Ivy League®

What is the Ivy League®?

Ivy League®

Data
Established	1954
Members	8
Continent	North America
Country	United States
University type	Private
Other names	Ancient Eight

Sponsoring conference championships in 33 men's and women's sports, and averaging more than 35 varsity teams at each school, the Ivy League provides intercollegiate athletic opportunities for more men and women than any other conference in the country. All eight Ivy schools are among the "top 20" of NCAA Division I schools in number of sports offered for both men and women.

The most diverse intercollegiate competition in the country for both men and women is also among the best. In recent years, the Ivy League has been synonymous with national excellence in men's and women's soccer, lacrosse, rowing, fencing and squash, and individual Ivy athletes have regularly excelled as well in football, track and field, wrestling and swimming. Ivy teams have enjoyed significant success in the opening rounds of the NCAA Division I basketball championships.

This successful competition in Division I national athletics is achieved by approaching athletics as a key part of the student's regular undergraduate experience: with rigorous academic standards, the nation's highest four-year graduation rates (the same as those for non-athletes), and without athletics scholarships. Ivy athletic programs receive multi-million-dollar institutional support as part of each institution’s overall academic programs, independent of win-loss or competitive records and together with extensive programs of intramural and recreational athletics.

Members

All of the schools in the Ivy League are private and not currently associated with any religion.

Institution	Location	Founding religious affiliation	Full-time enrollment	Founded
Brown University	Providence, Rhode Island	Baptist (Sabbatarian)	7,595	1764 as College of Rhode Island
Columbia University	New York, New York	Anglican	23,813	1754 as King's College
Cornell University	Ithaca, New York	Nonsectarian	20,299	1865
Dartmouth College	Hanover, New Hampshire	Puritan (Congregationalist)	5,744	1769
Harvard University	Cambridge, Massachusetts	Puritan (Congregationalist); sided with the Unitarians in their 1825 split from Congregationalists	19,779	1636, named Harvard College in 1638
Princeton University	Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, New Jersey	Presbyterian	6,831	1746 as College of New Jersey
University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Nonsectarian	23,305	1749, named the Academy of Philadelphia in 1749
Yale University	New Haven, Connecticut	Puritan (Congregationalist)	11,359	1701 as Collegiate School

Shields and mottos

Brown In deo speramus ("In God we hope")	Columbia In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen ("In Thy light shall we see light")	Cornell "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study"	Dartmouth Vox clamantis in deserto ("A voice crying in the wilderness")
Harvard Veritas ("Truth")	Penn Leges sine moribus vanae ("Laws without morals are useless")	Princeton Dei sub numine viget ("Under God's power she flourishes")	Yale Lux et veritas ("Light and truth")

History

Timeline

October, 1933 - Stanley Woodward of the New York Herald Tribune first uses the phrase "Ivy colleges" in print to describe the eight current Ivy schools (plus Army). On February 8, 1935, AP Sports editor Alan Gould first uses the exact term "Ivy League". [From Mark Bernstein, Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession, University of Pennsylvania, 2001]

1945 - The first "Ivy Group Agreement" is signed, applying only to football. It affirms the observance of common practices in academic standards and eligibility requirements and the administration of need-based financial aid, with no athletic scholarships. The agreement creates the Presidents Policy Committee, including the eight Presidents; the Coordination and Eligibility Committee, made up of one senior non-athletic administrator from each school; and the committee on Administration, comprised of the eight directors of athletics.

February, 1954 - The Ivy Presidents extend the Ivy Group Agreement to all intercollegiate sports. Their statement also focuses on presidential governance of the league, the importance of intra-League competition, and a desire that recruited athletes be academically "representative" of each institution’s overall student body. Although this is the League’s official founding date, the first year of competition is 1956-57.

December, 1969 - Clayton Chapman, Assistant Athletic Director at Cornell, becomes Executive Secretary of the Council, providing its first staff assistance.

March, 1971 - The Ivy League becomes the last conference in the country to endorse the national change to freshman eligibility on varsity teams. Although the Ivy Presidents do not permit the change in all team sports, by 1980 the change is complete in all team sports except in football and men’s rowing.

December, 1971 - With women now enrolled as undergraduates at all eight Ivy institutions, the Presidents unanimously approve the proposal of the Coordination and Administration Committees that "The Ivy Group rules of eligibility shall not be construed to discriminate on grounds of sex."

