The South Florida Bulls (also known as the USF Bulls) are the athletic teams that represent the University of South Florida. USF competes in NCAA Division I and is a member of the American Conference for all sports besides beach volleyball, which competes in Conference USA because the American Conference does not sponsor the sport, and sailing, a non-NCAA sanctioned varsity sport which competes in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association within the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association. Rob Higgins is the current athletic director, officially titled the CEO of Athletics. The school colors are green and gold and the mascot is Rocky D. Bull.
The university currently sponsors 21 varsity sports teams, nine for men and twelve for women. The sports sponsored are baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's beach volleyball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's golf, women's lacrosse, women's sailing, men's soccer, women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field (outdoor and indoor for both), and women's volleyball. USF used to sponsor teams in co-ed rifle and men's and women's swimming and diving.
Across all sports, the Bulls have won one team NCAA national championship (women's swimming in 1985). Outside of the additional seven individual and three relay national championships in women's swimming, USF athletes have won six individual and one relay NCAA national championships in men's swimming, two individual NCAA national championships in rifle, four individual and one relay NCAA national championships in men's outdoor track and field, and one individual NCAA national championship in men's indoor track and field. Additionally, the university has won five national championships in varsity sports outside of NCAA competition. The softball team won the 1983 and 1984 national championships in the American Softball Association, which was the highest level of college softball at the time. Sailing, which is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport but is still a varsity team sponsored by the USF Athletic Department, has won three national championships in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association: Sloop in 2009 and Offshore Large Boats in 2016 and 2017. USF's teams have also won 177 conference championships, and athletes have won 261 individual and relay conference championships.
As of the 2024 Summer Olympics, 20 Bulls have competed as athletes in the Olympic Games, winning one gold medal.
History
Beginnings The University of South Florida was founded in 1956 and opened in 1960. First president John S. Allen was against the prospect of the new university supporting intercollegiate athletic teams, instead wanting to focus on education. In 1962, still years before any sports were announced, students voted to make the Golden Brahman, a breed of bull, the university's first mascot because of Florida's history in cattle raising.
President Allen had a change of heart in 1964 and approved the university's first sports teams to begin in the 1965–66 academic year and asked physical education professor and future USF Athletic Hall of Fame member Dick Bowers to become USF's first athletic director. Baseball, men's soccer, men's cross country, men's golf, men's swimming, men's tennis, and women's tennis were the seven original sports to be offered by the young university. The men's teams began play as NCAA College Division (now known as NCAA Division II) independents and were called the Golden Brahmans. Since the NCAA did not sponsor women's sports at the time, the new women's tennis team played as an independent in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Small College Division and went by the Lady Brahmans instead of the Golden Brahmans. Subsequent women's teams would play in the AIAW and were called the Lady Brahmans as well.
The Golden Brahmans men's soccer team won the first intercollegiate game in school history on September 25, 1965, defeating Florida Southern College 4–3. In 1969, swimmer Joe Lewkowicz won the first individual national championship in school history in the 200-yard butterfly.
1970s
The Golden Brahmans' men's swimming team nearly became the first team in USF history to win a national championship, finishing in second place in the 1971 NCAA Championship. The men's basketball team was founded in 1971 and was by far the most significant step in USF's young athletic history at the time. In spring 1972, USF's men's golf team were the runners up in the NCAA Championship. The Lady Brahmans women's basketball, women's golf, softball, women's swimming, and volleyball teams started the next academic year, and the university had also considered adding women's archery, badminton, and bowling to comply with the new Title IX law. The men's golf team then finished as national runners up again in 1973.
USF's men's sports made the jump to the NCAA University Division (now known as NCAA Division I) in fall 1973, and remained as independents. Likewise, USF's women's teams moved to the AIAW Large College Division in 1973. USF became a charter member of the Sun Belt Conference in 1976 (for men's sports only) as their first ever conference affiliation. That year, the men's soccer team became the first team in USF history to win a conference championship, winning both the regular season and tournament Sun Belt titles. In 1978, USF won the Sun Belt Cup (now known as the Vic Bubas Cup) for the first time as the Sun Belt Conference's all-sports champion for the 1977–78 academic year. They would go on to win the Cup again in each of the next four years and seven of the next eight.
