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Southern
Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) Cougars Updated 03/11/25 |
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Location: Edwardsville, IL Enrollment: 10,000 Cost of Attendance: $31,000 Venue: Sam M. Vadalabene Center Arena
Capacity: 4,100 Conference: Ohio Valley (2nd) Record: 22-11 (13-7) NET Rank: 217 Committee Rank: probably will be last Tournament History Appearances: 0 Final Fours: 0 Championships: 0 Win-Loss: 0-0 Most Recent: First Appearance |
Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. Located 25 miles to the northeast of St. Louis, Missouri, SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale (now simply known as Southern Illinois University, the Salukis). While most of SIUE's students are from Illinois (81%), SIUE offers in-state tuition for undergraduate students from all 50 states. Cougar teams have won seventeen NCAA national championships in five sports (not all DI): men's soccer, tennis, wrestling and women's tennis and softball. The Cougar men's basketball program began as a Division II program in 1967 with no scholarships, inadequate facilities, and very little money to work with. Home games were played in a small gymnasium, usually with crowds of fewer than a dozen fans. The Cougars stayed at Division II until 2008 when the Cougars joined the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) in Division I. The 2011 12 season was the Cougars' first campaigns for the OVC regular season titles, although they were not eligible for post-season play until 2012 13. The delay in eligibility didn't matter it took until this season 2025 to make the Tournament. And they now play in a slightly bigger gym with slightly more people attending. They now play in the Sam M. Vadalabene Center, named after a long-time supporter of the university.
In May
2010, the Vadalabene was
site for a Guinness World Record--- for most people clicking a pen at one
time, despite an attendance of only about 100 at the event. Eddie the Cougar SIUE once
housed two live cougar mascots. From 1968 to 1985,
the female cougar, Chimega (an Apache word for
cougar), was the official mascot. On March 18, 1985,
Chimaga died of old age. In
July 1982, Kyna became the second official mascot of SIUE. After
only five years at SIUE, Kyna was sent to a wildlife preserve in Southern
Illinois near Metropolis or a farm in upstate New York. The school
transitioned to character cougars and/ in 2010, the school decided to get a
new mascot, "Eddie the Cougar" the new name being a direct
reference to Edwardsville.
This is directly
from SIUE's website. Is Eddie
saying "Boo!", or "Wait, don't shoot me! I'm
not a real cougar!" |
