Aztecas
Encyclopedia
Aztecas de la UDLAP is the name which receive the representative teams of the Mexican University, the Universidad de las Américas Puebla
Fundación Universidad de las Américas, Puebla
Universidad de las Américas Puebla , is a private university in Mexico. It is located in San Andrés Cholula, Puebla, a suburb of Puebla. The university is known for its programs in Arts and Humanities, Social sciences, Science and Engineering, and Business and Economics...

 (UDLAP) of which the most important and famous is a collegiate American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 squad. They used to play in the ONEFA (College American Football League), but now they play in the CONADEIP premier league.

History

In 1947 the team began its life as the American football squad of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 College with the nickname los Aztecas. That same year the squad was admitted into the most important American football conference in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 , Liga Mayor. In this conferece the team plays against teams with long traditions such as the Pumas Dorados de la UNAM
Pumas Dorados de la UNAM
Also known as "Pumas CU", "Pumas", or "Universidad" is the varsity American football team representing the National Autonomous University of Mexico . Is one of the most important and oldest teams in Mexico...

, Águilas Blancas
Águilas Blancas
Águilas Blancas de la ESCA-ESIQIE , also known as Politécnico or simply Águilas Blancas, is a Mexican college football team representing the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City, Mexico. The Águilas Blancas participate in the Central Conference as part of the National Student Organization...

 of the National Polytechnic Institute
National Polytechnic Institute
The National Polytechnic Institute colloquially known as the Polytechnic is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 153.027 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels...

 (IPN
IPN
IPN may refer to:* Intuit PaymentNetwork* Independent Practitioners Network* Infectious pancreatic necrosis, disease in fishes* Instant Private Network, type of VPN...

), Team Education, YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

 and the Military College.

Luis Dias, a brilliant player from UCLA, was named the first coach of the first Aztecas. Next to him, 2 ex-players from the Rose Bowl were added to the staff: Mary Schinitzer as a linemen coach and Len McVicar as backfield coach. That year they reached great levels of excellence, and that year they were called: The Green wave of Mexico City College.

En 1949, the Aztecas recruited great players suchs as Alex Esquivel from Texas. On October 18, 1949, "the Green Wave" had a match against the leader team, the Pumas Dorados de la UNAM
Pumas Dorados de la UNAM
Also known as "Pumas CU", "Pumas", or "Universidad" is the varsity American football team representing the National Autonomous University of Mexico . Is one of the most important and oldest teams in Mexico...

. That game was called "The game of the century". In 1949, The Aztecas won their first championship during the "old" Mexican American Football age.

The team then vanished for years until it re-apperead in 1979. During that year the team was restarted by some players who wanted to have a team for the University of the Americas - Puebla. Coach Leonardo Luján Castañón and Coach Leonardo Corror Ferrer took the lead and guided the team thru these difficult times.
In 1986 the squad entered the ONEFA, but it was not until 1991 that the championship of the Minor Conferece (Conferencia Nacional) was reached and the team ascended to the Major Category (Conferecia Metropolitana).

Since 1994 the team has achieved three sub-championships: in 1994, 1998 and 1999, then came the golden age with three championships in '95, '96 and '97. The 1995 season ended with the Aztecas' deafet of the Cóndores de la UNAM (Pumas Dorados de la UNAM
Pumas Dorados de la UNAM
Also known as "Pumas CU", "Pumas", or "Universidad" is the varsity American football team representing the National Autonomous University of Mexico . Is one of the most important and oldest teams in Mexico...

) with score of 43-13. In 1996 the final match was took place in Monterrey where the Aztecas defeated home team Borregos Salvajes
Borregos Salvajes
The Borregos Salvajes is the name of all the sports teams that represent the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in various sports, such as: basketball, volleyball, football and soccer for both men's and women's teams.-American football:The Tec de Monterrey teams are best known...

 6-3 in what was a heavily defensive match. The 1997 championship again pitted las Aztecas against, this time as at home, against the Borregos Salvajes who they again defeated with a score of 21–11.

The team was put in danger at the beginning of 2004 due to a decision of the university board of directors, but with a great effort of the university community, players, coaches and mass media the team achieves the chance to dispute the 2005 season. The team has now, however, returned to normal play.

Starting in 2010, the team is now competing in a new league, the CONADEIP premier league. In the first season, Aztecas UDLAP were crowned the champions after 13 years without winning a national championship. In the final game, they defeated their rivals, the Borregos Salvajes
Borregos Salvajes
The Borregos Salvajes is the name of all the sports teams that represent the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in various sports, such as: basketball, volleyball, football and soccer for both men's and women's teams.-American football:The Tec de Monterrey teams are best known...

 17-10.

National Championships

The Squad has won 5 National Championships in their history. The first one was in 1949, in the antecedent of the UDLAP, the Mexico City College. After the name and location change, the Aztecas took a lot of time to won another championship. It wasn't until 1995 that the Aztecas won the National Championship of the ONEFA, a feat that they were able to repeat in the next two years (1996 and 1007. On the next years, they reached several times the final game. However they were always defeated in various legendary matches against their most known rivals, the Borregos Salvajes
Borregos Salvajes
The Borregos Salvajes is the name of all the sports teams that represent the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in various sports, such as: basketball, volleyball, football and soccer for both men's and women's teams.-American football:The Tec de Monterrey teams are best known...

. It took 14 years for the university to win their last National Championship, in 2010. This happened in a new conference, the Premier Conference of the CONADEIP.
Aztecas Football National Championships
Year Head Coach
1949 Dave Engman
1995 Leonardo Luján Castañón
1996 Leonardo Luján Castañón
1997 Leonardo Luján Castañón
2010 Eric Fischer

Basketball

One of the most classical teams is the basketball team, which was already popular before the football team was installed. They had won several national championships. Their local games are played in the gymnasium "Morris 'Moe' Williams", located inside the university. The most known rivalry is against the Águilas de la UPAEP, another private school in Puebla city.

Other sports

The UDLAP has a reputation of being a top University in the College Sports Competitions. Many of their teams have won national championships. This is partly due to being of the few universities in Mexico to grant scholarships to outstanding students. The university has placed several times in second place in the CONADEIP ranking of private universities in Mexico.

Current school teams with participation in national tournaments include:
  • Football
    American football
    American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

  • Basketball
    Basketball
    Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

  • Soccer
  • Indoor Soccer
    Indoor soccer
    Indoor soccer or arena soccer, or six-a-side football in the United Kingdom, is a game derived from association football adapted for play in an indoor arena such as a turf-covered hockey arena or skating rink. The most important difference in play is that the indoor field is surrounded by a wall...

  • Rugby union
    Rugby union
    Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

  • Tennis
    Tennis
    Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

  • Swimming
    Swimming (sport)
    Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

  • Volleyball
    Volleyball
    Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

  • Baseball
    Baseball
    Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

  • Softball
    Softball
    Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

  • Track & Field
  • Tae Kwon Do
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