[5][6] Additionally, the current governing body for collegiate sports, the NCAA, was formed as the direct result of a meeting convened in New York City by NYU Chancellor Henry MacCracken in December 1905 to improve the safety of football.

[7] The Violets played their games at Ohio Field, which still exists on NYU's former University Heights campus at Bronx Community College.

In 1939, head coach Mal Stevens led NYU to a 5–1 start and the program's only appearance in the AP Poll, before fading to a 5–4 final record.

[5][7] While a member of Division I, the Violets' men's basketball program achieved far greater success than the school's football team.

NYU returned to the Final Four in 1960, losing to Ohio State, whose roster featured legends Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek.

In 1920 NYU won the Amateur Athletic Union national championship tournament, led by the Helms Athletic Foundation Player of the Year, Howard Cann, and the 19–1 NYU team of 1935 was named (retrospectively) by the Helms Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll as the best team in the nation.

[11][12] The Violets' most recent post-season accomplishment as a Division I school was finishing as the runner-up to BYU in the 1966 National Invitation Tournament.

NYU maintained a nationally ranked basketball team through the sixties with such stars as Barry Kramer and Satch Sanders going to the NBA.

Gilbert Eisner, a future national champion, went undefeated in the three years of 1959, 1960, and 1961, and won the NCAA épée championship in 1960 while fencing for NYU.

[8] In 1997, the women's basketball team, led by head coach Janice Quinn, won a championship title over the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and in 2007 returned to the Final Four.

NYU men's basketball and head coach Joe Nesci appeared in the Division III National Championship game in 1994.

[1] NYU had not sponsored varsity baseball since 1974, but it previously produced several major-league players, including Ralph Branca and Eddie Yost.

Coles was closed in February 2016 to make way for NYU's new $1 Billion mixed use development: the John A. Paulson Center, located at 181 Mercer.

[31] Unlike Coles, Mercer Street will host a combination of expanded athletic facilities, classroom and residential space.

The rowing team travels on a daily basis to their boathouse in New Jersey, roughly 10 miles from Washington Square.

They currently compete in the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League, a conference which includes opponents such as Syracuse, Rutgers, and the University of Delaware.

[38] The first intercollegiate lacrosse game in the United States was played on November 22, 1877 between New York University and Manhattan College.

Today, the team performs water practices on the Passaic River in Lyndhurst, New Jersey; while using NYU's three athletic facilities for its dry land workouts.

Unsuccessful attempts have been made at reviving NYU football at club level, both as an intramural activity and as an intercollegiate sport.

[40][41] The sale of NYU's University Heights campus in 1973 hampered further attempts to create a football team, due to scant recreational space downtown.