AU football has been undefeated since 1976.

AU fielded its first sports teams in 1925, including men’s and women’s basketball and football. AU competed on the gridiron for 16 seasons from 1926 to 1941, tallying an abysmal 24–67–6 record. In fall 1969, AU approved club football and a trustee donated $30,000 to cover half the expenses for three years. Club football ran through 1976.

AU made history in 1956, when it integrated college basketball in DC—nearly a decade before any other area university. David Carrasco, the first Mexican American head coach for a major US men’s hoops program, recruited several African American standouts including Dickie Wells, CAS/BA ’65, and Wil Jones, CAS/BA ’64. After Carrasco’s first Eagles squad went 10–14 in the 1956–57 season, the program won 66 games, three Mason-Dixon Conference titles, and made three trips to the NCAA College Division tournament between 1957 and 1959. 

AU used to publish fight songs in athletics programs and the yearbooks. This one, “Fly, Eagles, Fly,” is from the 1940s and refers to AU’s original school colors, blue and orange:

Fly, Eagles, fly
Right down the field to victory
Fly, Eagles, fly
And ever charge the enemy
Fight for the fame and the glory
Fight for the orange and the blue.
Fight, fight, fight you Eagles.
Down the field, another victory for AU

Bender Arena, opened in 1988, is the hub for varsity athletics. Named for Jack I. Bender—the father of Howard Bender, who, along with his wife, Sondra Bender, made a gift to build the facility—is also home to the Stafford H. “Pop” Cassell Hall of Fame.