University of Cincinnati Athletics: A Comprehensive Overview

The University of Cincinnati Department of Athletics aims to achieve "Next Level Success" for all 18 varsity teams and over 500 student-athletes. With a rich history, the Cincinnati Bearcats have secured eight national championships and 117 conference titles. The Cincinnati men's basketball team stands among the top 15 winningest programs of all time, while the football team made history as the first American Athletic Conference program to compete in the College Football Playoff in 2021. UC student-athletes collectively posted a 3.369 GPA.

Key Figures in Athletics Administration

Carl Schmid: Named the Assistant Vice President, Creative & Brand Strategy in February 2026, Carl Schmid brings over 10 years of experience in social, digital, and content creation. Before joining UC, Schmid was the Director of Digital Strategy at the University of Louisville for four years. In that role, he led the development and implementation of social media initiatives to enhance the Louisville brand and oversaw the Creative Communications Department from August 2021. Schmid managed the main Athletics social media accounts and various sports accounts and spearheaded the social strategy for the Lamar Jackson Jersey Retirement, which amassed 29.5 million total impressions, 1.23 million total engagements, and 6.6 million total video views. He was also integral in establishing ELEVATE, Louisville’s NIL program. Prior to Louisville, Schmid spent six and a half years in the University of Cincinnati’s athletic department, starting as a student football recruiting assistant in January 2013 and being hired full-time as the Assistant Director of Football Video in July 2014. In July 2019, Schmid was promoted to Cincinnati’s Director of Digital Media, overseeing all Bearcats social/digital media efforts and maintaining the main athletics and men’s basketball social media accounts.

Joe Luckey: Serves as the Executive Sr. Director of Fan Experience and Special Projects and Acting Sr. Director of Fan Experience and Special Projects and Acting Sr.

Jeromy Alt: The Program Director for the Master of Science in Athletic Training program at the University of Cincinnati. He teaches core classes and manages the program. He has been at UC since 2006, previously serving as Coordinator of Clinical Education for the athletic training program from 2006-2023. Prior to coming to UC, he was the Clinical Coordinator from 2002-2006 and Assistant Football Athletic Trainer from 1997-2002 at West Virginia University. He received a Master of Science in Athletic Training from West Virginia University and a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education, with an emphasis in Athletic Training, from Eastern Illinois University in 1995.

Sports Medicine Team

The University of Cincinnati has a comprehensive sports medicine team dedicated to the health and well-being of its student-athletes. Key members include:

Jon Divine: Head Team Physician (513-556-4352)
Dr. Christopher Utz: Team Physician - Orthopaedics
Dr. Brian Grawe: Team Physician - Orthopaedics
Dr. Bart Branam: Team Physician - Orthopaedics
Dr. Melissa Summers: Team Physician - Orthopaedics
Dr. Michael Donaworth: Team Physician - Primary Care
Dr. Daniel Gawron: Team Physician - Emergency Medicine
Dr. Victoria Heasley: Team Physician - Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Jessica Kallenborn: Team Physician - Family Medicine
Dr. Tim Klostermeier: Team Physician - Radiology
Dr. Kyle Boyd: Team Physician - Dentistry
Dr. Christopher Bertke: Team Physician - Optometry

CCM Media Production and UC Athletics Partnership

A collaboration between CCM Media Production and UC Athletics produces video board displays and live, multi-camera sports broadcasts for the ESPN+ streaming service since Fall 2020 from the Nippert Stadium control room. Students work with UC Athletics on over 100 broadcasts per year that air on ESPN+, as well as about 6-10 national linear broadcasts that air on ESPN, NBC, and CBS. Brackman and Towle's experience helps make this a great partnership.

Key Figures in the Production Team:

Joe Brackman: A 13-time Emmy award-winning director, with experience producing Ohio State coaches' shows and freelancing for Cincinnati's professional teams.
Kevin Burke: Division Head and Professor of Media Production at CCM.
Towle: Manages network partner relationships with ESPN, NBC, Peacock, Fox, Turner Sports, and CBS.

