 Louisiana Tech fields 16 varsity NCAA Division I sports teams (7 men's, 9 women's teams) and is a member of Conference USA of the Football Bowl Subdivision.The university is known for its Bulldogs football team and Lady Techsters women's basketball program which won three national championship titles (1981, 1982, 1988) and made 13 Final Four appearances in the program's history.Ruston College, a forerunner to Louisiana Tech, was established in the middle 1880s by W. C. Friley, a Southern Baptist pastor.