In 1962, still years before any sports were announced, students voted to make the Golden Brahman, a breed of bull, the university's first mascot because of Florida's history in cattle raising. President Allen had a change of heart in 1964 and approved the university's first sports teams to begin in the 1965–66 academic year and asked physical education professor and future USF Athletic Hall of Fame member Dick Bowers to become USF's first athletic director. Baseball, men's soccer, men's cross country, men's golf, men's swimming, men's tennis, and women's tennis were the seven original sports to be offered by the young university. The men's teams began play as NCAA College Division (now known as NCAA Division II) independents and were called the Golden Brahmans. Since the NCAA did not sponsor women's sports at the time, the new women's tennis team played as an independent in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Small College Division and went by the Lady Brahmans instead of the Golden Brahmans. Subsequent women's teams would play in the AIAW and were called the Lady Brahmans as well. The Golden Brahmans men's soccer team won the first intercollegiate game in school history on September 25, 1965, defeating Florida Southern College 4–3. In 1969, swimmer Joe Lewkowicz won the first individual national championship in school history in the 200-yard butterfly. 1970s The Golden Brahmans' men's swimming team nearly became the first team in USF history to win a national championship, finishing in second place in the 1971 NCAA Championship. The men's basketball team was founded in 1971 and was by far the most significant step in USF's young athletic history at the time. In spring 1972, USF's men's golf team were the runners up in the NCAA Championship. The Lady Brahmans women's basketball, women's golf, softball, women's swimming, and volleyball teams started the next academic year, and the university had also considered adding women's archery, badminton, and bowling to comply with the new Title IX law. The men's golf team then finished as national runners up again in 1973. USF's men's sports made the jump to the NCAA University Division (now known as NCAA Division I) in fall 1973, and remained as independents. Likewise, USF's women's teams moved to the AIAW Large College Division in 1973. USF became a charter member of the Sun Belt Conference in 1976 (for men's sports only) as their first ever conference