Undergoing its third name change in school history, the
athletics program was undergoing changes as well in 1975. The
school was one year away from returning to the Rocky Mountain
Athletic Conference in 1976, where it would participate in the NAIA
for the next 15 years. Additionally, it was faced with "Life
After Harry" as iconic men's basketball coach and athletic
director, Harry Simmons, was just a few years away from
retirement.
1975-76: As the demand for higher
education programs increased, the number of academic degrees
offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels increased. The
first graduate program to be offered was the Master of Arts in
Teaching with an emphasis in industrial education beginning in
1972. In recognition of an expanded role and scope, the institution
was granted university status and was renamed the University of
Southern Colorado.
1976-77: USC rejoined the Rocky Mountain
Athletic Conference and competition in the NAIA. The athletic
program started strong, led by the tennis team, which won the RMAC
title and finished in the top 10 in both the NCAA Division II and
the NAIA National Tournament, turning in 9th and 4th place
finishes, respectively.
1977-78: For the first time, women's sports
were sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and the
women's tennis team won the conference's first ever RMAC
championship. It was one of three USC conference
championships that year, joined by the men's tennis and men's golf
teams.
1978-79: USC enjoyed its most successful
athletic year in school history, recording four conference
championships (men's golf, men's tennis, men's cross country, men's
track and field).
1979-80: Harry Simmons coached his last year at
USC after 35 years at the University. He would retire with
over 600 wins, 11 national tournament berths, an NCAA Division II
Regional Championship and one National Championship. He would
go on to be inducted into both the NJCAA and NAIA Hall of Fame as
well as charter membership into the CSU-Pueblo Athletics Hall of
Fame. Today, the RMAC's Men's Basketball Coach of the Year
Award bears his name. He handed off athletic director duties
to track coach, Jim Blasing, and basketball coaching duties to
longtime assistant, Don McIntosh.
1980-81: 1980 brought unprecedented success for
the football team, which was always above average but never built a
championship team. That all changed in 1980 as the Indians
went 9-1 to win its first ever Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
title. However, it wouldn't capture a berth to the NAIA
Tournament despite winning the title. That year also brought
the hire of 23-year-old Valerie Striggow, who took over a
struggling gymnastics squad and started a women's track program,
and had immediate success. She would direct USC to three
straight RMAC gymnastics championships and three straight national
top ten finishes.
1981-82: The women's athletic program really
came into its own in 1982 as it produced the first two individual
national champions in school history. Gymnast Kim Villers
would win the floor exercise national championship while long
jumper Yvonne Taylor won the national title. As a team, the
gymnastics team would finish 2nd in the country, the second-highest
team finish in school history.
1982-83: The athletic program seemed to be
flying high as the football team secured its first ever NAIA
Playoff berth behind the play of quarterback John Wristen,
linebacker Dan DeRose, and future Kansas City Chief, Herman Heard.
The wrestling program began and immediately produced an RMAC
champion in Curt Topping. However, the program was just two
years away from a major shakeup.
1984-85: In a year that began with the outster
of longtime football coach Mike Friedman and ended with the
dissolution of numerous athletic programs, USC Athletics reached
its lowest point. New President Robert Shirley spearheaded a
campus reorganization plan that emphasized a polytechnic approach
to education and de-prioritized athletics. The result was the
ouster of several athletic programs, including football, baseball
and gymnastics. The loss of football would later mobilize the
community.
One of the lone bright spots of the year was the success of the
wrestling team, which, in only its third year of existence,
finished 2nd in the nation and produced the program's first two
national champions (Mike Guenther and Bryan Hawkins). The
wrestling program would continue to produce top ten national
performances on virtually an annual basis until its own untimely
ouster in 2001.
1985-86: A young freshman wrestler named Chuck
Pipher finished within one victory of the 167-pound NAIA
championship, starting off a career that is considered one of the
best in NAIA history. The future NAIA Hall of Famer would go
on to win three national titles, starting in 1987, and earn
All-American honors four times.
1987-88: After previous men's basketball coach
Dick Drangmeister resigned just days before the start of the
1987-88 season, former Eastern Washington University coach Joe
Folda was given the reins in one of the toughest situations
possible for an incoming coach. Remarkably, Folda's Indians
responded by winning the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Tournament championship, delivering the program's first conference
championship since 1973. It was one of four conference
championships won by USC teams that year, joining the women's
basketball team as it won its first ever RMAC Regular Season
Championship just three years removed from an 0-25 season, the
wrestling team and the women's tennis team.
1988-89: The women's basketball team won its
second straight RMAC championship, amazingly becoming the first
back-to-back conference champion of any team sport since the school
became a four-year institution. Meanwhile, as Chuck Pipher
collected the last of his three national wrestling championships,
the greatest family dynasty in school history continued as his
little brother, Andy Pipher, collected the first of four
All-American honors. Even track and field high jumper Jeff
Martinez got the start on his career in 1989, earning his
first of five All-American honors as a freshman.
