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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.
October, 2002 Harvard beats Cornell in the first YES Network broadcast of Ivy League sports. The network has had an Ivy League broadcast agreement each year since.
2004 The Ivy League produces the largest and most complete compilation of athletes from the eight schools who have competed in the Olympic Games. The celebration of the Athens Games that summer would later spin off a book — Ivies In Athens — written by summer intern Jay Bavishi.
2005 The Ivy League and SIRIUS Satellite Radio announce a three-year agreement for an Ivy Game of the Week broadcast package for football and basketball.
2006-07 The Ivy League celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the formal agreement with a year-long online feature known as Ivy@50. There were nearly 200 features written about former athletes, the likes of Bill Bradley, Ken Dryden, Calvin Hill, Allison Feaster, Meredith Rainey, Steve Jordan, Marcellus Wiley, Chick Igaya, Reggie Williams and Christina Teuscher. Stephen Eschenbach served as the primary writer for the ground-breaking series.
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