1980s In 1981, the Golden Brahmans simplified their nickname to Bulls for their men's teams. Naturally, the women's teams soon picked up the nickname of Lady Bulls, though they were officially still called the Lady Brahmans. The AIAW dissolved after spring 1982, and all of USF's women's sports besides softball went on to immediately join the NCAA. In 1983, USF's softball team won the first team national championship in school history. Softball was not an NCAA sponsored sport at the time, so the championship was won in the American Softball Association, which governed the top level of collegiate softball. The Lady Brahmans won the ASA Championship again in the spring of 1984 before joining the NCAA the next year.
In spring 1985, USF's women's swimming team became the first, and as of 2023, only team in USF history to win a team NCAA championship. Two years later though in the spring of 1987, both the men's and women's swimming teams were cut due to financial hardships brought on by the sport not being sponsored by the Sun Belt, among other issues. The university added a women's cross country team the next fall to avoid Title IX violations. Also that fall, the school officially changed the name of all women's teams from Lady Brahmans to Bulls. In 1989, Michelle Scarborough won the 14th individual NCAA national championship in USF history in the air rifle event of the NCAA Rifle Championship. The Bulls rifle team finished as the runners up in the 1989 championship.
1990s Michelle Scarborough won another NCAA co-ed rifle championship in 1990, this time in the smallbore event. 1990 was also the ninth and final time USF won the Sun Belt Cup, as the school left the Sun Belt to join the Metro Conference starting in the 1991–92 school year. That same year, the men's and women's outdoor track and field teams were founded and Jon Dennis won the national title in the men's outdoor 5000 meter run, which he won again in 1993. The men's and women's indoor track and field teams were added that fall.
In 1995 the Metro Conference merged with the Great Midwest Conference to form Conference USA, giving USF their third conference allegiance in school history. This year also brought the Bulls women's soccer team to life.
USF added their most famous sport in 1997, beginning to play football as a Division I-AA independent. Fall 1997 was also the inaugural year of the Bulls sailing team, which is now USF's most successful sport with three national championships, albeit competing in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association rather than the NCAA.
2000s The football team became Division I-A in 2001 and joined Conference USA with the rest of USF's sports in 2003, but the school left the conference to join the Big East in 2005. USF football became very notable in the Big East, reaching as high as No. 2 in the BCS rankings in 2007. In spring 2009, USF's women's basketball team won the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the first postseason tournament victory in their history. The following fall, the sailing team won the fourth team national championship in school history in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association Sloop National Championship.
2010s The early 2010s brought lots of change to the university's athletic programs. Six new athletic facilities opened between 2011 and 2013: Corbett Soccer Stadium, USF Baseball Stadium, USF Softball Stadium, the Frank Morsani Football Practice Complex, the Pam and Les Muma Basketball Practice Center, and the Chowdhari Golf Center; plus extensive renovations were completed on the Yuengling Center, USF Track and Field Stadium, and USF Varsity Tennis Courts. The nearly $70 million project also included construction of recreational fields for baseball, softball, soccer, and more. In 2013, the new golf center became USF's first LEED certified athletics facility. The Yuengling Center was certified LEED Silver the following year.
Following the Big East Conference realignment in 2013, USF found itself as a charter member of the new American Athletic Conference (now known as the American Conference), where the Bulls still play today. The Bulls sailing team won their second ICSA national championship and the fifth team national championship in USF history in 2016 in the Offshore Large Boats competition and repeated as Offshore Large Boat champions in 2017.
Also in 2017, USF launched the Bulls Unlimited channel on TuneIn, becoming the second school in the country to have its own 24/7 digital radio station. The station is available for free worldwide and carries live play-by-play coverage of all games in eight different sports plus highlights, shows, and more. A second channel, Bulls Unlimited 2, was launched in 2019 and mostly carries game replays, as well as live game coverage when games are happening simultaneously in two sports.
2020s In 2021, the women's basketball team won their first conference titles with both the regular season and tournament American Conference crowns and became the first team besides Connecticut to win an American Conference title in the sport.
In November 2021, athletic director Michael Kelly announced that USF would add a women's lacrosse team beginning in the 2023–24 school year (later postponed to the 2024–25 school year), which will make it the first new sport at the school since 1997. The following February, USF announced that a women's beach volleyball team would be added in 2024–25 (later postponed to 2025–26). It was later announced that the beach volleyball team would play as members of Conference USA because the American Conference does not sponsor the sport.