| IMPORTANT DATES IN PRIVATEER HISTORY |
December 1, 1969
The Privateers men's basketball team plays their first game in school history at the Health and Physical Education Center on campus dropping a game 68-63 to Louisiana College. The Privateers would pick up the first win in school history one week later at West Florida during an 18-5 season under Ron Greene. |
February 27, 1971
With a 78-66 win over St Thomas (Florida), the Privateers men's basketball team finished their regular season 23-1 with the lone loss coming on the road at Houston Baptist. For their accomplishment, the Privateers would be ranked #1 in the final Associated Press Division II poll. Head coach Ron Greene's (right) squad would lose two games in the Division II South Regional in Lafayette, La two weeks later to close out the season. |
June 20, 1971
Led by NCAA Division II medalist Stan Stopa, who shot 292 for the tournament, the LSU-New Orleans golf team captures the first of two consecutive Division II national championships in men's golf shooting a team score of 1,198 to defeat Cal St - Northridge by four strokes. |
June 16, 1972
Head coach Robert Brown leads LSU-New Orleans to the second national championship in school history in men's golf with a 24 stroke win over Williams to capture the Division II national championship. |
June 4, 1974
Playing for the third time in a day, the Privateers baseball team played UC-Irvine in the school's first national title game appearance at the NCAA Division II World Series in Springfield, Ill. The Privateers fell to UC-Irvine 14-1 after defeating the Anteaters 7-6 earlier in the day. UNO won the South Regional at home defeating Nicholls State twice to advance to the World Series. |
March 15, 1975
The Privateers would make it to the school's first basketball national title game, falling to Old Dominion 76-74 in Evansville, Indiana to finish as the Division II runner-ups. Wilbur Holland missed a jumper from the foul line that would have won the game. UNO would open tournament play winning two one-point games at the Health and Physical Education Center against West Georgia and Lincoln before heading to Evansville where they would defeat UC-Riverside and Assumption to advance to the championship game. |
July 1, 1975
The University of New Orleans athletic department moves from Division II to Division I, competing as an Independent. |
August 4, 1976
The Sun Belt Conference was founded on August 4, 1976 with New Orleans, South Alabama, Georgia State, Jacksonville, North Carolina-Charlotte and South Florida. |
February 26, 1978
In the 1978 Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game in Charlotte, N.C, the Privateers defeated South Alabama 22-20 to win the conference tournament championship. This game, before the advent of the shot clock in NCAA basketball, was significant in the fact that USA coach Cliff Ellis instructed his team to hold the ball in effort to keep UNO's Wayne Cooper (left) from scoring. Many point to this low-scoring affair as one of the reasons the NCAA finally introduced the shot clock to the men's game a few years later. The Sun Belt Conference, under commissioner Vic Bubbas, was the first to adopt the shot clock, due to this game. |
June 6, 1979
Outfielder Randy Bush is selected with the 11th pick of the second round by the Minnesota Twins in the 1979 amateur draft. Bush would make his pro debut on May 1, 1982 and would go on to win World Series in 1987 and 1991 with the Twins during a major league career that would span 11 seasons. Bush would return to the Lakefront to coach the Privateers for five years starting in 2000. |
June 30, 1980
Due to the Sun Belt requiring the University of New Orleans to play in the Superdome for men's basketball contests which the university refused to do due to the loss of money, the university left the league and became a Division I independent. |
June 7, 1982
Shortstop Augie Schmidt is selected with the 2nd overall pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1982 amateur draft. Schmidt, who would not make it to the majors represents the highest draft pick of a UNO player in any professional draft. To top off his collegiate career, Schmidt would also win the "Golden Spikes Award" given to the most outstanding college baseball player, the collegiate baseball equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. |
March 19, 1983
The Privateers women's basketball team wins their third game in three days in Amarillo, Texas defeating Memphis 68-58 to win the Women's National Invitational Tournament. The Lady Privateers previously defeated Weber State (100-70) in the semifinals and Texas Tech (66-65) in the quarterfinals. |
November 26, 1983
Lakefront Arena hosted its first men's basketball game with LSU winning 67-59 over the Privateers. The first field goal was scored by UNO's John Harris. The first game in the arena was in fact, a women's basketball game as the Lady Privateers fell 104-88 to LSU earlier in the day. |
March 10, 1984
Sandra Hodge, playing against Nicholls State, completes a career that included 2,828 points, an all-time career high in the category for a Lady Privateer. To date, no women's basketball player has come within 1,000 points of Hodge, who averaged 26.9 points per game over her career. 2,130 Randi Brown |
