Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Duquesne Dukes | |
|---|---|
| University | Duquesne University |
| Nickname | Dukes |
| NCAA | Division I (FCS) |
| Conference | Atlantic 10 Conference (primary) Northeast Conference (football, women’s bowling) NCATA (acrobatics and tumbling) USA Triathlon (triathlon) |
| Athletic director | John Henderson (interim) |
| Location | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Varsity teams | 17 |
| Football stadium | Arthur J. Rooney Athletic Field |
| Basketball arena | UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse |
| Colors | Red and blue[1] |
| Mascot | The Duke |
| Fight song | "The Victory Song (Red and Blue)" |
| Website | goduquesne |
The Duquesne Dukes are the athletic teams of Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2] The Dukes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Football and bowling, however, compete in the Northeast Conference.
| Men's sports | Women's sports |
|---|---|
| Basketball | Basketball |
| Cross country | Cross country |
| Soccer | Soccer |
| Tennis | Tennis |
| Track and field | Track and field1 |
| Football | Bowling |
| Rowing | |
| Acrobatics & Tumbling | |
| Swimming and diving | |
| Golf | |
| Triathlon | |
| Lacrosse | |
| Volleyball | |
| 1 – includes both indoor and outdoor | |
A member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, Duquesne University sponsors teams in six men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports.[3] The football and bowling teams compete as associate members of the Northeast Conference.
The Dukes men's basketball team has had great success over the years, playing twice in national championship games in the 1950s and winning the National Invitation Tournament championship in 1955. The men's basketball Dukes semi-regularly play their cross-town rival, the University of Pittsburgh Panthers, in Pittsburgh's well-attended City Game.
The Dukes women's basketball team annually plays the University of Pittsburgh every year in the women's version of the City Game.
A Duquesne Dukes men's basketball player's heart ailment serves as the major plot device for the pilot episode of Pittsburgh-based CBS medical drama Three Rivers.
Duquesne has played football as a club team from 1891 to 1894, 1896 to 1903, 1913 to 1914, and 1920 to 1928, in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) from 1929 to 1942 and 1947 to 1950, again as a club team from 1969 to 1978, in NCAA Division III from 1979 to 1992, and in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) from 1993–present. The Dukes have won or shared 18 conference championships in the past 30 years.
Duquesne's wrestling squad was a relatively successful NCAA Division I team that competed as an Independent. The Dukes wrestlers won two NCAA Division I East Regional Championships (2000 and 2005) and sent at least one wrestler to the NCAA Championships every year during John Hartupee's 11 seasons as head coach. The wrestling program eventually disbanded for a variety of reasons.
Duquesne fielded an NCAA varsity rifle team for many years (a coed sport). This team competed in the Middle Atlantic Rifle Conference, claiming a share of the conference title in the 2001–02 season. The team officially disbanded after the 2003–04 season.
In the fall 2012 semester, Duquesne's women's rowing team, for the first time, took first place in the varsity eight event at the Head of the Ohio, held in Pittsburgh.


Duquesne's first postseason/"full" Atlantic 10 team championship came in 1977 with a men's title in the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (the forerunner to the Eastern Athletic Association, now known as the Atlantic 10 Conference). The Dukes also won the 2024 Atlantic 10 men's basketball championship and have won Atlantic 10 team championships in men's cross country (2005), women's cross country (2013, 2014 and 2020–21), women's volleyball (2013), women's soccer (2015) and women's swimming & diving (2018 and 2019). In addition, Duquesne has won numerous regular-season Atlantic 10 team championships. Men's basketball was co-champion of the league's regular seasons in 1980 and 1981 when it was known as the Eastern Athletic Association. Women's basketball was co-champion of the league's regular season in 2016.
Men's soccer was co-champion of the league's regular season in 2003, sole champion in 2004 and again co-champion in 2005. Women's lacrosse was co-champion of the league's regular seasons in 2004 and 2005, and women's volleyball won an Atlantic 10 regular-season title in 2013.
