The history of athletics at Towson University is almost as long as the history of the university itself. However, it wasn’t until the 1920s that the fledgling intramural activities began evolving into true intercollegiate varsity sports. The origin of many of these early teams can be directly attributed to Dr. Donald Minnegan, who had a profound effect on athletics at Towson. He came to what was then the Maryland State Normal School in 1927 to be soccer coach and, a year later, soccer would become Towson’s first intercollegiate varsity sport. Minnegan would remain Towson’s soccer coach until 1941, whereupon sports at Towson were disrupted by America’s entrance into WWII.

During that time, Minnegan would also coach the basketball team (started in 1929), baseball team (started in 1936), and track team (started in 1938). In 1929, the men’s tennis team came into existence, being the last team to form until after WWII. Towson joined its first conference, the Mason-Dixon Conference, in 1939. In the early years, the Mason-Dixon Conference was primarily a track conference, but would evolve into a multi-sport conference in the following years. Men’s wrestling started in 1947, followed by men’s cross country in 1950. Minnegan returned to soccer 1952 and would retire from coaching for good in 1966. In 1958, the men’s lacrosse team started a trial season and, following its success, was officially added as a team in 1959. The 60s would see the Knights, as Towson sports teams called themselves at the time, rename themselves the Tigers after one of Dr. Minnegan’s motivational sayings: ‘fight like a tiger.’

Women’s sports at Towson had been around just as long, if not longer than men’s sports, but, for a long stretch of time remained intramural teams under the purview of the Women’s Athletics Department rather than the developing Athletics Department. This was due to the prevalent feeling of the governing bodies on campus, that having women’s varsity sports of any kind would be detrimental, rather than beneficial, to the women of Towson. It was thought that having committed varsity teams would rob the less-skilled the opportunity to participate. Not to mention the concerns about the costs and how they would be covered. However, with the advent of the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics in 1968 and Title IX in 1972, women’s athletics was finally allowed to grow beyond intramural teams.

Women’s gymnastics and basketball teams would be the first to form, both reaching intercollegiate varsity status in 1968. A Women’s swimming team would also be attempted that year, but did not get off the ground until the following year in 1969. Following the success of the women’s gymnastics team, a men’s gymnastics team would be formed in 1970. The following year, 1971, would see a boom in women’s sports, with Towson adding women’s field hockey, lacrosse, and volleyball. Within the next decade, Towson would also add a women’s tennis team (in 1972), a women’s soft ball team (in 1976), a women’s track and field team (in 1976), and a women’s cross country team (in 1976). Although Towson had, by this point, been a member of the Mason-Dixon Conference for roughly forty years, the declining membership was slowly making it untenable. With that in mind, Towson applied to join the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) in 1977 and was officially made a member in 1978. Two of the men’s teams would come to an end in the 80s. Men’s wrestling, which had been dropped between 1960 and 1962, was dropped for good in 1982. The men’s gymnastics team had no official end, but had mostly petered out by 1984.

Towson would make the switch from the ECAC to the East Coast Conference (ECC) in 1982. By 1984, Towson was competing mostly in the ECC but remained in the ECAC for a select few sports including gymnastics and football. Towson’s entry into the ECC marked the first time women’s sports had fallen under the jurisdiction of any particular conference. Prior to that, from around 1973 until 1982, women’s sports had competed in a less official capacity in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), either in the Eastern Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) or the Maryland Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW). Founded in 1971, the AIAW could be considered the women’s equivalent of the NCAA, but was supplanted by the NCAA itself in 1982.

A decade after joining the ECC, in 1992, Towson would leave it for the Big South Conference, although they would only remain members for a mere three years. 1992 also saw the formation of a women’s soccer team. It would be another decade until the next sports team was founded at Towson. During this time, both men’s and women’s track would enter a four year hiatus which would end in 1997 and ultimately lead to the dissolution of the men’s soccer team. In 1995 Towson entered the North Atlantic Conference (NAC), which was renamed the America East Conference (AEC) a year later in 1996. Six years later, in 2001, Towson would make yet another change and become members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), which it remains in to this day.

The Towson Tiger would become ‘Doc’ in 2003 in honor of Dr. Minnegan, who had passed away the previous year. The men’s tennis team was discontinued in 2004 along with the men’s track and field and cross country teams. In 2007, a women’s golf team was started. It became clear in 2012 that sports would have to be cut in order to obey Title IX regulations. It was proposed that the previously-cut tennis would be brought back and soccer and baseball would be cut. Tennis did not make a comeback, baseball remained, and soccer was discontinued despite it being the longest running sport at Towson.