The San Jose State Spartans are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent San José State University. SJSU sports teams compete in the Mountain West Conference (MW) at the NCAA Division I level, with football competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). San Jose State is one of 20 Division I members in the state of California, seven of which are FBS members. The other FBS members are fellow MW conference mates Fresno State and San Diego State, plus Pac-12 Conference members University of California, Stanford, UCLA and USC. SJSU has participated in athletics since it first fielded a baseball team in 1890. San José State sports teams have won NCAA national titles in track and field, cross country, golf, boxing, fencing and tennis. As of 2022, SJSU has won 10 NCAA national Division 1 team championships and produced 50 NCAA national Division 1 individual champions. SJSU also has achieved an international reputation for its judo program, winning 51 National Collegiate Judo Association (NCJA) championships since 1962. SJSU alumni have won 20 Olympic medals (including seven gold medals) dating back to the first gold medal won by Willie Steele in track and field in the 1948 Olympics. Alumni also have won medals in swimming, judo, water polo and boxing. The track team coached by "Bud" Winter earned San Jose State the nickname "Speed City," and produced Olympic medalists and social activists Lee Evans, Tommie Smith and John Carlos. Smith and Carlos are perhaps best remembered for giving the raised fist salute from the medalists' podium during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. San José State University sponsors teams in eight men's and twelve women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Jeff Konya has served as the director of athletics since June 12, 2021. Nickname and mascot history SJSU's mascot changed many times before the school finally adopted the Spartans as the official mascot and nickname in 1922. Mascots and nicknames prior to 1922 included the Daniels, the Teachers, the Pedagogues, the Normals and the Normalites. The school's current mascot is Sammy the Spartan, or Sammy Spartan for short. After 1887, the official name of the San Jose campus was the State Normal School at San Jose. The school's athletics teams initially played under the "Normal" identity, but they gradually shifted to the "State Normal School" identity, as evidenced by images of SNS football and basketball squads from this era. In official publications, the