The University of Texas has a total of 47 national championships among the 18 varsity sports teams the school has. Located in Austin, Texas, the University of Texas (commonly known as UT) uses the Longhorns nickname for all of its sports teams. The name Longhorns is inspired by a specific breed of cattle indigenous to the area with distinctive horns that can reach sizes of around seven feet from tip to tip. The 18 teams that play under the Longhorns name include ten women’s sports and eight men’s sports.
UT sports teams with their corresponding number of championships are listed below:
Men’s sports (eight teams)
1. Swimming and diving – nine national championships
2. Baseball – six national championships
3. Football – four national championships
4. Golf – two national championships
5.Basketball
6 cross country
7. Tennis
8. track and field
Women’s sports (ten teams)
1. Athletics – eleven national championships (six indoors and five outdoors)
2. Swimming and diving – nine national championships
3. Tennis – two national championships
4. Volleyball – two national championships
5. Basketball – a national championship
6. Cross Country – a national championship
7 golf
8. Rowing
9. Soccer
10. Softball
In addition to the 47 championships, the University of Texas has literally hundreds of conference championships. Longhorn athletes have gone on to proudly represent their alma mater on the world stage, having won 117 Summer Olympic medals (68 gold, 31 silver and 18 bronze) during the period between 1948 and 2008.
For fans of the University of Texas athletic program, the only thing that comes close to being named the best team in the country is putting in strong performances against their main rivals. Rivalries develop over decades of competition and are shaped by a combination of proximity and traditionally competitive contests.
The University of Texas’ main rivals are neighboring Texas A&M (the biggest in-state rival), the University of Oklahoma (due in large part to the importance of each school’s football program), and several other schools that consider UT their main rival, including Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, University of Arkansas and a few others. In numerous cases, because of the tradition of excellence at the University of Texas, a victory by a less established school against the Longhorns can make their season. When an area university seizes the opportunity to beat the mighty UT Longhorns in front of a national television audience in men’s football, basketball, or baseball, it provides enough civic pride to keep neighboring communities pumped throughout the offseason, even when the season as a whole is disappointing.
The University of Texas took on the Longhorns nickname in 1900 and has since won NCAA championships in a variety of high-profile sports. In many ways, UT’s program seems to get stronger each year, as the university has created an athletic program primed for future success that should at least match, if not surpass, its rich past.
