Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns

Louisiana-Lafayette is a member of the Sun Belt Conference

The university states that "Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns" is the nickname of the school's athletic teams.[2]

Founded in 1898 as Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (SLII), the school adopted Bulldogs as a team nickname in 1921. The nickname persisted when the school was renamed Southwestern Louisiana Institute (SLI) in 1921 and the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL) in 1960.

The university's 1963 football team was unusually strong in homegrown talent; 35 of its 39 players were from Louisiana, with 30 from within 100 miles of Lafayette.[3] As a result, coach Russ Faulkinberry changed the team's nickname to the Raging Cajuns, a nod to the ethnic group based in south Louisiana.[4] (The team went 4–5.)[5] The name change also ended a longstanding nickname overlap with the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.

The term Raging (or Ragin') Cajuns had been used in a number of contexts before 1963, including as the nickname of the Louisiana-based U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Squadron VMF-143.[6][7][8] The team changed the nickname from "Raging" to "Ragin'" in 1967 and formally adopted it for all athletic teams in 1974.[9]

Briefly in 1984, USL's name became the University of Louisiana, but was reverted to University of Southwestern Louisiana via court challenge. In 1999, it became the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette) and maintained the Ragin' Cajuns nickname.[10]

The area where the majority of the school's athletic facilities are located is formally known as the "Edgar G. "Sonny" Mouton, Jr. Sports and Entertainment Plaza." It is located apart from the main campus, and is bounded by West Congress Street to the north, Bertrand Drive to the west, Reinhardt Drive and Souvenir Gate to the south, and the coulee feeding into Coulee Mine to the east.[11] It is more informally known as the Athletic Complex. Located in this area are:

• Cajundome

The Cajundome is a 13,500-seat multi-purpose arena. It is home to the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Men's and Women's basketball programs in addition to hosting various University events and commencement ceremonies including high school graduations. It also hosts many regional concerts (seating for concerts 8,481 to 13,500) and special events

• Cajun Field

Nicknamed The Swamp, Cajun Field is the home field of Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football team. Cajun Field has an official capacity of 41,426 with 2,577 chairback seats.

• Cajun Courts (tennis)
• Yvette Girouard Field at Lamson Park

Lamson Park is the home of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns softball program.

• M. L. Tigue Moore Field at Russo Park

More commonly known as "the Tigue," is the home stadium of the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns baseball team. Built in 1979 it currently has a capacity of 6,033.

• Track and Field Complex
• Donald and Janice Mosing Student-Athlete Performance Center

The SAPC is a 100,000-square foot facility that houses the Ragin' Cajuns football offices, strength and conditioning, athletic training and the equipment room. Opened in September 2015, is the largest in the Sun Belt Conference and is one of the largest among Division I schools across the South. It includes a 12,000-square foot weight room, the state-of-the-art athletic training room and hydrotherapy area, nutrition station and the 150-seat auditorium.[12]

• Leon Moncla Indoor Practice Facility

Completed in August, 2007, at a cost of approximately $4.5 million, the facility houses a full 120-yard football field covered by a turf surface. It also contains a basketball practice facility which includes a full court with six goals, locker room, video room, players lounge and meeting room. The facility also contains drop-down batting cages which are utilized by the basketball, softball and golf teams. The baseball and softball teams also use the facility as needed.[13]

Additionally, while just outside the sports complex, Bourgeois Hall (Health & PE) is located immediately next to Lamson Park. Also, Earl K. Long Gym (Women's basketball and volleyball) is located on the main campus

Men's Lacrosse as part of the MCLA, Badminton, Bowling, Cheerleading, Cricket, Ice Hockey as part of the ACHA, Inline Hockey as part of the NCRHA, Judo, Powerlifting, Rugby, Men's Soccer, Sport Shooting, Tae Kwon Do, Water Skiing.

• Water Skiing - First year of competition: 1989. Has finished no worse than third in the annual NCWSA National Collegiate Water Ski Association championships since 1993. National champions: 1995, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019 and 2022

Louisiana launched the Ragin' Cajun Radio Network in August 2011. The Network is a series of radio and television networks that provide access to sporting events throughout the state of Louisiana. Two Lafayette radio stations, KPEL-AM and KHXT-FM, provide play by play radio commentary called by broadcasters Jay Walker, and Steve Peloquin. The full list of participating stations are:

• KPEL 1420 AM/KPEL 96.5 FM /KHXT 107.9 FM in Lafayette
• KANE 1240 AM in New Iberia
• WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans
• KTUX 98.9 FM in Shreveport
• KLCL 1470 AM/KJEF 1290 AM in Lake Charles

Television coverage is provided by Cox Communications as part of their Cox 4 and Cox Sports Television networks. Cox Sports Television now has over 2 million subscriptions in the states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Virginia. Additionally, all games aired by the channels will also be available online at ESPN3.com provided nationwide coverage to the Ragin' Cajuns.

• List of NCAA Division I institutions

• Official website