A Brief History of Trinity Athletics
Trinity’s athletic success has been rather fragmented throughout time. Specifically, the great success of tennis in the 1970s and other athletic achievements that sent athletes on to play professionally. In the 1980s, Trinity’s athletic department saw the demise of the successful environment amid many turning points for Trinity. There were disagreements and firings of administration, coach departures, acceptance requirements changing, among many other culture-shaping moments. In this decade we see the ‘87 tennis team determined to overcome the mentality of being an underdog (Mirage 94 and 95). We also see, in the same year, a basketball team that goes 6-20 (Mirage). The baseball team suffers losing seasons and the coach states they will be “going to get better in the coming years” (Mirage). The football program posted an 0-8 record in ‘88 and in ‘89, its first successful season, of 4-4, since 1983. The program was suffering across the board. Considering the primary sources of documents that were composed in the midst of the drought, it is evident that athletes and other members of the institution collectively understood that performances were not up to par with expectations. The bridge of athletics and academia previously touched on, is especially demonstrated in this example. Amid organizational-wide disarray, the effects of administration and academia influenced the other branches of the institution, such as athletics. Many of these accounts approach the manner in a way that suggests the student body felt this tide turn and many documents refer to a positive near future. This foreshadows the success to come in the following decade.
Following these events, Trinity athletics began to see compounding success in more frequent occurrences. In 1990 and 1991 Trinity underwent a reconstructive period in the athletic department including the transition of the historic Trinity tennis team from NCAA Division I to NCAA Division III. In 1991, Trinity’s athletic department added sports as well as joined the SCAC (Tiger Athletics, n.d.). It was a matter of 2 years until Trinity claimed dominance of the conference. The Trinity athletic program went on to claim 11 of the next 12 President’s Trophies. (Trinity extends leads for 2019-20 SCAC Presidents' Trophy. (n.d.).There have been moments that asserted Trinity with the most elite program, moments of falling from the heights of success, and times of extended failure. However, this exhibit investigates the specific period of Trinity’s history surrounding the 1990s and their successful reign over the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (further known as “SCAC”). Furthermore, this exhibit will argue that the SCAC’s President Trophy served as an influential factor to Trinity University’s athletic success and propelled the university’s program in a multitude of areas that altered the perception on campus and abroad during the 1990s. This includes encouraging top-level athletes to further their education and athletic endeavors at Trinity. Not only did this impact serve the athletic department, but also the academic aspects of the institution. This is an element of Trinity’s history that has not yet been explicitly dissected and proves to be a central aspect of the turning of recent success and attaining the goals set forth by the administration.