Athletics
Bowling Green's athletic teams are known as the Falcons. The university participates in NCAA Division I (Division I-A for football) as a member of the Mid-American Conference and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for ice hockey. BGSU is one of only 13 universities in the country offering NCAA division I-A football, division I men's and women's basketball, and Division I ice hockey. The Falcons' main rivals are the Rockets of the University of Toledo. Separated by just 20 miles (32 km) on Interstate 75, the two schools celebrate a heated rivalry in several sports. The most well-known of these games is the Battle of I-75, a football game held each year in which the winner takes home the Peace Pipe, a Native American peace pipe placed upon a wood tablet. The university sponsors 18 athletic teams: baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross county, football, men's and women's golf, women's gymnastics, men's ice hockey, men's and women's soccer, softball, women's swimming, women's tennis, women's track and field, and women's volleyball.
The Falcons women's basketball teams had recent postseason success. The team won conference championships in women's basketball in 2005, 2006, and 2007. At the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship, the Falcons lost in the first round in 2005 and 2006, but then reached the "Sweet Sixteen" in 2007. The 1984 Falcons hockey team defeated the University of Minnesota Duluth in the longest college hockey championship game in history, to win the NCAA National Championship. Former BGSU head football coach Doyt Perry led the Falcons to the NCAA "Small College" Football National Title and undefeated season in 1959. Several BGSU coaches went on to prominent careers. Football coach Urban Meyer went on to great success at the University of Florida, earning two BCS National Championship Game appearances in a three year span, winning in 2007 and 2009. Hockey coach Jerry York became the winningest active coach in NCAA hockey, winning four NCAA National Championships at Boston College in 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2012 after his Bowling Green championship in 1984.
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