach Scannell took the Tigers’ reins prior to the 1999 campaign. Since that time, the Tigers have amassed a record of 698-266 over 21 seasons with Coach Scannell at the helm. Coach Scannell is ranked in the top-10 among active NCAA Division III coaches by winning percentage. The other Trinity baseball coaches are both former Trinity baseball players — David Smith is the Pitching Coach and Andrew Waters is the Assistant Baseball Coach.

Basketball

The Tigers had a successful Men's Basketball program under Bob Polk from 1965-1968; Polk, an Indiana native had compiled a record of 197-106 at Vanderbilt but poor health led to his resignation on the advice of his doctors. However, he was out of basketball for only 18 months as his health rapidly improved. As both the head basketball coach and athletics director, Polk became Southland Conference Coach-of-the-Year in 1967. He was also the NCAA National Coach-of-the-Year for the College Division in 1968. In his three years at Trinity, Polk compiled a 69-28 record and led the Tigers to the 1968 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament, where they finished 3rd overall.

Football

Trinity University started its football team in 1900 and played Baylor University in the first game. The Trinity football won conference championships in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2019.
Trinity athletics may be most famous for the "Mississippi Miracle" executed by the Tiger football team in the 2007 Trinity vs. Millsaps football game. On October 27, 2007, in a game played in Jackson, Mississippi, against conference rival Millsaps College, Trinity trailed by two points with two seconds left. With time for only one more play and being too far way for a field goal, the Tigers ran the "hook and lateral play," in which a receiver runs a short hook route, and then laterals the ball to a trailing player. After the first lateral the Millsaps defense was not fooled and seemed about to tackle the ball carrier and end the game.
At this point the Tigers showed their knowledge of rugby by lining up across the field, rather than gathering in front of the ball carrier as is typical in American football. This meant that there was always a Tiger player in position, either even with or behind the ball carrier, to legally receive another lateral. Every time the Millsaps defense closed on the ball carrier the Trinity player was able to complete a legal lateral to a teammate. In what ESPN said may have been the "longest play in football history," in terms of time elapsed, Trinity completed 15 laterals before breaking through the Millsaps defense for a 61-yard touchdown. The score, known in Jackson, MS as the "Major Disaster," gave Trinity the victory and ultimately led to the conference championship.
The Trinity community is especially proud of this play because it demonstrated not only the Tigers' athletic ability, but also their intelligence and poise under pressure. The unlikely play was named the top sports moment of the year by Time Magazine as well as the "Game Changing Performance of the Year" by Pontiac.
In November 2015, Trinity and Austin College announced they would affiliate with the Southern Athletic Association for football in 2017. The 2019 Trinity football team was Co-Champion of the Southern Athletic Conference.
Jerheme Urban is in his sixth year as Head Coach of the Trinity football team. Coach Urban played football and ran track at Trinity University and was a football All-American. After graduation from Trinity in 2003, Coach Urban had a nine-year career in the National Football League. In 2019, Coach Urban was inducted into the Trinity University Athletics Hall of Fame.

Tennis

Trinity has historically had a strong tennis program, once a Division I tennis power, under tennis coach Clarency Mabry, winning the men's NCAA championship in 1972, as well as being runners up in 1970, 1971, 1977 and 1979. The women's team captured the first USLTA women's collegiate championship in 1968 and won several more titles. In the early 1960s the program was home to arguably some of the best tennis players in the world, and bypassed the NCAA tournament to enter Wimbledon. In 1963, Chuck McKinley of Trinity won the Wimbledon Men's Singles Championship. He was also the runner up in 1961. In 1970, as a freshman at Trinity, Brian Gottfried won the USTA boys 18s singles championship, as well as the doubles championship with Alexander Mayer.
Other famous tennis players to attend Trinity included Butch Newman, Bob McKinley, Frank Froehling, Dick Stockton, Bill Scanlon and Gretchen Magers. The school's men's and women's programs both claimed national championships in 2000.

Tennis Team championships (Division I era)