[2] The Hawks compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference[3] and of the Philadelphia Big 5.

A member of the Atlantic 10 Conference and the Philadelphia Big 5, Saint Joseph's University sponsors teams in nine men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

The baseball team played the 2009, 2010, and 2011 seasons at Campbell's Field in Camden, New Jersey and moved to the Maguire Campus on Hawk Hill in 2012.

All Hawks home games are now held at John W. Smithson Field in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.

Its prime location and turf surface make Smithson Field one of the top baseball facilities in the country.

The Saint Joseph's University's basketball team was ranked 43rd best of all-time by Smith & Street's magazine in 2005.

The Hawks were led by a backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Delonte West, both of whom would end up as starters in the NBA.

Historical rivals of SJU are the La Salle Explorers, being the only two Catholic universities actually in Philadelphia proper.

The annual basketball game between SJU and Villanova is locally referred to as the Holy War.Villanova leads the all-time series 47 to 25.

Because games against Drexel University are in-city, the two teams are sometimes considered rivals but Saint Joseph's leads the all-time series 43 to 6.

St. Joe's won its first NCAA tournament game in 2022, defeating Wake Forest to reach the quarterfinals.

In 2024, the field hockey team became the first program in Saint Joseph's history to compete for a national title.

4 seed, hosted a regional for the first time, defeating Lafayette and Princeton by matching 1-0 scores.

1 North Carolina, 2-1, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, snapping UNC's 27-game winning streak in the process.

[11] Former SJU rower Renee Hykel competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in the lightweight double sculls.

Mr. O'Neill recruited Dr. Francis Caughlin from Villanova University as the team's first head coach.

Because of the dearth of college rugby teams in the '60s, the Hawks played mostly Ivy League schools such as Princeton, Penn, Yale and Harvard.

SJU played many of its home games at Wynnewood Park in addition to 28th Street and Allegheny Avenue in Philadelphia.

The opening game was played that day as Saint Joseph's lost to Pennsylvania Military College by a score of 7–6.

In 1925–26, Saint Joseph's started to draw up plans for a 70,000 – 80,000 seat neo-classical (colosseum) style stadium.

The plans were put on permanent hold however due to both a lack of funds as well as a growing feeling among the student body that Saint Joseph's would never be able to compete with other schools in terms of football.

In 1928, a yearbook editor named Charlie Dunn started a contest in order to find a nickname for the colleges athletic teams.

It was felt by Dunn that the mascot "typified the fighting spirit of our Crimson and Gray athletes..." and was "...suggestive of the aerial attack which has made our football team famous."

This was done for many reasons, not the least of which was the financial burden the program placed on the college as well as "pitifully small" attendance at the games.

The Hawks had two women compete as lightweight scullers on the United States Olympic Team – Teresa Zarzecki Bell (Silver Medal, 1996 Games) and Renee Hykel (10th Place, 2008 Games) Mike Bantom was on the US Olympic Team in 1972 in Munich.

To this day no member of the 1972 team has accepted their silver medals and many have stipulations in their wills that none of their heirs can ever make a valid claim to receive them after the competitors have died.