At the University of Chicago, the ideal of the well-rounded student-athlete is consistent with the highest levels of athletics and academic success. Throughout the University's history, its student-athletes and teams have met that unique challenge, demonstrating that academic and athletic excellence can complement each other. Athletics has served a vital role on campus throughout the institution’s history.
Amos Alonzo Stagg and the Big Ten Era
The roots of the UChicago athletics department date back to the pre-existing relationship between the University’s first president, William Rainey Harper, and Amos Alonzo Stagg. Harper served as Stagg’s divinity professor at Yale University, where Stagg excelled in his collegiate playing days on the football gridiron. He was selected to the first-ever All-America team as an end in 1889.
Harper named Stagg as UChicago’s first head football coach and director of the Department of Physical Culture. Stagg would remain in that post for 41 years until his retirement in 1932. In addition to his football duties, Stagg coached track for 32 years, baseball for 19 years, and basketball for one season.
The football team made its varsity debut in 1892 and played as an independent for four seasons. The Maroons officially joined the Western Conference – which later became known as the Big Ten Conference – starting with the 1896 football season.
Under Stagg's guidance, UChicago emerged as one of the nation's most formidable football powers during the first quarter of the 20th century. He compiled a record of 227-112-26 and led the Maroons to seven Big Ten Conference championships. The team claimed national titles in both 1905 and 1913.
Considered one of the great innovators in the development of college football, Stagg’s credited innovations include the tackling dummy, the huddle, the reverse and man in motion plays, the lateral pass, uniform numbers, and awarding varsity letters.
The Maroons competed in the Big Ten in baseball, men’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s fencing, football, men’s golf, men’s gymnastics, men’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, men’s track & field and wrestling.
The UChicago men’s gymnastics team claimed a national team title in the 1937-38 academic year. On the conference level, the Maroons totaled 73 Big Ten team titles, which included 20 in tennis, 15 in gymnastics, 8 in fencing, 7 in football, 6 in basketball, 6 in track & field, 5 in baseball, 3 in golf, and 3 in swimming & diving.
Track & field stood out in the first few decades of the 1900s as well by producing multiple Olympians, including six-time Olympic medalist James Lightbody.
Maroon football’s decline in on-field performance started in the mid-1920s and continued up through 1939. It was that year when UChicago President Robert Maynard Hutchins made the decision to abolish the football program, based on his negative views of big-time college football’s excesses and associated problems of the time.
The unoccupied Stagg Field was later the site of the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction in 1942, which was conducted by physicist Enrico Fermi as part of the Manhattan Project experiments. The site of the demolished stadium is now occupied by the Mansueto Library.
UChicago would eventually withdraw its membership in the Big Ten across all sports in the summer of 1946. After a 30-year hiatus, the Maroon football team was resurrected back to varsity status starting in the fall of 1969.
Jay Berwanger and the Heisman Trophy
UChicago all-around football great Jay Berwanger was notified in November 1935 that he had won a trophy for being the "most valuable football player east of the Mississippi." The prize, then known as the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, was renamed the Heisman Trophy the following year. Renowned for his versatility, Berwanger played nearly every position on offense and defense, while primarily starring at halfback. During the 1935 campaign, he rushed for 577 yards, passed for 405, returned kickoffs for 359, scored six touchdowns, and added five PATs. He went on to become the No. 1 pick in the inaugural NFL draft, but declined the opportunity to play professional football.
Berwanger’s original Heisman Trophy was donated to the University and currently resides as the centerpiece of the Ratner Athletics Center awards rotunda.
Gertrude Dudley and Women’s Sports
Women’s athletic activity was a staple in the early years of the institution. Gertrude Dudley became the leader of a movement towards expanding athletic and competitive opportunities for women at UChicago. Dudley was hired as Director of Physical Culture for Women in 1898, serving alongside her counterpart Stagg on the men’s side. She remained in that capacity through 1935 and helped facilitate the rise of women’s sports.
Dudley was an undergraduate student at Mount Holyoke, one of the early vanguard schools who established athletic activity for women. She brought her vision and traditions of the eastern schools to the Hyde Park campus. Dudley’s innovations during her tenure were consistently supported throughout the university community and garnered high enthusiasm from the student body. She believed that physical education was essential to the betterment of the student’s intellect and comportment. She also saw the need for group competitive activity as a necessity especially given the change in the responsibilities of women in society. Her book, Athletic Games in the Education of Women, defended the idea that the skills learned through teamwork and regulated sport cultivate superior women in the home, in the workplace, and in themselves while shaping self-control and self-reliance.
