Calvin Knights: Difference between revisions

Athletic teams representing Calvin University

The Calvin Knights are the Calvin University athletics teams. Calvin University fields 11 men’s and 11 women’s varsity intercollegiate teams that participate in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III level.^[7] Men’s volleyball is the newest varsity sport, having been added for the 2024 season (2023–24 school year); since the MIAA sponsors volleyball only for women, that team plays in the single-sport Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League.^[8]

Between 1920–21 and 1926–27, the school’s athletic teams were known as the “Calvin-ites.^[9] The first reference to the “Calvin Knights” appeared in 1926–27.^[9] In addition to their long-standing participation in the MIAA, the Calvin Knights have competed at the national level in various sports, earning conference titles and participating in national tournaments. The university has invested in athletic facilities, including the Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex, which opened in 2009 and serves as the primary venue for several of the university’s sports programs.^[10] Calvin’s athletic programs incorporate elements of faith, academics, and competition, consistent with the university’s stated mission.^[11]

There are currently both men’s and women’s varsity athletic teams participating in basketball, football, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving,^[a] tennis, track and field (indoor and outdoor),^[7][b] and volleyball. There are also men’s varsity baseball and women’s varsity softball teams.^[7]

Calvin also fields a club-level men’s ice hockey team in the American Collegiate Hockey Association.^[7]

• Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex is home to the combined health, physical education, recreation, dance and sport department. In Spring 2007, the college began a $50 million construction project to renovate and expand the Calvin Fieldhouse. The fieldhouse reopened in Spring 2009 as the Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex. The 362,000 square feet (33,600 m²) facility includes a new 5,000-seat arena (Van Noord Arena) which is currently the largest arena in a Division III school, an Olympic-regulation swimming pool (Venema Aquatic Center) which seats about 550, a tennis and track center (Huizenga Tennis and Track Center) containing 4 tennis courts and a 200-meter track, 14,000 square feet (1,300 m²) of weight training rooms and a custom made rock climbing wall.^[12]
• Zuidema Field: home to the men’s and women’s soccer, lacrosse, and track and field teams.^[2]
• Hoogenboom Health and Recreation Center: contains the original renovated gym that is now used for basketball, volleyball, PE classes, intramurals, and many concerts. The Hoogenboom Center also has two dance studios as well as racquetball courts and exercise science laboratories.

In 2005, ESPN polled its staff about what they thought were the nation’s greatest college basketball rivalries, and the Calvin–Hope rivalry was voted fourth in all college basketball.^[13][14]

Calvin has won 11 NCAA Division III national championships and one club sport (ACHA Division III) national championship.^[7]