June 3, 1984
In their first and only NCAA Division I College World Series appearance, the Privateers would defeat the University of Michigan 11-3. The Privateers opened the CWS with a 6-3 loss to Texas before following the win over the Wolverines with a 8-7 loss to Oklahoma State. To advance to their first-ever CWS, the Privateers won the South II Regional in Starkville, Miss. defeating the host Mississippi State 6-3 in the regional championship game. UNO was the first Louisiana team to ever reach the Division I College World Series. |
March 3, 1987
Making their first NCAA appearance, the women's basketball team, seeded sixth in the Midwest Regional, fell to third-seeded Iowa 68-46 in Iowa City, Iowa. The Lady Privateers won the UNO Pepsi Tournament and the Northern Lights Invitational (Anchorage, Alaska) as Joey Favaloro's squad racked up a 25-7 record. |
March 12, 1987
In their NCAA Division I tournament debut, the Privateers men's basketball team tops Brigham Young 83-79 in Birmingham, Alabama. UNO would play No.9 Alabama two days later, falling 101-76. |
July 1, 1987
Joining Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southwestern Louisiana, Lamar and Texas - Pan American, UNO becomes a part of the American South Conference. |
March 31, 1991
Lakefront Arena and the University of New Orleans hosts the NCAA Division I women's basketball Final Four. In the first overtime championship game in the history of the women's Division I tournament, Tennessee with legendary head coach Pat Summitt on the sidelines defeated Virginia led by Dawn Staley, 70-67. Connecticut and Stanford also participated in the two day event. |
July 1, 1991
The University of New Orleans rejoined the Sun Belt Conference when the Sun Belt merged with the American South Conference. Other ASC member institutions joining the SBC were Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southwestern Louisiana, Texas - Pan American, Lamar and Central Florida. |
October 29, 1992
Javonne Brooks broke the collegiate women's volleyball record for career kills in a 3-0 win over UT-Pan American. The 5'10" senior from Wharton, Texas broke the old record 2,767 held by Long Beach State's Tara Cross. Brooks finished with 2,932 kills and in 2005 was named the Sun Belt's All-Time Volleyball Player. |
June 30, 1993
Ervin Johnson is selected with the 23rd pick in the 1993 NBA draft by the Seattle Supersonics to mark the highest UNO player taken in an NBA draft. Ervin Johnson would play 12 seasons in the NBA playing 825 games between Seattle, Denver, Milwaukee and Minnesota |
January 11, 1997
The Lady Privateers stun 4th ranked Louisiana Tech, 66-63 at Lakefront Arena to give the UNO women's basketball team, their highest win over a ranked opponent to date. |
February 13, 1999
The Lady Privateers swat an NCAA-record 19 Western Kentucky shots with Vasso Beskaki leading the way with 11 blocks in a 70-63 home loss for the women's basketball team. |
October 28, 2000
Michaela Mannova wins the 2020 individual Sun Belt Cross Country Championship with a time of 17:30.00 - the first individual championship by a female Privateer in school history. The Women's Cross Country team wins it's first conference championship in school history finishing the event with 31 points. |
August 29, 2005
Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans ending the volleyball season after just four games. The rest of the Privateer programs and Athletic Department would scatter across the country and participate in seasons far from the comforts of the Lakefront. |
September 17, 2005
After three weeks of no competition the men's and women's Cross Country teams are the first team to return to competition following Hurricane Katrina at the Popeye's Ragin' Cajun Invitational. Diana Jepchirchir clocked in an 18:37.18 in the 4K race to win the individual championship on the women's side beating the second place runner by 52 seconds. |
October 29, 2005
Diana Jepchrichir wins the 2005 Sun Belt Cross Country Championship with then-school record time of 17:24.90 - almost 22 seconds ahead of the second place finisher, Katarina Lovrantova of UALR. |
December 31, 2005
Basketball plays its first game back in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina defeating the Tulane 50-49 after Privateer Wayne Williams connected on a pair of free throws with 19.5 seconds remaining in the game. Originally scheduled for the Human Performance Center, the game took place at the Alario Center due to ongoing renovations at the HPC. |
January 12, 2006
Athletics returns to campus with the Privateers host Sun Belt foe Troy at the Human Performance Center winning 79-75. |
November 16, 2007
Athletic Director Jim Miller announces the addition of men's swimming and diving to the UNO athletic department. In the process, UNO becomes the first school since 1981-82 to add the sport. Additionally, Miller announces that men's and women's tennis will be restored for the 2008-09 calendar year after being suspended in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The UNO Aquatic Center, which was damaged in wake of Hurricane Katrina officially re-opens in Sept. 2009 in a UNO men's dual against Stanford. |
November 28, 2007