On a national scale, gymnastics was the prevailing activity that was emphasized at colleges and universities at the beginning of Dudley’s tenure. But she moved away from the stylized Swedish and German gymnastics training that was popular at the time and introduced interclass competition. Under her leadership, competitive intramural basketball, field hockey, baseball and tennis quickly became popular women's sports. Dudley started an Annual Field Day for University women, which featured competition in various team and individual sports.
The class games soon became a staple. Students could choose basketball, baseball, field hockey, and swimming, and would compete class against class, with tournaments at the end of the quarter. The enthusiasm and demand on campus among the women climbed throughout the early 1900s. Offerings expanded to include tennis, gymnastics, rowing, fencing, lawn hockey and golf. The establishment of the Women’s Athletic Association in 1904 helped organize, codify and advance the cause of women’s sports in the decades to follow. That opening year featured the beginning of the annual WAA Awards Banquet, which included more than 450 guests in attendance.
The opening of Ida Noyes Hall in 1916 was a critical development. With its gymnasium and swimming pool, Ida Noyes served for decades as the headquarters for women’s athletic activities and recreational affairs. In the 1920s and 1930s, intramural participation continued along with the development of specialty clubs (Tarpon-swimming, 300 Club-bowling, Pegasus-equestrian, Artemis-archery, Racket-tennis and an Outing Club).
Women's intercollegiate competition in the 1930s and 1940s was conducted during Play Days. Schools from the Midwest would gather at one site and teams were formed with representatives from different schools. This allowed a higher level of competition without the "danger" of too much emphasis on winning. Telegraphic competition was held in swimming and archery. Individuals would compete at their home institution and the results were compiled at a neutral site to determine place finishes.
Intramural and club competition continued in the 1950s and 1960s with some very limited intercollegiate competition against teams from colleges, high schools and the Naval Wave training base at Navy Pier. Competition was conducted in basketball, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball.
In the late 1960s, regular intercollegiate competition began to develop for women under the leadership of Mary Jean Mulvaney and Patricia Kirby. Mulvaney came to the University in 1966 as chair of the Department of Physical Education – Women's Division. In 1976, she became chair of a consolidated men's and women's athletic department, thus becoming one of the nation's first female athletic directors of a coeducational department. She served in that role through her retirement in 1990. Mulvaney was also a critical contributor to the formation of the University Athletic Association (UAA) in the 1980s. Kirby served the University from 1967-90 – she coached badminton, basketball, softball, and volleyball, while also filling the role of Associate Chairman of Physical Education and Athletics. She led the Chicago softball team to state championships in 1977 and 1978, and in 1974 coached the nation's first-ever college women's basketball team to fly to an away game.
In 1972, UChicago offered a full-tuition athletic scholarship for women athletes, appropriately named the Gertrude Dudley Scholarship. It was the very first athletic scholarship to be offered to women in the country. The overwhelming response of more than 1,000 applications convinced UChicago to offer two scholarships per year.
The women began competing in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in 1974, which became the largest collegiate sport regulatory organization in the country with over 900 member schools. The Maroon varsity women would eventually join the men in NCAA Division III starting in 1982.
The Order of the “C” and the Women’s Athletic Association
Under the umbrella of Athletics & Recreation are organizations for men and women varsity letter winners. Together, these groups are service organizations that create and provide student programming and support for the varsity athletic teams and University community through a variety of events during the academic year.
The undergraduate Order of the "C" (OOC) is the body of varsity lettermen whose object is to support the cause of athletics at the University. This association works together to "keep the memory of the University athletic life and ... shall perpetuate the athletic honor and traditions of our University." All undergraduate University men who have been awarded the right to wear the "C" are eligible for membership in this organization. They become members in full standing upon signing the roll of membership at the annual meeting.
The purpose of the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) is to "encourage close relationships between the women athletes of the University of Chicago in order that they may work together as a body to promote women’s athletics." It was created in 1904 during Gertrude Dudley’s tenure as the Director of Physical Culture for Women. As opportunities for women in sports changed and grew, the organization evolved from one that promoted intramural opportunities to the letterwinner's organization for varsity women.
Membership in the WAA is open to those women currently enrolled at the University of Chicago who have earned a Major "C" or Minor "C" or who are presently participating in a varsity sport.
The “C” Logo
The first football team in 1892 sported no recognizable emblem on its uniforms. In an effort to provide the team with an identity, the letters "UC" were cut out of brown paper and pasted on the players' uniforms.
In the spring of 1893, the emblem was modified into the form of a monogram that the baseball team incorporated on its uniforms. A single letter was used for the first time in 1894 when the football and track squads displayed an oblong "C" on their uniforms. That emblem remained in existence until 1897 when it was replaced by a "C" in large, round type.
Then in 1898, Maroon teams adopted the wishbone Chicago "C" emblem, which has been worn to the present day. The emblem has been adopted and modified by a plethora of other schools and professional sports teams, including the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Reds.
