UCSC teams have been Division III nationally ranked in tennis, soccer, men's volleyball, and swimming.

UC Santa Cruz joined the NCAA in September 1980 after years of playing in unofficial club competition.

Contrary to predictions, a majority of the students approved a significant addition to their annual fees to maintain the existence of the athletic program.

[2][3] UCSC participates in NCAA Division III men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.

[5] UCSC won their seventh championship in 2009 beating Amherst College in the finals to tie Kalamazoo for the most team titles in NCAA Division III.

In the 2006 season, the men's water polo team won the Division III championship, as well as an overall NCAA ranking of 19th in the nation.

[10] In addition to its NCAA sports, UCSC maintains a number of successful club sides including its women's rugby NCAA Division team, which won the Division II National Collegiate Championship during its 2005 season and has competed at nationals several times since, most recently in 2010 and 2013.

[16] The UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs have competed in the NCAA Championships across 14 active sports (7 men's and 7 women's) a combined 121 times at the Division III level.

[17] The Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz earned 7 NCAA team championships at the Division III level.

UC Santa Cruz had 18 Banana Slugs win NCAA individual championships at the Division III level.

His roommate, Bob Grindeslug (no relation), silk-screened uniform shirts for the entire volleyball team in preparation for the All-Cal tournament that year.

In 1980, when the university began more formally participating in NCAA intercollegiate sports, the then-chancellor and some student athletes declared the mascot to be the sea lions.

A few mascot meetings were held, perhaps without quorum, and the Porter College representative was lobbied by the athletes and the science professors.

The leader of the committee was against the idea of the Banana Slug and taken aback to see the Porter College representative suddenly appearing to take control.

There were some irritated faculty (including the chancellor) that made their opinions known as the voting was being set up, so the Porter College representative decided to stay anonymous when she was called to do the People Magazine interview.

[citation needed] The June 16, 1986, issue of People magazine featured a full-page spread dedicated to the selection of the Banana Slug as the official mascot of UCSC.

[24] In February 2008, ESPN Sports Travel named the UCSC Banana Slugs as one of the ten best nicknames in college basketball.

It was developed by Bernt Wahl and two other students during the mascot controversy, who later incorporated as "Oxford West" and licensed their design from the Regents to produce clothing inspired by the university.

Because of apparent lack of student support for college athletics, it was decided that it would be reasonable to channel the funds to other areas.

Due to opposition to the proposal by the university's athletes and coaches as well as alumni, it was considered to be very unlikely that such a significant increase would pass.