Portland State Vikings
From Hoopedia
Portland State University is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon. It has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon including the largest business and graduate schools. It is also the only public university in the state that is located in a major metropolitan city. Portland State is part of the Oregon University System.
Portland State Vikings is the moniker referring to the intercollegiate athletic teams representing Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA. Portland State, being situated in the downtown district known as the "Park Blocks", has also sometimes been referred to as the "Park Block Bombers".
Portland State is a member of the Big Sky Conference (joining in 1996). PSU competes at the NCAA Division I level in basketball, women's volleyball, golf and soccer, wrestling, tennis, softball, indoor and outdoor track and field and cross country. Football competes at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA).
Prior to joining Division I, the school won NCAA National Division II Championships in women's volleyball and wrestling. The school has also placed second twice in football and once in women's basketball at the Division II level. Portland State's colors are forest green and white, and its mascot is the Viking manifested as "Victor E. Viking".
Among the more notable former PSU athletes are Freeman Williams and Neil Lomax. Freeman Williams was the NCAA Division I national men's basketball individual scoring leader in 1977 and 1978. Neil Lomax was a record-setting quarterback who went on to star for the then St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL. Football's the "Run & Shoot" offense was first implemented at the college level at PSU by then coach Darryl "Mouse" Davis. Davis' quarterback protégées were Lomax and June Jones. Jones is the current head coach at the University of Hawaii and also is a proponent of the Run & Shoot.
Home games for football are held off-campus at PGE Park, and home games for basketball are held on-campus at the Peter W. Stott Center.
Torre Chisholm was named new Athletic Director March 26, 2007. Chisholm replaces interim AD Teri Mariani, who filled that role since February 2006 when Tom Burman left for the University of Wyoming.
Men's Basketball
National scoring champion Freeman Williams starred for PSU during the 1970s under coach Ken Edwards. When PSU joined the Big Sky Conference, basketball returned to campus after a hiatus from 1981 to 1996. The school won the Big Sky Conference Championship in 2005. Current Head Coach is Ken Bone, a former top assistant at University of Washington and head coach at Seattle Pacific University. He was preceded by Heath Schroyer, Joel Sobotka and Ritchie McKay since 1996. Ime Udoka, currently a small forward of the Portland Trail Blazers is a PSU alum.
PSU completed the 2006-07 season with a 19-13 overall record and a 9-7 conference record. In the conference tournament, PSU defeated Montana State and was then defeated by Weber State to finish the season.
Women's Basketball
The women's basketball tradition includes considerable success at the NCAA DII level playing for national championships prior to moving to Division I. Head Coach Charity Elliot resigned at the end of the 2006-07 season. Sherri Murrell, formerly the head coach of Washington State, was hired July 1, 2007 to lead the program into its second decade in the Big Sky.