In 2016, the traditional maroon wishbone "C" received a black outline around the perimeter, with a white outline "C" variant for different colored backgrounds.
Maroon, Maroons & the Phoenix
Maroon and Maroons became the University of Chicago's official color and nickname, respectively, at a meeting of students and faculty on May 5, 1894.
Before the University held its first classes on October 1, 1892, the Board of Trustees had selected goldenrod (yellow) as the school's official color. By 1894, however, Stagg believed that a change was necessary.
"The yellow ran, soiled easily, and had a regrettable symbolism which our opponents might not be above commenting upon," said Stagg in his autobiography, Touchdown!
Because maroon was not already in use by any major school in the Midwest, Stagg and his associate J.E. Raycroft brought a selection of maroon shades to the 1894 meeting of students and faculty. From those ribbons, a choice was made, and the baseball team appeared in that color during its final games of the 1894 season.
On July 21, 1894, the first mention of a UChicago athletic team as Maroons appeared in the Chicago Tribune in an article about the baseball team.
While Maroons is the official nickname of the UChicago's sports teams, the Phoenix – which is featured as part of the University's shield – serves as the school's mascot. The University of Chicago Board of Trustees adopted the shield in 1910. "Phil the Phoenix" can usually be found pumping up the crowd at football games, basketball games and other special events.
NCAA Division III
UChicago has competed within NCAA Division III since its inception in 1973. Division III is the largest division in terms of number of institutions and number of participants in the NCAA, with more than 195,000 students at 446 institutions representing 44 conferences. NCAA Division III schools do not award athletic scholarships.
Colleges and universities in Division III place the highest priority on the overall quality of the educational experience and on the successful completion of all students’ academic programs. They seek to establish and maintain an environment in which a student-athlete’s athletic activities are conducted as an integral part of the student-athlete’s educational experience, and an environment that values cultural diversity and gender equity among their student-athletes and athletics staff.
The Creation of the University Athletic Association
During the 1980s, several small to medium-sized research universities began to examine the direction of their athletics programs as well as the relationship of athletics to the whole of their respective institutions. As these administrators informally discussed these issues with other schools, they found common ground and started exploring the possibility of a formal association for athletics. After several years of discussions and development, the University Athletic Association (UAA) was officially formed on June 25, 1986. The UAA applied for and was granted voting membership in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in fall 1987. The launch of full competition occurred in the 1987-88 academic year.
The eight current members of the UAA include: Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western Reserve University, Emory University, New York University, University of Rochester, Washington University in St. Louis, and UChicago. (Founding UAA member Johns Hopkins University departed the conference in 2001.)
The UAA member schools share the belief that the success of intercollegiate athletics is wholly dependent upon institutional integrity and the ability of institutions to complete the full integration of athletics into the academic fabric of higher education. The UAA has served as a bold statement of what college athletics can and should be – that it is highly desirable and possible for a group of committed institutions to conduct a broad-based program of intercollegiate athletics for men and women; to compete with like academic institutions spread over geographically expansive areas; and to seek excellence in athletics while maintaining a perspective which holds the student-athlete and the academic mission of the institution as the center of focus.
Academic enterprise is the primary element. Student-athletes are just that – students first and athletes second. The second set of assumptions has to do with athletic excellence. Athletic excellence is not to be confused with a win-at-all-costs attitude. It properly relates to the caliber of experience offered to students who participate in intercollegiate athletics. Athletic teams should have the benefit of qualified coaching – capable individuals chosen for professional competence and commitment to putting the welfare of the student first. They should play and practice in first-rate facilities at reasonable times. Their equipment should be safe, of high quality, and conducive to the best performance possible. A consistent and challenging level of athletic competition should be provided to both women and men.
The final assumptions concern what might be termed a proper athletic emphasis. Athletic programs are extracurricular activities conducted for students and should be given consideration similar to that accorded other such institutionally sponsored activities. They should not only complement the academic experience, but should also reflect the quality of the academic environment within which they exist.
The UAA sponsors competition in 23 sports – 12 sports for men and 11 sports for women – including football, soccer, cross country, volleyball, basketball, fencing, wrestling, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, baseball, softball, outdoor track and field, tennis, and golf.
UChicago During the UAA Era
UChicago currently sponsors 20 intercollegiate sports (10 men, 10 women). The sports include: baseball (M), basketball (M/W), cross country (M/W), football (M), lacrosse (W), soccer (M/W), softball (W), swimming & diving (M/W), tennis (M/W), indoor track & field (M/W), outdoor track & field (M/W), volleyball (W) and wrestling (M). Women’s lacrosse is the school’s newest varsity sport, making its on-field debut in 2019.
