Tennessee State to Become First-Ever HBCU With Ice Hockey Team

The Nashville-based university is partnering with the NHL and the Predators in creating the program.

Tennessee State announced Wednesday that it will become the first historically black college and university to introduce an ice hockey program.

The news comes as TSU had previously established a relationship with the NHL’s Predators, which share a home with TSU in Nashville. Now, the program will include a partnership with College Hockey Inc., the NHL and the Predators.

College Hockey Inc., in collaboration with the NHL and the NHL players’ association, ran a feasibility study to gauge whether the university was a good fit for a men’s or women’s hockey program. The study dives into the financial impact of creating a hockey program, whether the school can manage adding scholarships internally, the costs of adding a coaching staff and support staff for the new team, as well as a conference evaluation to find out whether a team has a reasonable course of action to join a hockey conference.

TSU joins a recent movement among HBCUs adding additional programs to their athletic departments beyond the traditional football, men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s track and field programs. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that it reached out to 46 Division I and D-II HBCUs and five conference offices about adding new programs.

Of the 46, 20 programs revealed that they had added at least 42 NCAA championship or emerging sports since 2016. From the 42 sports in the seven-year window, 32 of them have been established since ’20, according to the AP.

Last year, Fisk University—also based in Nashville—became the first HBCU to provide women’s gymnastics. In 2023–24, Morgan State is set to become the first HBCU to offer Division I men’s wresting.