The New Mexico Lobos are the athletic

College athletics

College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...

 teams representing the University of New Mexico

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...

. The university's athletic program fields teams in 19 varsity sports. The Lobos participate in the NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 Division I and is a charter member of the Mountain West Conference

Mountain West Conference

The Mountain West Conference , popularly known as the Mountain West, is the youngest of the college athletic conferences affiliated with the NCAA’s Division I FBS . The MWC officially began operations in July 1999...

 (MWC). The men's soccer program is the only varsity team that does not compete in the MWC, but instead participates in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation is a college athletic conference whose member teams are located in the western United States. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I level.-History:...

(MPSF).

History

The "Lobo" nickname goes back many years. They varsity athletic teams were originally referred to as "The University Boys" or "Varsities". During 1920 the student newspaper UNM Weekly editor George S. Bryan came up with the name Lobo, which is the Spanish word for wolf.