NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Early in the 2025 season, E. Bronson Ingram Chair in Football Clark Lea spoke to Vanderbilt supporters during a celebration of FirstBank Stadium’s reimagined south end zone. The Commodores were unbeaten and had just scored 70 points in a game for the first time in more than 100 years. But the most meaningful history—including the most overall and SEC wins in program history—had yet to be written. And even as the now two-time SEC Coach of the Year recounted seeing misty eyes among the seniors when they entered the facility’s new locker room and saw tangible proof of a community that had their back, he urged those in attendance not to mistake a good first quarter for the final whistle.
“The challenge I have,” Lea told supporters, “Is this going to be where we stop? Or can we continue to be aggressive and reach for more. Because, honestly, I came here not for one season, not for the energy of 4-0. I came here to win a national championship. And I have belief because I have the leadership ahead of me that is clearing the path for that.”
There was much to celebrate this year across Vanderbilt’s 17 varsity sports. Commodores broke records, made memorable postseason runs, earned national attention and brought home trophies and individual awards aplenty. They erased outdated narratives about what is possible at a world-class academic institution that dares to compete—and win—in the most competitive conference. In short, Dores went where Dores have rarely dared to tread.
From the locker room to the stands to the McGugin Center and all the way to Kirkland Hall, a shared purpose and common refrain propelled them forward: You haven’t seen anything yet.
Or to borrow another phrase from Coach Lea, at Vanderbilt, the mission continues.
Teams on a Mission
Proving that the previous season’s bowl success really was just a building block, Lea’s team filled FirstBank Stadium and captured the country’s attention. In addition to winning 10 games for the first time, the Commodores also set a program record with six wins in SEC games. Rising as high as No. 9 in the AP poll for the first time since 1947, Vanderbilt played in front of six FirstBank Stadium sellouts and closed the regular season with a commanding 45-24 win at Tennessee—their first win against a ranked Vols team in 78 years.
While the Commodores made history on the gridiron, head coach Darren Ambrose’s soccer team was rewriting its record books on the pitch. Winning the SEC Tournament in a penalty-shootout thriller against LSU, the Dores became only the third SEC program to win at least four titles. They earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Elite Eight, in each case for the first time in program history.
Campus trees had scarcely shed their leaves when a pair of women’s tennis head coach Aleke Tsoubanos’ Commodores made history by playing for a national title. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Célia-Belle Mohr and Sophia Webster reached the final match of the NCAA doubles championships, earning All-America honors in the process. Those were the sixth such honors for Mohr and the second in as many seasons for sophomore Webster.
Temperatures soon dropped, but the Commodores stayed hot.
After starting a season 20-0 for the first time, the women’s basketball team kept breaking records. Shea Ralph’s team went undefeated at home in the regular season for the first time in program history, then added two more wins in Memorial Gymnasium while hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Dores won 12 SEC games, a program record, and 29 games overall, third-best ever, to earn their first Sweet 16 trip since 2009.
En route to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and the program’s first trip to the second round since 2012, Mark H. Carter and Family Men’s Basketball Head Coach Mark Byington guided his team to a program record with a 16-0 start.
Under John Williamson, bowling has long been part of the blueprint for making history at Vanderbilt. And the Commodores added another entry in his final season—while whetting the appetite for program legend and Vanderbilt Hall of Famer Josie Barnes’ ascension as head coach—by reaching the Final Four for the 11th time in 22 seasons.
Nor was it all about the record books. Sometimes it was all about the goosebumps. Who in Commodore Nation will soon forget the VandyBoys sweeping Tennessee at Hawkins Field in a series even Hollywood might reject as implausible? Head coach Tim Corbin’s team walked off the Vols three times, including a 16-inning marathon and Tommy Goodin’s grand slam.
Speaking of teams that long ago helped set the standard, Thomas F. Roush, M.D., and Family Men’s Golf Head Coach Scott Limbaugh led his Commodores back to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships for the 12th year in a row after winning the Athens Regional.
Even future Dores helped Vanderbilt teams pull off the unprecedented. Limbaugh signed the country’s top-ranked recruiting class for the second year in a row. Men’s tennis head coach Scott Brown got in on the action, inking the top-ranked class for the first time in program history. And turning momentum into sustained excellence, football signed quarterback Jared Curtis, the nation’s No. 1 recruit.
Individuals on a Mission
Astute observers might have noticed a wave building even before most students returned for the start of the fall semester, as some of their peers warmed up for a historic year.
In July, seven student-athletes were selected in the 2025 MLB Draft. It was the fifth consecutive year in which at least six VandyBoys were selected and extended the program’s NCAA-leading total to 158 draftees since 2004. Weeks earlier, track and field’s Lily Kriegel warmed up for her sophomore year by winning gold in the 5,000 meters and bronze in the 1,500 meters at the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships.
The more Vanderbilt won, the bigger the stages. And the bigger the stages, the more the rest of the country noticed that many of the most talented, charismatic and electrifying people in college sports wore black and gold.
Diego Pavia took his legend to new heights in his final collegiate season. The talismanic quarterback was Vanderbilt’s first Heisman Trophy finalist, in addition to being honored as the national player of the year by The Sporting News and others. He was also named SEC Offensive Player of the Year and took home the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
On the other end of many of Pavia’s completions, Eli Stowers earned his place as Vanderbilt’s first consensus All-American in nearly a decade and received the John Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end. For good measure, embodying Vanderbilt’s commitment to win on our terms, Stowers won the William V. Campbell Trophy, otherwise known as the “Academic Heisman,” as college football’s premier scholar-athlete.
