Southern Illinois Salukis Tickets

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Saluki Stadium is the home of Southern Illinois University football program known by everyone as Salukis. The venue is the newest of the 12 facilities built by Football Championship Subdivision.The horseshoe- shaped design allows for 15000 spectators on game nights and it utilises Field- Turf system used by many high profile colleges and pro football teams.If one is after Southern Illinois Salukis tickets for basketball though, then SIU Arena is the place to go to as this is where Salukis play their home games. The venue was opened in 1964 and it currently can hold over 8000 fans hungry basketball thrills.

About Southern Illinois Salukis

Football program was established at Southern Illinois University in 1905 and basketball was added much later on, in 1966. The Salukis compete in Missouri Valley Football Conference, NCAA Division I FCS, while basketball is associated with Missouri Valley Conference NCAA Division I non- football.

The university mascot is saluki, one of the oldest dog breeds, an Egyptian hunting dog, the mascots are named Brown Dawg & Gray Dawg. School’s colours are maroon and white. The school rivals are Missouri State Bears and Northern Illinois Huskies although this rivalry isn’t as frequent as the main one.

Football program at SIU has won one national title while being part of NCAA Division I-AA in 1983. The Salukis have 8 conference championships to their name and their all- time record is 412-477-32.SIU took part in 8 Bowl games starting with a shutout win against North Central in 1947 at Corn Bowl. To date the school is 5-3 in these games and their latest showing was at Pecan Bowl in 2009 and it resulted with SIU’s decisive loss to William & Mary.There have been over 20 Salukis that were drafted by NFL teams including players such as Brandon Jacobs and Jim Hart.Jacobs, running back who spent most of his career playing for the Giants, had won two Super Bowl rings with them as well as NFC Offensive Player of the month award in 2007. He has also the most rushing yards in Giants franchise history with 60.

Hart played quarterback for 18 seasons, most of which he committed to St. Louis Cardinals (currently Arizona). He finished the career being the franchise’s leader in passing yards and touchdowns. He was also chosen to appear in four Pro Bowls as well as being a winner of “Whizzer” White NFL Man of the Year.

Basketball, despite having much shorter history than football at SIU had had some success in the past. The Salukis appeared in 17 combined NCAA tournaments (7 in Division II). Their biggest achievement in division II was to reach the Final Four four times between 1962 and 1966 and reaching the Sweet Sixteen in Division I three times since 1977.The Salukis were also conference tournament champions five times and they have 14 conference regular season titles to show off for their efforts.The best known Saluki in NBA was Walt Frazier, named to NBA 50th Anniversary All- Time Team. Frazier spent 14 seasons playing in NBA, mostly in New York for the Knicks where he won two NBA titles.He was 7 times NBA All- Star, winning one All- Star MVP award, he also was the first NBA player to have a shoe named after him.There might not be many Salukis turned into pro athletes but some of them went onto having a great careers leaving a big mark after themselves in pro leagues.