Play - Athletics
Our Black Bear sports teams give Maine fans plenty of reasons to “shout ’til the rafters ring.” If you have no clue what we’re talking about, click here to hear the “Maine Stein Song.”
UMaine is home to the state’s only NCAA Division 1 athletics program. Our Black Bears play in:
Women’s teams
- Basketball
- Cross-country
- Swimming and diving
- Field hockey
- Ice hockey
- Soccer
- Softball
- Track and field (indoor and outdoor)
Men’s teams
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Cross-country
- Swimming and diving
- Football
- Ice hockey
- Track and field (indoor and outdoor)
M-A-I-N-E Go Blue! UMaine fans have a lot to cheer about. Our hockey team holds two NCAA national championships and they’ve made six trips to the Frozen Four in the last decade. But hockey isn’t the only game in town. Here are some of our Black Bears’ conference titles since 1990:
- Women’s Basketball: America East, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004
- Football: Atlantic 10, 2001, 2002
- Men’s ice hockey: Hockey East, 1992, 1993, 2000, 2004
- Baseball: America East, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2005, 2006
- Men’s cross-country: America East, 2004
- Softball: America East, 1994, 2004, 2006
- Men’s Outdoor Track: America East, 1995
Brittany Boser, senior
Chemical engineering
Palmer, Mass.
The Black Bear has been UMaine’s mascot since 1914, when Old Town police chief O.B. Fernandez loaned a live black bear cub found on the slopes of Mount Katahdin to the university. He hoped it would bring luck to the football team, which was having a pretty bad year.
In retrospect, bringing a live bear to a football game wasn’t such a good idea, but at the time, it seemed brilliant. As legend has it, the cub made his debut at a pep rally before the Colby game. When he arrived at the auditorium, the crowd cheered. When he stood on his head, the crowd went — well, bananas.
Maine went on to kick Colby’s white mules. Since the bear seemed to be a good luck charm, an alumnus gave the university a bear of its own (not some loaner) the following year. He was named Bananas. The Bananas we all know and love – the human-in-costume version – has been with us since 1969. And the rest, as they say, is history.
