Athletics Story Maps

Women’s volleyball was first organized as a club sport in 1983 under coach Robin Sheppard. In 1985, Trinity added it as the 13th varsity women’s sport. Since then, Women’s Volleyball has made the NESCAC semifinals twice. 

The field hockey team plays at Robin L. Sheppard Field, which was named in 2002 after the legendary field hockey, women’s lacrosse, and women’s basketball coach. A timeline of one of Trinity’s most accomplished teams.

The College’s coeducation in 1969 introduced further opportunities to celebrate the athletic prowess of Trinity students. Women’s Soccer played as a club team for two years prior to obtaining varsity status in 1980.

The women’s basketball team had its best-ever record in 2022-23 , winning 25 games and losing just  6.

Women’s ice hockey began as a club team in 1995 and won its first game 3-2 against the Connecticut Lady Lightning.

In 2002, the women’s squash team became the first non-Ivy League school to win a College Squash Association Team Championship, defeating Harvard University, 5-4.

In 1915, Trinity fielded its first intercollegiate Men’s Cross Country team. The team would start out with a whimper instead of a bang. Its first meet was a loss against Springfield. The Women’s Cross Country team began competition in 1982.

Rowing led the way as the first competitive intercollegiate sport and the first facility built for athletics was a boathouse. A look back on the successes of women’s and men’s rowing at Trinity.

The first football games on campus were played in the 1850s between classes, a tradition that continued until Trinity College fielded an intercollegiate team against Yale University in 1877.  

In 1924, two soccer teams of first-years began to scrimmage one another in the fall. Sophomores joined in later in the year and matches of this sort continued until a club team was formed in 1928.

After an unconventional and start pitted Trinity against the Hartford Public High School, the men’s basketball team went on to handily beat Wesleyan University and become an official athletic organization.

The men’s ice hockey debuted their first varsity team in 1974-75, earning 5th place in the divisional rankings.

A Bicentennial Essay by Paul Assaiante P’06, who retired in 2023 after three decades as Trinity College’s head men’s squash coach.

Sixty student-athletes showed up for the swimming and diving program’s inaugural tryouts on November 15, 1932.

Since 1975, Trinity College Wrestling has produced 11 NCAA Division III All-American student-athletes. 

Charles Hurd Howell, Class of 1912, captain of the undefeated 1911 Trinity football team and later a captain in the British Flying Corps during World War I.