Winning consistently in almost every competition, the Texas A&M University’s Sport Clubs program has captured 288 national titles since 1974, including 27 this year.
The 288 titles include team and individual championships, according to Keith Joseph, Sport Clubs Director at Texas A&M.
The Texas A&M Archery Team recently won its 20th overall national title and its 9th consecutive national championship and has won more titles than any other club. Other big winners include the Gymnastics, Basketball, Cheer Squad, Judo, Polo (both Men’s & Women’s, making Texas A&M only the 3rd school in the history of Collegiate Polo to capture both titles in the same year), Taekwondo, Racquetball, and Powerlifting teams.
“It’s hard to determine if we have won more national titles than any other school in the country because record keeping nationally is inconsistent,” said Joseph.
“But I have to think that if we are not No.1 in total national titles, we have to be among the very top schools in that category.”
Joseph says the Sport Clubs program at Texas began in 1974 under Dennis Corrington, who currently serves as Executive Director of Recreational Sports at Texas A&M.
Corrington will be retiring next month after 45 years at Texas A&M.
This year, more than 3,000 students participated in 36 different clubs at Texas A&M, one of the highest participation rates in the country, Joseph said.
“All Sport Clubs are classified as student organizations with student leadership,” Joseph said.
“It’s almost like we have another athletic department on campus besides our main one. The difference is that these students are not on athletic scholarship, but they do train and practice 3-5 times each week. We do partially support the clubs financially, but students pay most of their own way to participate and they conduct their own fundraisers to offset costs. This year, our clubs made over 375 trips to play in games, events, and tournaments across the country.”
###
Media contact: Keith Joseph at (979) 845-3074 or kjoseph@rec.tamu.edu or Keith Randall, at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamu.edu