1989-90: The wrestling team set a program best
by qualifying nine wrestlers to the NAIA National Championships,
netting a total of four All-Americans and finishing 9th in the
country. The year also saw a national high jump championship
for Jeff Martinez.
1989 also saw the addition of a men's soccer program, which
would languish under several different coaches until 1994.
1990-91: 1990-91 was one of the more memorable
sports seasons in recent memory, beginning with the school's
membership in the Colorado Athletic Conference, moving from the
RMAC. USC would be making the move to NCAA Division II in the
process, beginning in 1991-92.
The wrestling team kept up their recent
success by tying a program-best with a 2nd place finish at the NAIA
National Championships, going out in style in their final NAIA
competition. Despite not qualifying as many wrestlers as it
had the previous year (seven compared to nine), they performed much
better, recording a program-high three national titles (Mark
Villalobos, Mannie Garcia, Andy Pipher) and five All-Americans.
The year was also memorable for the men's basketball team,
which put together its highest win total since becoming a four-year
institution, going 25-8 and winning the inaugural Colorado Athletic
Conference championship. The Indians then won the NAIA
District VII Championship and qualified for the NAIA Tournament for
the first time since 1986.
1991-92: Former Academic All-American
linebacker Dan DeRose became the Director of Athletics in 1991,
helping to usher in a decade of growth and expansion in the
athletic department. Meanwhile, the move to Division II left
many USC programs struggling in the first year, but the highlight
was the NCAA Division II National Championship by wrestler Dax
Charles at 150 pounds.
1992-93: 1993 marked the end of one era and the
beginning of another. At the close of the year, the men's and
women's track and field and cross country programs ended, but not
before netting a total of four All-Americans (Brenda Gonzales in
cross country, Ivory Rounds in the indoor and outdoor triple jump,
and Dayna McDowell in the 1,500-meter). At the same time,
plans were unveiled for the resurrection of a baseball program for
the 1994 season, as well as softball and women's soccer. All
would play at the newly-constructed Rawlings Sports Complex, which
would go on to be a nationally-recognized and award-winning
athletic facility. At the close of the school year, the
baseball team tapped minor league assistant Stan Sanchez to lead
the baseball program.
1993-94: Nobody foresaw what was on the horizon
in 1994 for the USC baseball team (except for maybe head coach Stan
Sanchez). The brand new program amazingly took the Division
II baseball world by fire, not only outplaying every other team in
the region to earn a conference championship as well as the right
to host the NCAA Division II West Regional Championships, but it
also plowed through Division I competition. The
highest-profile win was a road victory over Wichita State, then
ranked #1 in NCAA Division I. The win as well as the team's
performance that season undoubtedly put the program on the map.
1994-95: The political climate was changing and
Southern Colorado had to address the issue of its longtime mascot,
"The Indian." As a result, a contest was held to find the new
mascot, and the winning entry was a mythical country known as the
"ThunderWolf." The ThunderWolf mascot would go on to be one
of the more popular NCAA mascots.
1995-96: The baseball team was again in the
spotlight in 1996, headlined by a successful Rocky Mountain
Athletic Conference Tournament run as well as a win in the NCAA
Division II West Regional Tournament, becoming the first RMAC
school to win a regional title. USC gained a berth in the
NCAA Division II College World Series, eventually finishing 5th in
the nation. It headlined a year that also included a men's
basketball conference title and conference championships in men's
tennis and men's golf.
1996-97: The University's membership in the
Colorado Athletic Conference ran its course as the conference
dissolved and the RMAC absorbed the CAC teams in an expanded
14-team conference. In that first RMAC season, the highlight
was turned in by the long dormant volleyball team, which went on an
RMAC Tournament run to win the conference title and qualify for the
NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time.
1997-98: USC was riding high as the athletic
program turned in three conference championships (men's tennis,
women's tennis, wrestling) and a 5th place national finish by the
wrestling team. The men's basketball team even got in on the
act, winning 22 games and finishing as the RMAC runner-up, earning
a berth to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
1998-99: Wrestling dominated the scene and
Chris Currier and Trent Monlux each won national titles.
1999-2000: The men's soccer team had its best
season in school history, winning 15 games and taking the Rocky
Mountain Athletic Conference championship. The team, however,
finished short of qualifying for the NCAA Division II National
Tournament.
2000-01: The year was bittersweet as
unprecedented success by the women's tennis team, which featured
two-time All-American Daniela Ivana, and nationally-ranked baseball
and softball teams that each earned bids to the NCAA Division II
National Tournament, was blunted by the unexpected decision to drop
wrestling from the athletic program. In its swan song, the
wrestling team finished 5th in the nation, recording six
All-Americans.
2002-03: The University was again undergoing a
name change, this time to Colorado State University-Pueblo as a
member of the Colorado State University System. In May
of 2002, Governor Bill Owens signed legislation changing the
mission and name to Colorado State University - Pueblo effective
July 1, 2003. Today, the university is a regional, comprehensive
institution with a focus on professional studies such as business,
nursing, social work, and teacher education.
