Lehigh Mountain Hawks

Updated 03/16/26

lehighsports.com

Location: Bethlehem, PA

Enrollment: 6,000

Cost of Attendance: $90,000

Venue: Stabler Arena

Arena Capacity: 5,600

Conference: Patriot League (2nd)

Record: 18-16 (11-7)

NET Rank: 275

Committee Rank: 67

Tournament History

Appearances: 5

Final Fours: 0

Championships: 0

Win-Loss: 1-5

Most Recent: 2012, as a 15 seed beat 2 seed Duke in First Round before losing to 10 seed Xavier in Second Round.

Lehigh University

lehigh.edu

Lehigh University is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by Asa Packer in 1865 as an all-boys university with the express goal of providing a "thorough education" in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mining engineering, chemistry, metallurgy, the classics, and general literature. At the time of its foundation any male over the age of 16 could attend if they demonstrated a complete knowledge of arithmetic and passed a test on both Latin and ancient Greek grammar and literature.

Good thing that no longer is the standard.

Lehigh University's first library, constructed at the cost of $100,000 in 1877 by Packer as a memorial to his daughter, Lucy Packer Linderman

Lehigh Engineers

Lehigh University's athletic teams were originally known as the Engineers until the 1995 96 academic year. According to the university, the Engineer mascot was not in reference to Lehigh s strong engineering program, but a nod to Lehigh s founder Asa Packer. Packer built the Lehigh Valley Railroad company, which established early ties between the engineers in the railroad industry and the university.

The change from Engineers to Mountain Hawks was a result of a student-based movement to come up with a suitable mascot (what's wrong with an Engineer?). The Mountain Hawk was officially voted in as the new mascot by the Lehigh Student Senate soon after the nickname change. It took another 12 years before they settled on an official name for the mascot. The name they settled on

Clutch

by SodexoUSA, CC BY 2.0

Students picked the name Clutch through a university-wide naming contest because it has the letters LU in it for Lehigh University and because it also represents the students and athletes coming up big in the clutch in games and in the classroom.

Not so sure about that.

About the Mountain Hawks

Lehigh has been playing collegiate basketball since 1901. James Naismith only invented the game 10 years prior.

They were independent until 1974, but it took them over 80 years to win anything of significance. In 1985, Lehigh made their first NCAA Division I tournament by winning the then East Coast Conference tournament. With a 12-18 record, they became the first team to reach the Tournament with a record below .500.

Yay! Success!

Lehigh is now making its sixth appearance in the NCAA Tournament, each time as a 16 seed. And every time they lost their first game.

That is, every time except for in 2012 when they entered as a 15 seed. That was the last time Lehigh was in the Tournament.

But oh, how rememberable that last appearance was.

Not only did Lehigh actually win their one and only NCAA tournament game, that was THE year that Lehigh had the HUGE upset of 2 seed Duke in the First Round (in Greensboro, NC), 75-70, before losing to 10-seed Xavier in the Second Round.

That actually was not the only 15/2 upset that year 15 seed Norfolk State also beat 2 seed Missouri, making it the first time ever that two 15 seeds won in the same tournament.

But who remembers Norfolk State.

Freakin' Duke lost to a 15 seed.

Duke sucks!