Athletics

In 1826 the College installed an outdoor gymnasium behind the chapel "with a view to the promotion of the health and improvement of the students." Today the Yale Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation sponsors an extraordinary array of programs, and almost 90 percent of the student body participates in some form of athletic activity.

Intercollegiate Competition

Yale supports thirty-three varsity teams for women and men in a program whose participants range from junior-varsity level players to All-American athletes. An NCAA Division I member, Yale takes pride in offering a broad-based intercollegiate athletic program that includes competition in the Ivy League Conference and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Most of Yale's intercollegiate contests are with traditional Eastern opponents with emphasis on the Yale-Harvard-Princeton championship and the Ivy League title. Additionally, all sports—with the exception of football—have the ultimate goal of qualifying for postseason championships.

Intramural Sports, Club Sports, and Individual Activities

Through the residential colleges, Yale offers one of the most extensive intramural athletics programsin the country. Intramural games are open to everyone, from one-time high school stars to untried novices, and each year more than 2,500 students participate. The twelve colleges compete throughout the year in over thirty sport activities; the college placing highest overall wins the coveted Tyng Cup.

Student-run club sports provide an important resource for those who want to participate in a program with a flexible schedule or in sports that are not offered by most colleges. These include many noncompetitive activities such as mountaineering, fishing, and kayaking, as well as competitive sports like biking, sailing, skiing, trap and skeet, golf, rugby, ultimate frisbee, and equestrian sports. Approximately six hundred students are active in thirty-five club sports over the course of the year.

Many students prefer less structured athletic activity. Some enjoy the relaxation provided by informal pick-up games of basketball or squash, and some maintain their own programs of physical conditioning, most often weight training, jogging, or swimming. The gym is available for all these uses in addition to the facilities in each of the residential colleges. Those who want to learn a new sport or refine skills can take classes offered at the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, where each week more than 140 hours of free instruction are offered students in such activities as aerobics, racquet sports, dance, and weight-training.

Additional Resources

Facilities

Payne Whitney Gymnasium, located on the central campus, is one of the most extensive indoor athletic complexes in the world. The facility houses the John J. Lee Amphitheater, used for competitive men's and women's varsity basketball and women's volleyball and gymnastics; the Robert J. H. Kiphuth Exhibition Pool; a fifty-meter practice pool; a practice cage for polo; fifteen international squash courts; and facilities for fencing, gymnastics, rowing, wrestling, martial arts, general exercise, and dance. The Colonel William K. Lanman, Jr. Center (housing basketball, volleyball, badminton, and a three-lane indoor running track), the Adrian C. Israel Fitness Center, the Brady Squash Center, and the Brooks- Dwyer Varsity Strength and Conditioning Center are among the recently renovated facilities. Payne Whitney Gymnasium is used by varsity teams, undergraduate, graduate, and professional school intramural programs, voluntary physical education instruction, and club sports, as well as by the wider Yale community.

The David S. Ingalls Rink, designed by eminent architect Eero Saarinen, seats over three thousand and is home to Yale's varsity hockey teams. Late-night intramural games draw smaller crowds, and the rink is also available for recreational ice skating and instruction. In addition to these campus facilities, more than one hundred acres of playing fields and other athletic facilities are located two miles from the campus — a short ride on the free shuttle bus. At the center of this complex is the Yale Bowl, a spectacular football stadium seating more than sixty thousand. Surrounding the Bowl are first-rate facilities for indoor and outdoor tennis, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, field hockey, softball, baseball, track and field, and equestrian sports. In 2001 Yale opened Johnson Field, a new synthetic turf complex that now houses the field hockey and women's lacrosse teams, and the William O. DeWitt, Jr. '63 Family Field, the new home of the Yale softball team. Yale's own championship golf course is a short distance from the other athletic facilities, in the Westville section of New Haven. The crew teams are housed in the world-class Gilder Boathouse in Derby, Connecticut. The Yale Sailing Center is on the Long Island Sound in Branford, about twenty minutes from campus.

Athletics & Sports offered

(* Men's Varsity, + Women's Varsity)

Baseball *
Basketball *+
Cheerleading
Crew +
Crew, heavyweight *
Crew, lightweight *
Cross-Country *+
Cross-country Skiing
Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing *+
Field Hockey +
Figure Skating
Fishing
Football *

Golf *+
Gymnastics +
Ice Hockey *+
Inner Tube Water Polo
Water Polo
Judo
Karate
Lacrosse *+
Mountaineering
Outing Club
Polo
Racquetball
Riflery/Pistol
Rugby
Sailing *+

Scuba
Skiing
Soccer *+
Softball +
Squash *+
Swimming and Diving *+
Table Tennis
Tae Kwon Do
Tennis *+
Track, indoor *+
Track, outdoor *+
Trap and Skeet
Ultimate Frisbee
Volleyball +