History of the Chanticleers
The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are the athletic teams that represent Coastal Carolina University. They participate in Division I of the NCAA as a member of the Sun Belt Conference in most sports, having joined that conference as a whole but non-football member on July 1, 2016. At that time, the football team began transitioning from the second-level Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the top-level Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The team played the 2016 season as an FCS independent, joined Sun Belt football for the 2017 season, and became full FBS members for 2018 and beyond. A Chanticleer is a proud and fierce rooster. Before joining the Sun Belt, the Chanticleers had been members of the Big South Conference since that league's formation in 1983. Coastal field varsity teams in 20 sports, 9 for men and 11 for women. The university regularly competed for the Sasser Cup, the Big South's trophy for the university with the best sports program among the member institutions, winning the trophy nine times and tying with rival Liberty University.
Until the early 1960s, Coastal's teams were known as the Trojans. When the school became an extension of the University of South Carolina, the push was made for a mascot more in line with the parent's mascot, the Gamecock; the ultimate choice was the Chanticleer, the proud, witty rooster made famous in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (the mascot itself would be named Zachary). When Coastal became an independent university in 1993, despite some calls to change the mascot as part of "a complete split from USC," the Chanticleer remained the school's mascot. Coastal has developed in-state rivalries with Charleston Southern, Clemson, College of Charleston, Furman, Presbyterian, South Carolina, South Carolina State, The Citadel, USC Upstate, Winthrop, and Wofford. Their fiercest in-state rivals are Charleston Southern, College of Charleston, and Winthrop. Coastal has rivalries with every Sun Belt school in the East Division (Appalachian State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, South Alabama, and Troy). Coastal's main Sun Belt rivals are Appalachian State and Georgia Southern.
The volleyball program is one of the most successful teams in the country. It won four consecutive conference championships (Big South 2014, 2015) (Sun Belt 2016, 2017). Leah Hardeman ('14 -'17) is the only player in Division I history to win awards for four conference player of the year. The baseball team has also developed into a national powerhouse; it won the national title in 2016.
College Sports Established
1954
Location
Conway, South Carolina
College Name
Coastal Carolina University
Collegiate History
1983 - Present / NCAA Division I
Conference History
2016 - Present / Sun Belt Conference
1983 - 2016 / Big South Conference
Nickname
Chanticleers - The Chanticleer – a proud and fierce rooster – is the unique moniker for the Coastal Carolina University mascot and athletics teams. The Chanticleer is derived from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, specifically "The Nun's Priest Tale." In the early 1960s, Coastal’s athletic teams were known as the Trojans until a group of Coastal students and their English professor-basketball coach Cal F. Maddox brought up the idea of a new mascot. It helped that the Chanticleer was from the same family of the animal kingdom as the Gamecock, the mascot of Coastal’s parent institution at the time, which was an important consideration in those days. Thus the Chanticleer was born, giving the growing college its own identity and one of the most unique mascots in college athletics.
NCAA Championships
Baseball 0
Men's Basketball 0
Women's Basketball 0
Football 0
Soccer 0
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