Sports Team History

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Search in posts
Search in pages
  • Home
  • Sports History
    • Baseball History
    • Basketball History
    • College History
    • Football History
    • Hockey History
    • Soccer History
  • Greatest Player Polls
  • STH News

UNLV Rebels School History

Greatest Player Polls
Sports Market History
Sports News History
UNLV Rebels




  • 1990
  • unlv_running_rebels

    The Running Rebels First and Only NCAA Basketball Champs 1990

    The 1990 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of NCAA Division I men’s college basketball. It began on March 15, 1990, and ended with the championship game on April 2 in Denver, Colorado. A total of 63 games were played. UNLV, coached by Jerry Tarkanian, won the national ...
    Read More
    See Full Story

Rebels Primary Logo
Rebels Alternate Logo
Rebels Wordmark Logo

History of the Rebels

The UNLV Rebels are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The Rebels compete in the NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision for college football) as a member of the Mountain West Conference. The school's colors are scarlet and gray. It was founded in 1958 for basketball in Paradise, Nevada. It did not have a nickname for Nevada Southern at the time from 1958 to 1968.

Some of the Rebels teams use variations of the team name for their individual sport, such as the Runnin' Rebels for men's basketball and the Hustlin' Rebels for the baseball team.

In 1977, just seven years after joining Division I, The Rebels made the Final Four in a squad today known as the "Hardway Eight". Ten years later, the team made the Final Four with one loss. In 1990, UNLV won the NCAA Championship by beating Duke by a record-setting margin of 103–73, becoming the first team and only team to score over 100 points in the championship game. Before becoming a basketball powerhouse in the late 1970s, UNLV was often referred to as "Tumbleweed Tech" due to its relative obscurity. Led by famed coach Jerry Tarkanian, the Runnin' Rebels were among the most exciting teams in the nation. They consistently led the nation in points scored, turnovers forced, and most importantly – wins. The Runnin' Rebels were well known for going on long runs that turned close games into blowouts. They were also known for up-tempo offense and stifling defense.





College Sports Established
1968

Location
Paradise, Nevada

College Name
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Collegiate History
1973 - Present / NCAA Division 1
1968 - 1973 / University Division of the NCAA

Conference History
1999 - Present / Mountain West Conference
1982 – 1996 / Big West Conference
1970 – 1982 / Independent

Nickname
Rebels - The first major dissenting opinion was published in a November 1970 edition of “The Rebel Yell,” the school’s newspaper, by an African American student activist named Bert Babero, Jr. His father worked as the emeritus professor of zoology at UNLV for 23 years and passed away in 2012.

As described in “University of Nevada, Las Vegas: a History” by UNLV history professor Eugene Moehring, “… as Babero noted, times had changed. Explaining that for African Americans the term Rebel bore racist connotations, he insisted that ‘to expect black people to love and glorify the Confederacy, to wear a Confederate flag or applaud a Confederate wolf defies all logic. It’s like asking a Jew to wear a Swastika.’”

In the early 1970s, a group of African-American student-athletes voiced objection to the Confederate imagery surrounding the mascot and in 1976, students voted to officially banish Beauregard but retained the Rebels name.

Beauregard was replaced briefly by a Revolutionary War soldier, but UNLV went largely without a mascot until 1982, when Hey Reb! was created by former Review-Journal artist Mike Miller, who said his inspiration came from the western mountain men of the 1800s who ventured into uncharted Nevada.

NCAA Championships
Baseball 0

Men's Basketball 1
1990

Women's Basketball 0

Football 0

Soccer 0

Who is the greatest UNLV Rebels?
  • Add your greatest player

To qualify as the greatest player for this team, the player must have played one season for this team. If not, we will remove the player.
* verifies that player has played for this team as an added player by a fan.

Football Score

Sports News History

Sports News Worth Knowing

RSS NCAA Football Headline News

  • West Virginia football recruiting: Four-star ATH Rodney Gallagher commits to Mountaineers on CBS Sports HQ
  • Analysis and predictions for college football’s top remaining QB battles
  • Jimbo not shying away from Saban confrontation
  • 2022 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas fires shot at Jimbo Fisher after his NIL dust-up with Nick Saban
  • Could the SEC stage its own football playoff? It’s all on the table at spring meetings

Sports Market History

Sports Team Marketplace of Champions!