Student Involvement and Training:

"This collaboration provides our students with experiential learning opportunities and co-op experiences as they work on UC Athletic events," said Kevin Burke, Division Head and Professor of Media Production at CCM. "It provides students with a solid resume and portfolio reel." Brackman teaches a class that trains students on four key roles needed during a sports broadcast - technical directing, graphics, replay, and audio. "One of my goals with students is to emphasize that we’re teaching live productions," Brackman said. "What I know with my experience in the industry is, if you can do sports, the fast-paced nature and demand of sports, then you can do any other type of live production - award shows, entertainment, anything." UC Athletics staff helps train and mentor CCM Media Production students during broadcasts. During a UC Athletics sporting event broadcast, the average video crew is about 25 people and 80 percent are CCM Media Production students. Two of the staff members are graduates from CCM Media Production: Jack Bolander (BFA Media Production, '22) and Jack Langen (BFA Media Production, '24). Bolander worked for the Bengals and FC Cincinnati before returning to UC, and Langen started at UC Athletics right after graduating from CCM.

CCM Control Room:

After two years of planning and prepping, the sports media broadcast control room at CCM went live in fall 2025. The space has fiber connectivity to Nippert Stadium, Fifth Third Arena, UC Baseball Stadium, and Gettler Stadium. "The horsepower that this room has in terms of inputs and outputs, graphics, recording, replay and playback - we can stream or produce an event out of any venue,” Brackman said. CCM Media Production and UC Athletics will use the new control room to cover two sporting events happening at the same time on February 28 - a nationally televised UC Men's Basketball game that airs on ESPN and a UC Men's Baseball game. The CCM control room is gaining attention from national networks including ESPN, CBS, and NBC.

Future Development:

“Our next step is now we need more cameras and lenses," Towle said. Many of the cameras currently being used were inherited from other programs, including donations from the Bengals. Upgrading the camera and lens systems will provide students with more hands-on learning opportunities using industry-standard broadcast equipment and better prepare graduates for careers in live sports, live event, and broadcast television. “We’re well positioned now with the facilities we’ve got and the structure we’ve developed for the students to really be a unique program - primarily because of the connection between academics and athletics," Burke said.

The Cincinnati Bearcats: A Storied Program

The Cincinnati Bearcats represent the University of Cincinnati in NCAA Division I and the Football Bowl Subdivision, competing as members of the Big 12 Conference.

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Conference Affiliations:

Big 12 Conference (Present)
American Athletic Conference (2013-2022)
Big East (2005-2013)
Conference USA (Founding Member)
Great Midwest Conference
Metro Conference

Mascot History:

The Bearcat became the UC mascot on October 31, 1914, during a football game against the UK Wildcats. The name originated from a star UC player named Baehr, combined with the creativity of a cheerleader and a talented cartoonist. During the second half of that hard-fought football game, UC cheerleader Norman "Pat" Lyon, building on the efforts of fullback Leonard K. The crowd took up the cry: "Come on, Baehr-cat!" Cincinnati prevailed, 14-7, and the victory was memorialized in a cartoon published on the front page of the student newspaper, the weekly University News, on November 3. The name stuck, but not immediately. Following Teddy Baehr's graduation in 1916, the name dropped out of use, at least in print, for a few years. On November 15, 1919, Cincinnati played at Tennessee. In 2008 the Cincinnati Zoo adopted a three-month-old binturong or "bearcat." The zoo had a public naming contest where they decided on the name "Lucy." Lucy was a prominent figure at the University of Cincinnati often to be found on Sheakley Lawn before home football games.

Varsity Sports:

The University of Cincinnati sponsors teams in eight men's and 10 women's NCAA-sanctioned sports, all of which compete in the Big 12 Conference. When UC joined the Big 12, the conference did not sponsor women's lacrosse, and the Bearcats played the spring 2024 season in their former full-time home of the American Athletic Conference as a single-sport member.

Basketball Success:

Cincinnati's men's basketball squads have been a perennial bracket team in the NCAA tournament. A prolific era in Bearcats basketball was during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the Bearcats posted five consecutive Final Four appearances. Cincinnati has won two national championships in 1961 and 1962. After a brief resurgence in the mid-1970s, the program fell on hard times in the 1980s but was revitalized under head coach Bob Huggins following his hiring in 1989. Under Huggins, the Bearcats compiled a 399-127 record in sixteen seasons and posted fourteen straight NCAA tournament appearances. The most notable of the teams from the Huggins era was the 1991-1992 team, which lost to the Michigan Wolverines in the Final Four. In addition, Huggins was responsible for recruiting several future NBA players including Kenyon Martin, Corie Blount, Ruben Patterson, Nick Van Exel, and DerMarr Johnson. Huggins would eventually resign in 2005 after a power struggle with UC president Nancy Zimpher following the coach's DUI and arrest, with the resulting coaching vacuum leading to a dip in fortunes for the Bearcats.

