The university has participated in athletics since it fielded a baseball team in
1890. SJSU sports teams are known as the
Spartans, and compete in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in NCAA Division I (I-A for
football). The school has achieved an international reputation in judo, having won 38 out of 42 national championships in the
sport (as of 2004). Additionally, SJSU students and alumni have won more than
half of the U.S.'s olympic medals in judo.On December 7, 1941, the football team
travelled to the island of Oahu to play the University of Hawaii. When Pearl Harbor was
bombed, the game was cancelled and the team volunteered for duty with the Honolulu Police Department instead of returning home.On April 21, 2004, the Academic Senate
voted in favor of terminating the 110 year old football program and withdrawing from the WAC for budgetary reasons. The following
month, the entire faculty voted by a 3-1 margin in favor of the elimination of football. Although these votes were only advisory,
they were seen as putting pressure on the new president, due to be announced later that week. The university has had problems
with the football program for several decades. The university has produced just one winning record in football following the
1990 season. Additionally, Spartan Stadium will require significant
upgrades in the near future for the university to stay in Division 1-A.On September 18, 2004, the SJSU
Spartans football team hosted the "Read-2-Lead Classic," an
event designed to boost attendance and save the program. The university expected a sell-out of 28,000. The paid attendance was
less than 11,000. The Spartans ended the 2004 season with an average attendance of less than 7,000, the lowest in all of Division
I-A football. Although the administration has announced another attempt to save the program, local insiders have all but written
it off.SJSU alumni have won 18 Olympic medals through the years, dating back to the first gold medal won by Willie Steel in track and field in the 1948 Olympics. Alumni have won medals in track and
field, swimming, judo and boxing. Due to the pressure to maintain funding for football, several of these programs have
been eliminated, including the historical track team known as "Speed City" which produced Olympic medalists and social activists John Carlos and Tommie Smith.