Bo McCalebb scores his 2,000th point as a Privateer in a UNO win over Lamar at the Human Performance Center. McCalebb becomes the first male player in school history to score over 2,000 points. He would finish his career as the all-time leading scorer in both UNO and Sun Belt Conference history. |
November 15, 2008
Basketball returns to Lakefront Arena for the first time since Hurricane Katrina as the Privateers take on NC State falling 65-59. T.J Worely led the way for the Privateers with 19 points, while Darrian McKinstry added 17 points, six assists and five steals in front of 1,300 fans. |
November 11, 2009
University of New Orleans Chancellor Tim Ryan announces the institution will explore a move to non-scholarship Division III. The announcement comes after the institution had removed general fund support for athletics and a failed student athletic fee referendum vote in late-April that would have replaced the funds. The announcement is followed by an exit from the Sun Belt Conference at the conclusion of the 2009-10 academic year. |
February 20, 2010
Mark Schindler caps two days of competition at the Sun Belt Conference Swimming and Diving Championships by winning the 200 breast in 2:00.00. The event win is his second in two days, one day after he became the first Privateer to win a conference event (100 breast, 55.60). For Schindler's wins, he became the first UNO swimmer to receive SBC Swimmer of the Year recognition. At the end of the 2009-10 year, Schindler also earned the distinction as the UNO Male Student-Athlete of the Year. |
April 28, 2010
Oscar Zetterwall wins medalist honors in the 2010 Sun Belt Conference Golf Championships, the last appearance by a UNO squad in a SBC championship event. Zetterwall fires a 8-under par total over three rounds to win by five shots as the Privateers finish third in the team competition. |
October 15, 2010
The LSU Board of Supervisors names head women's basketball coach Amy Champion as athletic director. Champion - the first female athletic director in school history - was appointed to the position on an interim basis in April 2010 before removing the 'tag' in October 2010. At the same meeting, the LSU Board authorizes the UNO athletic department to re-visit the decision to reclassify to NCAA Division III. |
March 4, 2011
The LSU Board of Supervisors authorizes the University of New Orleans to proceed with moving to NCAA Division II. The NCAA Division II membership committee would approve UNO's application on Apr. 20, 2011 with a subsequent membership invitation to the University coming from the Gulf South Conference on Apr. 29, 2011. The GSC would formally admit UNO on June 21, 2011. |
March 8, 2012
University of New Orleans President Dr. Peter Fos announces that UNO will withdraw its NCAA Division II application and remain Division I. |
May 16, 2012
Derek Morel was hired as athletic director at the University of New Orleans by Dr. Fos. A New Orleans native, Morel had previously worked at Wake Forest as the vice president and general manager of IMG Sports Marketing. |
August 23, 2012
University of New Orleans President Dr. Peter Fos along Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett formally announce that the University of New Orleans will join the league in 2013-14. Earlier in the summer, the league announced that the men's tennis team will have affiliate membership in 2012-13. |
April 28, 2013
The New Orleans Privateer men's tennis team became the first to reach a Southland Conference championship, falling 4-2 to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Beaumont, Texas. The team went 4-1 during conference play to finish as runner-up behind TAMU-Corpus Christi. UNO was an affiliate member of the Southland in men's tennis during the 2012-13 season, accumulating multiple honors including five different student-athletes that earned Player of the Week recognition. |
July 1, 2013
The University of New Orleans is officially admitted into the Southland Conference alongside fellow new members Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist and Incarnate Word. The additions allow the Southland to become a 14-member league for the first time in school history. |
July 2, 2013
Ron Maestri returns to the dugout at the University of New Orleans for his second stint as head baseball coach. In Maestri's first tenure, UNO won 518 games and made two College World Series appearances (1974, 1984). |
April 8, 2014
Privateer Baseball defeats No. 1 Louisiana-Lafayette 8-6 in Lafayette. First Basemen Jonathan Coco's two-run triple off the wall in right center scored Reese Kanter and Zach Liberto to give the Privateers a three-run lead in the seventh inning. |
March 11, 2015
A new sport enters the fold on the Lakefront as the New Orleans Privateers participate in their first beach volleyball match under the direction of coach Millicent Van Norden. UNO played its debut match against Georgia State. |
March 16, 2016
Dr. John Nicklow is selected as the seventh leader of the University of New Orleans by the University of Louisiana System of Supervisors. Prior to his ascent to presidency, he spent nine months as the university's Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. |
April 7, 2016