Other Athletic Achievements:

The Bearcats won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship in 1961 and 1962, both times against Ohio State.
The UC Dance Team has won 5 National Championships from 2004 through 2006, 2009, and again in 2015. They are the first team in UC history to ever capture three consecutive national titles.
Charles Keating won the 1946 200m butterfly national title for UC as a member of the men's swimming team, and Josh Schneider did the same in the 50-yard freestyle in 2010.
In men's diving, Pat Evans (3 m Dive - 1989) and women's diving Becky Ruehl (10 m dive - 1996) have brought home titles for the Bearcats.

Club Sports

The university has a diverse number of intercollegiate club sports teams. Notable teams include alpine skiing (which competes in the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association), men's baseball, rowing, lacrosse, men's soccer, and the men's ice hockey team (which competes in the American Collegiate Hockey Association DI). The Tennis Club competes in the USTA Tennis on Campus and the Great Lakes Tennis Conference. The Waterski Team were 2008 DII National Champions. The University of Cincinnati Rugby Football Club was established in 1971 and competes in Division 1 college rugby in the MAC conference. The University of Cincinnati Women's Rugby Football Club was founded in 2012 and competes in Division 2 in the Ohio Valley Conference. In 2014 and 2015 UCWRFC competed in the Women's College Division 2 Fall Championship; advancing to the round of 8 in 2015. In 2024, Cincinnati started an Australian rules football club team at the university, the first current collegiate Aussie Rules team in North America.

Rivalries

Cincinnati has several significant rivalries, both historical and contemporary.

Read also: Legacy of Fordham University

Miami University: Cincinnati's oldest football rivalry, begun in 1888, is with Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio. The Victory Bell is awarded to the winner of each contest. The teams take each other on annual in many other sports.
University of Louisville: Cincinnati and the University of Louisville battled annually for the Keg of Nails. The teams met 20 times between 1921 and 2011, every year from 2005 to 2011, as conference foes and members of the Big East Conference. Football has also intensified, with both teams playing in the 2019 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game. The schools have competed as Big 12 Conference opponents since 2023, after Cincinnati's invite into the conference.
Xavier University: In basketball, the Bearcats' crosstown rival is the Xavier University Musketeers. Xavier is located less than 3 miles from the University of Cincinnati's main campus.
University of Pittsburgh: When Cincinnati joined the Big East in 2005, they and the University of Pittsburgh started the River City Rivalry. The game is a battle for the River City Rivalry trophy. In 2013 the rivalry series went on a ten-year hiatus due to Pittsburgh's exit from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Other Rivalries: Cincinnati and the Dayton Flyers were another regional rivalry that has lost significance recently. Cincinnati also has had intermittent rivalries with the Ohio State Buckeyes, Ohio Bobcats, and the Kentucky Wildcats.

Athletic Facilities

Richard E. Linder Center: Commissioned as part of UC's entrance into the Big East and serves as the centerpiece of UC's athletic facilities. It opened in 2006 and includes the Richard E. Linder Center, which provides training, meeting, studying, and classroom space, as well as the George and Helen Smith Athletics Museum.
UC Baseball Stadium: Home to the UC Baseball team. It replaced Johnny Bench Field.
Indoor Practice Facility & Performance Center: A permanent home for UC football, the Indoor Practice Facility & Performance Center is being built on the site of Sheakley Field. The Indoor Practice Facility will feature a 120-yard football field equipped for multiple sports. The field will provide an all-weather home for Cincinnati football practices and year-round workouts and have direct access to the Performance Center’s weight room, training room and performance nutrition fueling stations. The 96,000 square-foot Performance Center features three levels that will provide nearly everything a student-athlete needs to get competition and practice ready in one place.

Broadcast Information

Since 1992, 700 WLW has been the radio home for Bearcats athletics. Dan Hoard has been the football and basketball play-by-play announcer since 2000. Former Bearcat Terry Nelson began full-time duties at the beginning of the 2017-18 season as analyst for basketball replacing Chuck Machock. Jim Kelly, a Bearcat wide receiver during the mid-1970s, provides analysis for football. Mo Egger, an afternoon radio host on Cincinnati's ESPN 1530, is the football pregame and postgame show host. In 2015, former Bearcat QB Tony Pike was named the new sideline reporter replacing Tom Gelehrter. When there is a conflict with the Reds, 102.7 WEBN will usually air games, and when there is a conflict with the Bengals, 55KRC airs basketball games.

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