Ambrose’s soccer success isn’t built around “Galácticos,” to borrow a phrase from Real Madrid, but there was no shortage of star power on display en route to record postseason success. Syndey Watts and Sara Wojdelko were honored as SEC Forward and Goalkeeper of the Year, respectively, while Watts and defender Hannah McLaughlin were among 15 finalists for the Hermann Trophy, college soccer’s most prestigious individual honor.
Flipping the calendar didn’t slow Vanderbilt. In February, Janie Ford became the first freshman in conference history to win the pentathlon at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships, with cross country and track and field director Althea Thomas’ program bringing home Vanderbilt’s first indoor conference title this century. She went on to earn first-team All-America honors in the event, as did teammate Marta Sivina, while Falon Spearman was a second-team All-American in the 60-meter hurdles. Proud, but not satisfied, Sivina went on to win the heptathlon title in the SEC Outdoor Championships and All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Nor was Ford the spring’s only freshman standout. Less than a week after she won her SEC championship, women’s basketball’s Aubrey Galvan brought home similarly significant conference honors when she was named SEC Freshman of the Year.
Mikayla Blakes, Galvan’s backcourt mate, knows what a strong opening act looks like, but the reigning Tamika Catchings Award winner turned in an even more remarkable encore. After scoring 1,000 career points in fewer games than any women’s basketball player in the SEC’s NCAA history, Blakes was honored as Vanderbilt’s first SEC Player of the Year in 24 years, a consensus All-American and the Anne Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year. She did it all as a first-team Academic All-American—the program’s first in 29 years. No wonder everyone from ESPN to The Athletic were spilling words about the sensational sophomore.
Fans in Memorial Gymnasium, and there were a lot of them in 2025–26, were spoiled for choice. If Blakes and the women’s team were breaking records, Tyler Tanner and the men’s team were firing up Memorial Magic of their own. A hometown product in the proud tradition of legends like Clyde Lee and Perry Wallace, Tanner earned first-team All-SEC and honorable mention AP All-America honors. No wonder tickets are already selling fast to see what Tanner will do next season.
You want competing to win without sacrificing Vanderbilt values? Like Stowers, Blakes and so many others, men’s golfer Wells Williams took on all comers on and off the course. The senior made it back-to-back SEC Men’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. Not a bad role model for young ‘uns like freshman Will Hartman, who extended the program’s streak of regional medalists to three during the NCAA Tournament run.
Good leaders put talented people in position to succeed. No wonder voters were falling over themselves to hand out hardware to Vanderbilt coaches and administrators. On top of being named the best coach in the best conference in college football for the second year in a row, Lea was honored as the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year—the first such national honor in the program’s 135-year history. He may have been first among Vanderbilt’s gridiron coaches, but he wasn’t alone on campus for very long. In women’s basketball, Ralph swept the AP, Naismith, USBWA and WBCA Coach of the Year awards.
And the athletic director who brought them to Vanderbilt? The woman who signed them to extensions? The Triple Dore who this year celebrates her 30th anniversary as a Vanderbilt student-athlete and administrator? The architect of Vandy United, Anchored for Her and a new era of excellence, Candice Storey Lee, vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletic director, was honored as Sports Business Journal’s Athletic Director of the Year and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame’s Tennessean of the Year.
Community on a Mission
As football’s six home sellouts attest, Vanderbilt athletics became one of the hottest tickets in a city that knows what it means to put on a good show. Under Byington and Ralph, men’s and women’s basketball drew ever more fans to Memorial Gymnasium, which also quickly became one of the most visited venues in NCAA women’s volleyball.
Speaking of volleyball, Wyatt Lawn transformed into the SEC’s coolest pop-up venue, first hosting volleyball’s return in an unforgettable outdoor match (and victory) against Belmont in August and later welcoming ESPN College GameDay back to campus for the first time in 17 years ahead of football’s Week 9 win against Missouri.
Thanks to the ongoing generosity and collaborative spirit of National Commodore Club members, more permanent reimagined facilities further strengthened Vandy United’s legacy as the campaign celebrated its fifth anniversary and launched its next chapter with a bold new $300 million goal. This year alone, in addition to the south end zone project at FirstBank Stadium, construction began on Hawkins Field enhancements, men’s and women’s tennis competed in new outdoor facilities at the Lummis Family Tennis Center and men’s and women’s golf dedicated the Anthony Family Golf Team House.
This spring, renderings also revealed the vision for the campaign’s new phase, including a Football Experience Center, new soccer and lacrosse stadium, additional Hawkins Field amenities and indoor facilities at the Lummis Family Tennis Center, in addition to transforming Jess Neely Drive into a community anchor and pedestrian corridor.
Alongside Vandy United’s mission, Vanderbilt launched Anchored for Her in anticipation of next year’s 50th anniversary of varsity women’s sports at the university. With an initial goal of $50 million, Anchored for Her looks to secure Vanderbilt as the premier destination for women’s sports through investment in people, facilities and other critical resources.
Now, with fall just around the corner, a new year awaits. A fresh collection of heroes will emerge to forge new memories and earn more trophies. But the mission won’t change. Because as Coach Lea noted last fall, what’s happening at Vanderbilt isn’t about one good season or unforgettable year. It’s about the mission. And the mission is winning.