As one of the pillars of its recent fundraising campaign, Cura Personalis | For Every Fordham Student, Fordham focused new attention on athletics—in particular, the basketball program, a source of both pride and great potential. The New Era Fund was established to help the women’s team sustain its successes and help the men’s team achieve a winning record. The fund immediately started racking up gifts that strengthened the program by supporting recruitment of players, staff salaries, and travel and facilities improvements.
A new student fan section, the Shirtless Herd, fired up the fans and brought “Rose thrill” to the Rose Hill Gym, in the words of Keith Urgo, who has overseen the men’s team’s resurgence since becoming its head coach in spring 2022.
Because of the New Era Fund and Fordham-wide support, “the culture and outlook around the program have shifted dramatically in the right direction,” said Fordham’s interim athletic director, Charlie Elwood. As the final buzzer sounds for the Cura Personalis campaign, Fordham basketball walks off the court with big wins on the board. Here are five:
No. 1: Historic Record.
Men’s basketball achieved its highest three-year win total since joining the Atlantic 10 in 1995. The highlight? Going 25-8 in the 2022-2023 season, tying the second-best season total in the team’s history and coming in just win one shy of the famed 26-3 season of 1970-1971.
No. 2: Surging in the Atlantic 10.
The men’s team tied for second in the final A-10 standings in 2022-2023 and reached the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament for just the second time.
No. 3: New Women’s Coach Scores Big.
In the 2023-2024 season, her first season as head coach of the women’s team, Bridgette Mitchell led the Rams to the most wins by a first-year Fordham women’s basketball coach since 1993-1994.
No. 4: Ram Spirit Revived.
In a sign of growing enthusiasm for Fordham basketball, ticket sales for the men’s team games grew 113% from the 2022-2023 season to the 2023-2024 season.
No. 5: A Bigger Public Profile.
Fordham has been covered on CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, and PIX11, and in the New York Post and Newsday, because of the men’s team’s performance. The Feb. 23, 2024, home men’s basketball game against Duquesne marked the Rams’ first appearance on ESPN2 since 2008.
