Arizona State University has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing in the NCAA Pacific Ten Conference. The men compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, swimming/diving, tennis, track, and wrestling. Women compete in basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis, track, volleyball, and water polo.
Athletes at ASU are known as "Sun Devils," a nickname adopted in 1946; earlier nicknames were the Normals or the Owls and, later, the Bulldogs. The nickname was said to have come from an article in the newspaper in which the writer wrote "Lets call them Sun Devils," and the name eventually caught on the with the university. The Sun Devil mascot, Sparky, was designed by Disney illustrator Bert Anthony. ASU's chief rival is the University of Arizona.
The Arizona State Sun Devils are a major college football program that competes in NCAA Division I-A and the Pacific Ten Conference.
The Sun Devils had their greatest success in the 1960's and 1970's under head coach Frank Kush. In that 21-year stretch, they compiled a 176-54-1 record, putting Arizona State on the college football map. From 1969 to 1971, the team put together a school-record 21-game winning streak. In 1996, however, the Sun Devils came within a matter of seconds of pulling out a win in the Rose Bowl against Ohio State that would have given them an undefeated season, and possibly a national championship.
The team plays its home games at Sun Devil Stadium, which currently has a capacity of 73,656.
The Sun Devils just finished their first year under head coach Dennis Erickson. Erickson led ASU to a 10-3 record in the 2007 season after an 8-0 start. ASU earned a trip to the Holiday Bowl, where it lost 52-34 to Texas.
