The South Florida Bulls (also known as the USF Bulls) are the athletic teams that represent the University of South Florida. USF competes in NCAA Division I and is a member of the American Athletic Conference for all sports besides sailing, a non-NCAA sanctioned sport which competes in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association within the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association. The current athletic director is Michael Kelly, who has held the job since 2018. The school colors are green and gold and the mascot is Rocky D. Bull. The university currently sponsors 19 varsity sports, nine for men and ten for women. The sports sponsored are baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's golf, women's sailing, men's soccer, women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field (outdoor and indoor for both), and women's volleyball. In addition, USF will add a women's lacrosse team and a women's beach volleyball team in the 2024–25 school year. USF used to sponsor teams in co-ed rifle and men's and women's swimming and diving. Across all sports, the Bulls have won one team NCAA national championship (women's swimming in 1985). Outside of the additional seven individual and three relay national championships in women's swimming, USF athletes have won seven individual and relay NCAA national championships in men's swimming, two individual NCAA national championships in rifle, and two individual NCAA national championships in men's outdoor track & field. Additionally, the university has won five national championships in varsity sports outside of NCAA competition. The softball team won the 1983 and 1984 national championships in the American Softball Association, which was the highest level of college softball at the time. Sailing, which is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport but is still a varsity team sponsored by the USF Athletic Department, has won three national championships in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association: Sloop in 2009 and Offshore Large Boats in 2016 and 2017. USF's teams have also won 160 conference championships, and athletes have won 209 individual and relay conference championships. As of the 2020 Summer Olympics, 15 Bulls have competed as athletes in the Olympic Games, winning one gold medal. History Beginnings The University of South Florida was founded in 1956 and opened in 1960. First president John S. Allen was against the prospect of the new university supporting intercollegiate athletic teams, instead wanting to focus on education.