Beach Volleyball plays it's first home match on campus against Spring Hill losing a five-game thriller 3-2. The duos of Lauren Levy/Cara Sander and Blessing Dunn/Madison Miller picked up the first home wins in school history. |
December 31, 2016
Women's basketball student-athlete Randi Brown breaks the school record for points in a single game with 45. The Privateers went on to win 75-54 over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as Brown also set the school mark for most three-pointers made in a game with nine. |
March 11, 2017
The New Orleans Privateers men's basketball program under the direction of Mark Slessinger earned its first conference championship since 1997 with a 68-65 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. It was the 10th conference title in UNO men's hoops history. |
August 28, 2017
Men's Basketball Coach Mark Slessinger is named the Eddie Robinson Award winner by the Greater New Orleans Sports Award Committee and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The Eddie Robinson Award, named after the Grambling football coaching legend, is presented annually by the Greater New Orleans Sports Committee to an individual in the state of Louisiana who has demonstrated the qualities most associated with Coach Robinson: outstanding achievement in athletics, academics, sportsmanship, and citizenship by maximizing the use of limited resources. |
April 27, 2018
Mark Slessinger is named the UNO Service with Jazz Employee of the Year. The award is given annually to one staff member who demonstrates strong characteristics in work ethic, customer service, commitment, loyalty and motivation at the University of New Orleans. |
April 30, 2019
Tim Duncan is introduced as the new Athletic Director infront of a standing room only crowd at the Homer Hitt Alumni and Visitor Center. Duncan becomes the first full-time African American Athletic Director in school history. |
November 1, 2019
Sophomore Arina Kleschukova becomes just the second ever female to win a Cross Country Championship for the Privateers after capturing the 2019 Southland Championship, finishing the 6K race at 20:50.5 in Conway, Arkansas. |
November 23, 2019
Following her 10th place finish at the NCAA South Central Regionals Arina Kleschukova becomes the first Privateer student-athlete in program history to run at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. |
March 12, 2020
Shortly before the women's basketball team tips off in the opening round of the Southland Tournament league officials cancel the tournament due to the COVID19 pandemic. Days later all athletic events are canceled for the remainder of 2020. Privateer Baseball defeated Southern 11-5 on March 11 in the final athletic competition of 2019-2020. |
June 10, 2020
Women's Basketball Coach Keeshawn Davenport is named the Eddie Robinson Award winner by the Greater New Orleans Sports Award Committee and the Allstate Sugar Bowl. The Eddie Robinson Award, named after the Grambling football coaching legend, is presented annually by the Greater New Orleans Sports Committee to an individual in the state of Louisiana who has demonstrated the qualities most associated with Coach Robinson: outstanding achievement in athletics, academics, sportsmanship, and citizenship by maximizing the use of limited resources. |
August 13, 2020
Due to the lingering effects of COVID19, the Southland Conference and New Orleans Athletic department announce that all Fall Sports (Cross Country, Golf, Men's and Women's Tennis, and Volleyball) are postponed until the Spring. The NCAA soon follows suit and announces all Fall Championships (except Football) will take place in the Spring. |
November 26, 2020
After 259 days Privateer Athletics returned when men's basketball traveled to Provo, Utah to take on the BYU Cougars. Damion Rosser and Lamont Berzat scored 15 points apeice in the 86-61 defeat. Two days later women's basketball hosted the first home athletic on campus since the pandemic began and defeated Sun Belt school Texas State 67-64. |
April 11, 2021
Women's tennis defeated Lamar 5-2 to claim a share of their first ever Conference Championship. The number one doubles pair of Lina Hohnhold and Tristanne Dechoux defeated Bianca Vitale and Alba Perez to get things started before Ank Vullings, Honhold, Estelle Vanthier, Salma Abdelrahim and Lea Alguacil picked up singles victories to clinch the championship. |
April 24, 2022
Max Heinzel clinched his match at flight one to propel the Privateers men's tennis team to a Southland tournament championship in a 4-3 win against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Heinzel came back from a set down and won the third set 6-4. New Orleans won the doubles point and also got singles victories from Akos Kotorman and Matthew Armbruster. |
November 11, 2022
The Privateer Women's Cross Country team won their first Southland Conference Championship beating second place Lamar by 55 points. Ariana JImenez finished in second place, Tshwanelo Maruping finished in third, Alexandra Weir finished in seventh and Rebecca DeKay finished in eight to tally just 32 points for the Privateers - the best total by a Southland Cross Country Champion since 2014. The victory was just the third women's conference championship in any sport in school history. |