Sports Team Office Products

  • Skinit NFL Kansas City Chiefs Compatible w/Case Apple AirPods
    Scratch - Resistant. Ultra-Thin, Lightweight Vinyl Decal Protection Built To Last Throughout Everday Apple AirPods…
  • Skinit NBA Chicago Bulls Compatible w/Case Apple AirPods
    Scratch - Resistant. Ultra-Thin, Lightweight Vinyl Decal Protection Built To Last Throughout Everday Apple AirPods…
  • Skinit NFL Miami Dolphins Compatible w/Case Apple AirPods
    Scratch - Resistant. Ultra-Thin, Lightweight Vinyl Decal Protection Built To Last Throughout Everday Apple AirPods…
  • Skinit NBA Golden State Warriors Compatible w/Case Apple AirPods
    Scratch - Resistant. Ultra-Thin, Lightweight Vinyl Decal Protection Built To Last Throughout Everday Apple AirPods…
  • Skinit NFL Pittsburgh Steelers Compatible w/Case Apple AirPods
    Scratch - Resistant. Ultra-Thin, Lightweight Vinyl Decal Protection Built To Last Throughout Everday Apple AirPods…

College Logo Battle

College Schools
Menu
  • ACC
    • Boston College Eagles
    • Clemson Tigers
    • Duke Blue Devils
    • Florida State Seminoles
    • Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
    • Louisville Cardinals
    • Miami Hurricanes
    • North Carolina State Wolfpack
    • North Carolina Tar Heels
    • Notre Dame Fighting Irish
    • Pittsburgh Panthers
    • Syracuse Orange
    • Virginia Cavaliers
    • Virginia Tech Hokies
    • Wake Forest Demon Deacons
  • American Athletic
    • Central Florida Knights
    • Cincinnati Bearcats
    • East Carolina Pirates
    • Houston Cougars
    • Memphis Tigers
    • SMU Mustangs
    • South Florida Bulls
    • Temple Owls
    • Tulane Green Wave
    • Tulsa Golden Hurricane
    • Wichita State Shockers
  • Big 10
    • Illinois Fighting Illini
    • Indiana Hoosiers
    • Iowa Hawkeyes
    • Maryland Terrapins
    • Michigan State Spartans
    • Michigan Wolverines
    • Minnesota Golden Gophers
    • Nebraska Cornhuskers
    • Northwestern Wildcats
    • Ohio State Buckeyes
    • Penn State Nittany Lions
    • Purdue Boilermakers
    • Rutgers Scarlet Knights
    • Wisconsin Badgers
  • Big 12
    • Baylor Bears
    • Iowa State Cyclones
    • Kansas Jayhawks
    • Kansas State Wildcats
    • Oklahoma Sooners
    • Oklahoma State Cowboys
    • TCU Horned Frogs
    • Texas Longhorns
    • Texas Tech Red Raiders
    • West Virginia Mountaineers
  • Big East
    • Butler Bulldogs
    • Connecticut Huskies
    • Creighton Bluejays
    • DePaul Blue Demons
    • Georgetown Hoyas
    • Marquette Golden Eagles
    • Providence Friars
    • Seton Hall Pirates
    • St. John’s Red Storm
    • Villanova Wildcats
    • Xavier Musketeers
  • Mountain West
    • Air Force Falcons
    • Boise State Broncos
    • Colorado State Rams
    • Fresno State Bulldogs
    • Hawaii Warriors
    • Nevada Wolf Pack
    • New Mexico Lobos
    • San Diego State Aztecs
    • San Jose State Spartans
    • UNLV Rebels
    • Utah State Aggies
    • Wyoming Cowboys
  • PAC 12
    • Arizona State Sun Devils
    • Arizona Wildcats
    • California Golden Bears
    • Colorado Buffaloes
    • Oregon Ducks
    • Oregon State Beavers
    • Southern California Trojans
    • Stanford Cardinal
    • UCLA Bruins
    • Utah Utes
    • Washington Huskies
    • Washington State Cougars
  • SEC
    • Alabama Crimson Tide
    • Arkansas Razorbacks
    • Auburn Tigers
    • Florida Gators
    • Georgia Bulldogs
    • Kentucky Wildcats
    • LSU Tigers
    • Mississippi State Bulldogs
    • Missouri Tigers
    • Ole Miss Rebels
    • South Carolina Gamecocks
    • Tennessee Volunteers
    • Texas A&M Aggies
    • Vanderbilt Commodores

STH News

"Latest Sports Team History News"

Best Stadiums in the Premier League History

May 26, 2022

The Epic Transformation of the Toronto Raptors

May 23, 2022

Greatest and Biggest Comebacks in NFL History

May 19, 2022

The Best Teams in the NBA in the 21ST Century

May 18, 2022

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Search in posts
Search in pages
Sports Logo History
Sports News History
Sports Market History
  • About
  • Contact
  • Disclaimer Sports Team History
  • Privacy Policy

Sports Team History
© 2013 - 2022 Sports Team History
Managed by Sports History Group
  • Home
  • Sports History
    • Baseball History
    • Basketball History
    • College History
    • Football History
    • Hockey History
    • Soccer History
  • Greatest Player Polls
  • STH News