When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, its wrath reached far past the flooded streets and shattered homes: It also ravaged Tulane University’s campus and changed the course of Tulane Athletics. Campus was forced to shut down, sports seasons were cancelled and many lives were turned upside down, leaving the mighty Green Wave as nothing more than a ripple.

In the storm’s aftermath, Tulane was left with no choice but to suspend eight of its 16 Division I sports programs and undergo severe budget cuts. The NCAA granted Tulane a five-year exemption to operate with only eight sports — six below the standard limit — allowing it to keep its Division I status. This marked the beginning of a years-long process to restore and rebuild athletic facilities to comply with NCAA and Title IX  requirements. 

For hundreds of student-athletes, this devastation meant more than a season of lost play. It was years of hard work, grit and frustration lost to Mother Nature. 

The athletes were forced to find new homes. 

The Green Wave football team became nomads, relocating to both Jackson State University and Louisiana Tech University for periods of time. Other athletes found temporary asylum at universities like Texas A&M and Texas Tech. 

Across campus, the cost of damage was staggering. Katrina caused more than $650 million in damage to university property, damaging athletic facilities and uprooting nearly half of Tulane’s athletics staff. In an attempt to save $2 million annually, eight teams were suspended: men’s golf, men’s cross country, men’s outdoor track and field, men’s tennis, women’s golf, women’s swimming and diving, women’s tennis and women’s soccer. 

Amid the turmoil, Tulane officials demanded a way forward. The then-athletic director, Rick Dickson, organized a group of trustees, alumni and donors who created an endowment that promised the long-term survival of every sport. Their initial goal was $20 million, and luckily, they surpassed it, raising more than enough to launch the revival of the Green Wave.

Over the next three years, six of the eight suspended teams were reinstated. Women’s golf and tennis returned first due to their decorated past. Over the next few years, women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis and men’s outdoor track and field rejoined the party. Unfortunately, it was a bad year to be a golfer at Tulane. Men’s golf was permanently terminated — a decision tied back to the fiscal realities of the school and Title IX compliance. 

Tulane later introduced two new women’s sports: bowling and beach volleyball in 2011. Tulane added a women’s sailing team in 2017, which helped further balance the participation between genders. 

Currently, Tulane houses 16 Division I programs, meeting the NCAA requirements with 236 female and 239 male student-athletes for a grand total of 475 athletes, a long way from the spring of 2006, when out of the 23 prospective athletes who visited Tulane, all but two joined our beloved Green Wave. 

Title IX doesn’t actually mandate a 50-50 ratio of male to female athletes; universities just have to show that their athletic opportunities reflect the gender ratio of their undergraduate population. 

Realistically, trying to establish new sports at the Division I level is a tall order. The process requires a proposal, administrative approval, funding for facilities, scheduling logistics and recruiting coaches and athletes. An expansion like this can also cost millions of dollars. 

Instead of focusing on expanding, Tulane decided to focus on improving what it already had. Recent investments include a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility, renovations to the James W. Wilson Center Atrium and the construction of a new sailing center.

Tulane’s athletic department has been more consistently experiencing success, including the football team’s historic Cotton Bowl win, multiple conference championships for the baseball team and growing fame in sailing and women’s golf. 

Regardless of the challenges of starting a new program or reinstating a past one, it’s hard not to imagine the possibilities that Tulane’s athletic prowess can achieve, especially with a student population that lures many of its students from regions like New York, California and New Jersey, where sports like lacrosse, field hockey and rowing thrive. 

Katrina may have forced the Green Wave to dig deep, but 20 years later, our university’s athletic identity has become a measure of our community’s resilience, evidence that even in the face of extreme adversity, Tulane’s collective strength can endure.