July, 1973 - The Presidents agree to appoint a full-time coordinator for the Ivy Group, and in December Ricardo Mestres, a Vice President at Princeton, attends his first Presidents meeting as the Ivy Group’s permanent Executive Director.

May, 1974 - The Ivy Group officially begins League championships in women’s sports, as the Radcliffe-Harvard women crew wins the first official women’s Ivy championship.

March, 1976 - James Litvack, a Princeton faculty member, becomes the second Executive Director. A joint committee is formed to make specific recommendations for applying rules equitably to both men and women, and to consider rules for the number of contests, length of seasons, etc., in women’s sports.

February, 1977 - The Ivy Presidents approve a 10th game for football, previously limited to nine games.

August, 1977 - The Ivy Presidents adopt the name Council of Ivy Group Presidents, and the Coordination and Eligibility Committee becomes the Policy Committee.

June, 1979 - On the 25th anniversary of the 1954 Agreement, the Council of Presidents issues a 10-point Statement of Principles, reaffirming basic goals with regard to admissions, financial aid, and the role of athletics in the undergraduate educational experience.

May, 1980 - On recommendations of the Athletic Directors and Policy Committee, the Council of Presidents unanimously adopts the "Parry-Ryan" report, a comprehensive approach to assuring that the scope of scheduling, competition and practice opportunities will be consistent with athletes’ academic priorities. This basic structure remains in effect today.

Fall/Winter, 1981 - Marking the 25th anniversary of the first Ivy season, sportswriters covering the League select all-time Silver Anniversary Football and Men’s Basketball teams.

December, 1981 - A special NCAA convention creates a "I-AA" football division and Ivy League members begin play in that division the following September.

September, 1984 - Jeffrey Orleans, a Yale graduate and lawyer and author of the federal Title IX regulation, is appointed the third Executive Director of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. He is authorized to hire other professional staff creating an "Ivy Office" to more effectively coordinate and serve institutional’ activities, represent the League nationally, and engage in League-wide sports information and championship administration.

June, 1985 - The Council formally adopts a structure, which remains in effect currently, for monitoring the academic qualifications of recruited athletes.

July, 1986 - Constance Huston Hurlbut becomes the League’s first Assistant Director, assuming responsibility for Ivy League sports publicity from the institutional sports information offices. In 1993, Hurlbut becomes Executive Director of the Patriot League.

June, 1989 - The Council approves a third professional position, dividing the functions of rules compliance and sports information; Charles Yrigoyen III becomes Assistant Director for public information.

June and December, 1991 - Coincident with reducing the permitted number of recruited football players, the Council agrees to freshman eligibility in football and to 12 sessions of spring practice for football rather than one spring "media day."

April, 1993 - The Ivy League receives its first automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball championship, for 1994. In the next few years the Ivy League will become the only conference to attain automatic bids in every women’s sport.

July, 1993 - Carolyn Campbell McGovern succeeds Connie Hurlbut as Senior Associate Director. While extending and formalizing Ivy rules compliance activities, and assisting the eight Ivy institutions through the first NCAA "certification" reviews, she also will chair both the Olympic Sports and Women’s Ice Hockey Committees of the NCAA.

June, 1994 - The Council of Presidents approves the appointment of a Senior Women’s Athletic Administrator to the Policy Committee, a position complementing the long-standing representation of a Director of Athletics.

August, 1996 - Associate Director Chuck Yrigoyen oversees the inauguaration of the Ivy League website (www.IvyLeagueSports.com), and begins the League’s transition to electronically-focused sports information.

May, 1998-April, 1999 - The Ivy League holds a year-long celebration of the 25th Anniversary of Ivy League Women’s Championships, including events at each campus, a traveling photo-history mural, timeline exhibit, selection of the women’s Silver Anniversary Team in all sports and a two-day symposium in April 1999, in New York City with 300 alumnae and other participants. The League’s Silver Anniversary is remembered in print with the November, 1999 publication of Silver Era, Golden Moments, an authoritative 200-page narrative and photographic history.

July, 2000 - The Council approves a fourth professional position to provide for the first time a focus on championships, officiating, scheduling, and other aspects of sport administration. Brett A. Hoover becomes the new Assistant Director for Public Information, focusing on web-based communication with the media and all Ivy constituencies.

September, 2002 - The Ivy League redesigned website draws more than one million visitors in its first full year.

Athletic logos

Brown Bears	Columbia Lions	Cornell Big Red	Dartmouth Big Green
Harvard Crimson	Penn Quakers	Princeton Tigers	Yale Bulldogs

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