Prairie View has had more than a few tough seasons within its respectable athletic programs. I could mention a couple of below .500 seasons, but I’m not because the athletic program here at Prairie View A&M University is beginning to soar above and beyond.In the last four years the Panthers have produced a total of eight conference championships in seven different sports: Cross Country (2), Volleyball (1), Men’s Basketball (1), Women’s Basketball (1), Tennis (1), and Men’s Track (1). Not to mention the seasons where Prairie View’s athletic teams birthed winning seasons.
During my freshman year, I would hear how “sorry” the athletic program was or that the football team has never won a game, and that’s what people outside of the city limits thought as well, “that any sports team at Prairie View was weak.”
Those days of poor recruiting and few athletic scholarships have been long gone. The home of the mighty Panther has established itself as one of the premiere athletic programs in the Southwestern Athletic Conference alongside established schools such as Grambling, Southern and Jackson State, all of them are schools Prairie View has defeated in recent athletic events.
In fact Prairie View is the only school to achieve the feat of earning a conference title in seven different sports in the past four years.
It began in 2003 when the men’s Panther basketball team went on a six-game winning streak to capture the school’s first regular season championship in 40 years.
After a slight slump in 2004, which could be described as a year in rebuilding, 2005 brought home two more championships, thanks to cross-country and tennis. The cross-country team again accomplished the feat in 2006 ruining the Southern and Grambling dominance of the sport. Also, in 2006 the baseball team put together an unbelievable 19-5 home record en route to a SWAC title and a birth in the NCAA tourney.
With volleyball, track and field, and women’s basketball bringing in three championships this school year, Prairie View is well on its way to greatness.