Western Washington Vikings

Western Washington sponsors six sports for men and nine sports for women with approximately 350 student athletes.

Mascot[edit]

The story of Victor E. Viking, the mascot, is that he visited Bellingham in 1923 and decided to become a supporter of the team. He has since become the mascot representation of the Vikings.^[4] In 2015, The Washington Post reported on controversy at Western over the mascot. Some claim that an imposing white man does not sufficiently represent the school, while some argue against removing the mascot that had been representing Western for nearly 100 years.^[5] The controversy was renewed in 2022,^[6][7] but Victor continues as the mascot of the institution as of February 2024.

Student athletes[edit]

The 2010 NCAA graduation rate study showed that 69 percent of Western student-athletes receive their degrees in six years or less based on the Federal Graduation Rate formula, a rate the same as that of the full student body. This is 13 percentage points higher than the average for NCAA Division II schools nationally and 15 points higher than the average for the nine U.S. schools in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Using the NCAA Academic Success Rate, which includes all freshman student-athletes from the fall of 2003 and also accounts for student-athletes who transfer into or out of the institution, Western posted an 85 percent success rate, compared to the NCAA II national number of 73 percent. The average ASR of the nine U.S. GNAC schools was 77 percent.