The Dukes have also crowned postseason/"full" Atlantic 10 individual champions in men's cross country (2), women's rowing (8), swimming & diving [23 (men), 47 (women)], women’s indoor track & field (30), and outdoor track & field [30 (men), 33 (women)].
Men's Basketball (2)
Men's Cross Country (1)
Women's Cross Country (3)
Women's Volleyball (1)
Women's Soccer (1)
Women's Swimming & Diving (2)
Men's Cross Country (2)
Women's Rowing (8)
Men's Swimming & Diving (23)
Women's Swimming & Diving (48)
Women's Indoor Track & Field (30)
Men's Outdoor Track & Field (30)
^ Bodden and Healy are the only athletes in school history to have won a MAAC/NEC football title (team) and an Atlantic 10 title of any kind (team or individual). They are also believed to be the only athletes in school history to have won conference championships in multiple sports (excluding cross country and track & field combinations) or even to have been first-team all-conference in multiple sports (again, excluding XC-TF combos).
Women's Outdoor Track & Field (33)
Men's Basketball (2)
Women's Basketball (1)
Men's Soccer (3)
Women's Lacrosse (2)
Women's Volleyball (1)
| Year | Overall record |
Conference record |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 10–1 | 7–0 MAAC |
| 1996 | 10-1 | 8–0 MAAC |
| 1999 | 8–3 | 7–1 MAAC |
| 2000 | 10–1 | 7–0 MAAC |
| 2001 | 8–3 | 6–0 MAAC |
| 2002 | 11–1 | 8–0 MAAC |
| 2003 | 8–3 | 5–0 MAAC |
| 2004 | 7–3 | 4–0 MAAC |
| 2005 | 7–3 | 4–0 MAAC |
| 2006 | 7–3 | 3–1 MAAC[n 1] |
| 2007 | 6–4 | 2–1 MAAC[n 1] |
| 2011 | 9–2 | 7–1 NEC[n 1] |
| 2013 | 7–4 | 4–2 NEC[n 1] |
| 2015 | 8–4 | 5–1 NEC |
| 2016 | 8–3 | 5–1 NEC[n 1] |
| 2018 | 9–4 | 5–1 NEC[n 1] |
| 2023 | 7–5 | 6–1 NEC |
| 2024 | 8–3 | 5–1 NEC[n 1] |
| 18 Total conference championships | ||

Duquesne fields many club, or non-varsity, teams that compete regularly against other schools. Club sports offered at Duquesne are men's ice hockey, indoor track & field, tennis, lacrosse and roller hockey.
The men's ice hockey team is affiliated with the Division I level of the American Collegiate Hockey Association, competing in the College Hockey Mid-America conference. The team was CHMA champions during the 2006–07 and 2008–09 seasons. They participated in the national ACHA tournament in 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2008–09, finishing eighth in the country in 2006. Duquesne will field a Division III team for the 2021-22 season, joining College Hockey East.
The men's indoor track & field program practices and competes alongside Duquesne's varsity women's indoor track & field program during the winter months and is affiliated with the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America. The men's team is recognized as varsity during the spring months when it becomes an outdoor track & field program and competes in the Atlantic 10, though it maintains its affiliation with the IC4A.
The Duquesne club tennis team is a part of the United States Tennis Association's Tennis on Campus program.
The "Dukes" nickname dates back to 1911, when what is now Duquesne University changed its name to honor the Marquis Du Quesne, the French governor of Canada, who first brought Catholic observances to the Pittsburgh area.
Since a Marquis and a Duke are not visually distinct (and the name "Duquesne" implies a "Duke"), the unofficial symbol of the school's athletic teams became a man dressed in a top hat, tails and a regal sash across his chest. "Dukes" being more readily recognized than "Marquis," the name Duke was popularly assigned to the symbol and stuck ever since the fall of 1911.
