St. John's Red Storm

The St. John's Red Storm is the nickname used for the 17 varsity athletic programs of St. John's University, in the U.S. state of New York. St. John's 17 NCAA Division I teams compete in the Big East Conference, with the exception of the fencing team, which compete in the ECAC.

The athletic program fields sixteen intercollegiate teams: basketball, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, and fencing for men and basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball, tennis, track and field, cross country, golf, and fencing for women. In 2002, the university eliminated five men's athletic teams and one women's team in order to comply with Title IX rules prohibiting activities that receive federal assistance from discriminating on the basis of gender.^[2]

History

Prior to the 1994–95 school year, the university's nickname was the St. John's Redmen, which referenced the red uniforms worn by its teams in competition. The name was interpreted as a Native American reference in the 1960s, and the university did have a mascot (adorned in Native American dress), which eventually led to the team's name change to the Red Storm. The change happened at a time when there was mounting pressure on colleges and universities to adopt names more sensitive to Native American culture.^[3][4] The Redmen name still remains popular among fans, however, as does "Johnnies". On September 18, 2009, the new mascot, which was voted on by students, was revealed: Johnny Thunderbird.

On December 15, 2012, St. John's and the other six Catholic, non-FBS schools (the so-called "Catholic 7") announced that they were departing the former Big East for a new conference.^[5] The "Catholic 7", after purchasing the "Big East" name from the FBS schools and adding Butler, Creighton, and Xavier, began operating as the new Big East Conference beginning in July 2013.^[6][7]

Teams

Baseball

• Head Coach: Mike Hampton
• Stadium: Jack Kaiser Stadium
• All-Americans: 21 (
  C.J. Nitkowski 1994, Mike Dzurilla 1998, Mike Dzurilla 1999, Mike Rozema 2003, Craig Hansen 2005, Anthony Varvaro 2005, Will Vogl 2006, George Brown 2008, Tim Morris 2009, Jeremy Baltz 2010, Joe Panik
  2011, Jeremy Baltz 2012, Matt Wessinger 2012, Ryan McCormick 2015, Thomas Hackimer 2015, Thomas Hackimer 2016, Sean Mooney 2017, Sean Mooney 2018)
• Big East Championships: 18 (Tournament: 1985, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1997, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2018; Regular Season: 1987, 1991, 1992, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2018)
• College World Series appearances: 6 (1949, 1960, 1966, 1968, 1978, 1980)

• Head Coach: Rick Pitino^[9]
• Arena: Carnesecca Arena and Madison Square Garden
• Big East Championships: 7 (Tournament: 1983, 1986, 2000; Regular Season: 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1992)
• NCAA Appearances: 29 (1951, 1952, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2011, 2015, 2019)
• Final Four Appearances: 2 (1952, 1985)
• National Players of the Year: 2 (Chris Mullin 1984–85, Walter Berry 1985–86)

St. John's is the seventh-most-winningest program in college basketball history (1,686 wins),

• Head Coach: Joe Tartamella
• Arena: Carnesecca Arena
• Big East Championships: 6 (Tournament: 1983, 1984, 1988, 2016; Regular Season: 1983, 1985)
• NCAA Appearances: 10 (1983, 1984, 1988, 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016)

The women's basketball team is currently coached by Joe Tartamella, who became the program's seventh head coach in 2012. Since then the team has competed in six post-season tournaments in his seven-year tenure and won one Big East tournament title. The program's highest post-season finish came during the 2011–12 season when they advanced to Sweet Sixteen under Kim Barnes Arico led by WNBA draft picks, Nadirah McKenith and Shenneika Smith.

Since then the program has had two additional WNBA selections, in Aliyyah Handford and Danaejah Grant, who helped add a fourth Big East tournament championship in 2016.

Fencing

• Head Coach: Yury Gelman
• National Championships: 1 (2001)
• Individual National Championships: 22

The St. John's fencing program has also attained national prominence under

• Daryl Homer (born 1990), 2× USA Olympic fencer (London '12, Rio '16)
• Ivan Lee (born 1981), USA Olympic fencer (Athens '04)
• Eli Schenkel (born 1992), Canadian Olympic fencer
• Keeth Smart (born 1978), 3× USA Olympic fencer (Sydney '00, Athens '04, Beijing '08)
• Jonathan Tiomkin (born 1979), USA Olympic fencer (Athens '04)
• Arlene Stevens (born 1981), USA Olympic fencer (Sydney '00)
• Dagmara Wozniak (born 1988), 3× USA Olympic fencer (Beijing '08, London '12, Rio '16)
• Curtis McDowald (born 1996), USA Olympic fencer

Golf

The men's golf team have won 10 Big East conference titles: 1979, 1981–84, 1986–89, 2014. The men's team also had three players finish in first place at the annual Big East Championship: Andrew Svoboda in 2001, Ryan McCormick in 2014, and Dylan Crowley in 2015.

The women's golf team won the first and only Big East team championship in 2005 and two individual championships in 2011 and 2014.

