The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- November 8, 1999

The NCAA Century Series -- Part I: 1900-39

Championships program missing at NCAA's birth

While the NCAA is now well-known for its championships, that was not always the case.

In fact, the Association had no championships of its own until 1921, when the first National Collegiate Track and Field Championships were held at the University of Chicago, with 45 institutions participating.

In the early years, the NCAA concerned itself with the rules of football, basketball, track and field, and soccer, holding no championships but simply trying to acquire national rules-making authority for those college sports.

Then the NCAA expanded its existing sports committees between 1911 and 1918, adding rules and records for soccer, swimming and water sports, wrestling and volleyball.

The rules committees also took on the task of publishing the rules and promoting them to all interested parties.

But as the NCAA added the rules-making functions for more sports besides football, the Association became more involved in the actual playing of the games, making NCAA championships a natural next step.

As the NCAA's authority in rules-making increased, so did its national nature, making it a logical choice as the administrator of national championships.

After the track and field championships in 1921, the Association added championships in swimming, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics, cross country and golf -- all for men, since the Association still dealt exclusively in men's athletics.

In 1939, the NCAA added men's basketball, giving the Association a total of eight championships.

-- Kay Hawes