The Duquesne Department of Athletics unveiled its most notable "Duke" mascot prior to the January 18, 2003 game against the University of Richmond. The Duke is 7-feet tall with an oversized head and sports a dapper navy blue suit with red piping, a red shirt with a red bow tie, and red gloves, with a black top hat. The new Duke replaces "Duke the Bear" who was a fixture at DU athletic events since 1996.
At the December 13, 2008 game versus West Virginia, Duquesne introduced its new human-figure mascot to replace the 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) character mascot. The mascot traditionally sports its black jacket with coat-tails and overbearing top-hat.
Before the 2010 City Game vs the Pittsburgh Panthers, Duquesne introduced the new character mascot at an annual alumni event.
On January 13, 2021, Duquesne Athletics revealed a new representation of the Duke on social media. The new logo, stylized similarly to the Duquesne “D” athletics logo is a geometric lion’s head wearing a top hat. The lion insignia is present in the seal of Duquesne University and is a new direction and interpretation of the Duke itself.
Duquesne's school colors of red and blue, the colors of the Holy Ghost Fathers, have been in place since the school's inception.[4]
The Victory Song (Red and Blue) was written in 1926. Words and music were composed by Father Thomas J. Quigley (class of 1927).[5]
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Duquesne Dukes are the athletic teams of Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Dukes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Football and bowling, however, compete in the Northeast Conference.
The Duquesne Dukes represent Duquesne University in college basketball. The team, which started in 1914, has only ever played in NCAA Division I and has had six appearances in the NCAA Tournament. The Dukes play in the Atlantic 10 Conference, of which they have been members since 1976 (minus the 1992–93 season in which the Dukes were single-season members of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference). Their head basketball coach is Dru Joyce III. The Dukes men's basketball team has had great success over the years, playing twice in national championship games in the 1950s and winning the National Invitation Tournament championship in 1955. Duquesne also emerged victorious in the 1976–77 Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (the forerunner to the Eastern Athletic Association, now known as the Atlantic 10 Conference) tournament and 2024 Atlantic 10 tournament. The Dukes were also 1979–80 and 1980–81 Eastern Athletic Association regular-season co-champions. The Associated Press ranked Duquesne as the No. 1 college basketball team in the country for two consecutive weeks during the 1953–54 season. They reached (and lost) the A10 tournament final in 1981 and 2009 before finally winning the conference tournament in 2024 and snapping the 47-year appearance drought in the NCAA tournament. Duquesne is the only school to have back-to-back first overall picks in the National Basketball Association draft (Dick Ricketts by the Saint Louis Hawks in 1955 and Sihugo Green by the Rochester Royals in 1956). The Dukes men's basketball program can also claim the first African-American player selected in an NBA draft (Chuck Cooper by the Boston Celtics in 1950). The 1939–40 Dukes basketball team finished with a 20–3 record and appeared in the Final Four of both the NIT and NCAA Tournaments.
The Duquesne Dukes football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Duquesne University located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and is a member of the Northeast Conference (NEC). Duquesne has played as a club team from 1891 to 1894, 1896 to 1903, 1913 to 1914, and 1920 to 1928, as a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member from 1929 to 1942 and 1947 to 1950, again as a club team from 1969 to 1978, in NCAA Division III from 1979 to 1992, and in the NCAA Division I FCS from 1993 to present. Duquesne has won or shared 18 conference championships, all since 1995. The Dukes have qualified for the NCAA Division I Football Championship playoffs three times, earning automatic bids as NEC champion in 2015, 2018, and 2023. The team plays its home games at the 2,200-seat Arthur J. Rooney Athletic Field in Pittsburgh, the smallest stadium for football in Division I. Jerry Schmitt has served as head coach for the Dukes since 2005.
The 2018–19 Duquesne Dukes men's basketball team represented Duquesne University during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Dukes, led by second-year head coach Keith Dambrot, played their home games at the A. J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. They finished the season 19–13, 10–8 in A-10 Play to tie for 6th place. They lost in the first round of the A-10 tournament to Saint Joseph's.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.