Notable former golfers:

• Andrew Svoboda (Class of 2003), PGA Tour golfer
• Ryan McCormick (Class of 2014), PGA Tour golfer
• Keegan Bradley (Class of 2008), PGA Tour golfer
• Mike Ballo, Jr. (Class of 2010),
  Web.com Tour
  golfer

Soccer

Men's soccer

• Head Coach: David Masur
• Stadium: Belson Stadium
• Big East Championships: 15 (Tournament: 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2011; Regular Season: 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2008)
• College Cup Appearances: 4 (1996, 2001, 2003, 2008)
• National Championships: 1 (1996)

St. John's won the 1996 NCAA Men's Division I Soccer Championship, made four appearances in the NCAA College Cup (1996, 2001, 2003 and 2008) and reached sixteen NCAA post-season tournaments, including fifteen straight from 1992 to 2006. The Red Storm also reached ten consecutive NCAA Tournament Rounds of sixteen from 1996 to 2005. Under Coach Masur, the Red Storm have also won seven Big East tournament titles, six regular season crowns and has qualified for eighteen consecutive Big East tournaments. Their home games are hosted at Belson Stadium, a state-of-the-art 2,168-seat stadium on the university campus, which sells out often.^[11] In 2006, the men's soccer team became the first American soccer team to be invited to play in Vietnam. The team played against several Vietnam Football Federation squads as well as participating in community service.^[17]

Women's soccer

• Head Coach: Ian Stone
• Stadium: Belson Stadium
• Big East Championships: 2 (Tournament: 1994; Regular Season: 2015)
• NCAA Appearances: 4 (2009, 2013, 2015, 2021)

The St. John's program have been members of the

• Head Coach: Joanne Persico
• Arena: Carnesecca Arena
• Big East Championships: 5 (Tournament: 2007, 2019; Regular Season: 2006, 2007, 2008)
• NCAA Appearances: 3 (2006, 2007, 2019)

Football

St. John's discontinued its varsity football team in 2002.

Championships

NCAA team championships

St. John's has won two NCAA team national championships.^[18]

• Men's (1)
  • Soccer
    (1): 1996
• Co-ed (1)
  • Fencing (1): 2001
• see also:
  • Big East Conference NCAA team championships
  • List of NCAA schools with the most NCAA Division I championships

Mascot

In spring 2009, St. John's allowed its students to vote on what the new official Red Storm mascot would be. At a soccer game in fall 2009, members of the Athletics Department announced that a Thunderbird had received the majority of votes and would become the new mascot. After a vote, the new mascot was named Johnny Thunderbird. He can be seen at many of the school's athletic events, cheering on the Red Storm.^[19]

St. John's Athletics Hall of Fame

In 1984, St. John's established an athletics hall of fame with 10 charter members representing a cross-section of the school's athletic history.

Notable athletes

• Ron Artest
  (now Metta Sandiford-Artest) (born 1979), NBA basketball player
• Rich Aurilia (born 1971), MLB professional baseball player
• Erick Barkley, NBA basketball player
• Walter Berry, NBA basketball player
• Keegan Bradley, PGA Tour golfer and 2011 PGA Major Championship winner
• Danny Burawa (born 1988), major league baseball pitcher.
• Lou Carnesecca, Hall of Fame basketball coach
• Omar Cook, NBA basketball player
• Rachel Daly, professional soccer player in the WSL and the England women's national football team
• WFAN
  in the New York City metro area.
• John Franco, former baseball player who was captain for the New York Mets
• Bill Gaudette, MLS professional soccer player
• Matt Groenwald, MLS professional soccer player
• Zendon Hamilton, U.S. professional basketball player in Europe, former NBA player
• Craig Hansen, MLB professional baseball player
• Maurice Harkless (born 1993), NBA basketball player
• Darryl Hill
  , basketball player known as "Showtime Hill"
• Mark Jackson
  , NBA basketball player and head coach
• Shalrie Joseph, MLS professional soccer player
• D. J. Kennedy, NBA basketball player
• Brian Kenny, MLB Network sportscaster
• John Kresse, NCAA men's basketball coach at the College of Charleston
• Al McGuire, NCAA men's basketball coach and sports commentator
• Dick McGuire, NBA Player with Pistons and Knicks and NBA Coach with Pistons and Knicks
• Frank McGuire, NCAA Men's basketball coach at St. John's, North and South Carolina and NBA coach for the Philadelphia Warriors
• Thomas Michaelsen, professional lacrosse player
• Swindon Town
• Chris Mullin
  , 1984 John R. Wooden Award recipient, 1984 Olympic gold medal winner, 1992 Olympic gold medal winner, NBA player (1985–2001), 5-time NBA All Star (1989–1993), 2010 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (as part of the Dream Team), 2011 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (individually)
• Joe Panik, professional baseball player, 2011 first-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants
• Brent Sancho, MLS professional soccer player
• Malik Sealy, NBA basketball player (now deceased)
• Bob Sheppard, stadium PA announcer for the New York Yankees and New York Giants, famously dubbed "Voice of the Yankees" (now deceased)
• fencer
  , first U.S. fencer to reach #1 world ranking
• Frank Viola, professional baseball player
• Bill Wennington, Canadian NBA basketball player and author
• Jayson Williams, NBA basketball player and author
• Chris Wingert, MLS professional soccer player
• Mel Davis, European professional basketball player, current Director of Basketball Alumni Development for St. John's University^[20]

References