Since joining the UAA, UChicago teams have captured 68 conference championships, made 117 NCAA tournament appearances, and posted 22 national top-four finishes. Nine sports have participated at the NCAA Tournament at least eight times; women’s soccer leads the way with 20 postseason selections.
The Maroon men's tennis team made history in 2022 by winning the school's first NCAA Division III team championship. UChicago defeated Case Western Reserve University 5-2.
The 22 national top-four finishes include 5 by women’s soccer, 5 by men’s tennis, 5 by women’s tennis, 4 by men’s soccer, 2 by women’s cross country and 1 by indoor women’s track & field.
Dating back to 1986, the Maroons have claimed 26 NCAA Division III championships in individual competition and seven national player of the year selections in their respective sports.
The Learfield Directors' Cup is a program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, achieving success in many sports, both men's and women's. Began in 1993-94 for Division I by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today, it was expanded in 1995-96 to include Division II, III and the NAIA. The points system is based on each institution's postseason finish in up to 18 sports.
UChicago has emerged as a national power across the board in the annual Learfield Directors’ Cup rankings. The Maroons finished in the top 20 for six-straight years (2014-19), and recorded a school-best 7th-place showing during the 2021-22 academic year.
Conference Affiliations
UChicago departed the Big Ten in the spring of 1946. Men’s sports then competed in the NCAA College Division until 1973, when UChicago became a member of the newly-created NCAA Division III.
Women’s sports began competing in the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in 1974. The Maroon varsity women would eventually join the men in NCAA Division III starting in 1982.
The Maroons spent 10 years in the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference (later known as the Midwest Conference) from 1976-86.
UChicago then became a charter member of the University Athletic Association in 1986, with official competition starting with the 1987-88 academic year.
Football was briefly an affiliate member of the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) for the 2015 and 2016 seasons before rejoining the Midwest Conference (MWC) as an affiliate member in 2017.
Baseball joined the Midwest Conference (MWC) as well as an affiliate member starting with the spring 2019 season.
Women’s lacrosse joined the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) as an associate member in its debut season of 2019.
Softball currently competes as an independent (no conference affiliation).
Facilities
UChicago Athletics & Recreation has cycled through multiple buildings and sites on campus over the past 130 years.
Stagg Field served as a hub at the beginning of the athletic programs in the 1890s. The men’s gymnasium and swimming pool opened at Bartlett Hall in 1904. Ida Noyes Hall opened its women’s gymnasium and swimming pool in 1916.
Henry Crown Field House was erected in 1932 as a single-story building. It originally served as an indoor practice facility with a dirt infield that was utilized for football and baseball practices. A track encircled the infield and a raised wood floor was used for basketball. In the late 1970s, the second floor was added on to the building and served as the main site of competition for indoor varsity teams.
Henry Crown Field House primarily serves as a campus recreation center for students, staff and community members. The varsity indoor track and field teams host meets on the second floor during the winter sports season, the varsity wrestling practice room is located on the first floor, and the building is also a base for intramural and club sports programming. Many varsity teams practice in this facility during the winter (baseball, softball) or in inclement weather (football, soccer, lacrosse).
UChicago Athletics & Recreation entered a new era with the opening of the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center in the fall of 2003. Located at the southwest corner of Ellis Avenue and 55th Street, the air-conditioned, 150,000 square-foot facility features the 50-meter x 25-yard Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool; the Bernard DelGiorno Fitness Center with cardiovascular exercise equipment, selectorized weightlifting machines, and free weights; a multipurpose dance studio; competition and auxiliary gymnasia; classroom and meeting room space; permanent and day lockers and locker rooms; the UChicago Athletics Hall of Fame; and the athletic department offices.
The Ratner Athletics Center also serves as the home of the Maroon basketball, volleyball, wrestling and swimming & diving teams. The facility includes a 1,658-seat competition gymnasium and the Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool.
The outdoor athletic complex is located directly behind/west of the Ratner Athletics Center. The Stagg Field turf serves as the home field for football, soccer, lacrosse, and outdoor track & field. The Stagg Field grass is the home base for softball and soccer as well. The adjoining J. Kyle Anderson Field serves as the baseball facility. Ted Haydon Track encircles the Stagg turf field with a 400-meter track that includes eight competition lanes. The Stagg Tennis Courts feature eight regulation courts, plus two practice half courts, and are located just west of the football field bleachers.
The Campus South Athletic Field is primarily utilized as a practice space for varsity sports, as well as a hub for intramurals and club sports. The field is located at the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and 61st Street.
Intramurals & Sport Clubs
Intramurals and Sport Club programs give students opportunities to participate in sports in an organized, competitive environment. Participants in UChicago's intramural and sports programs have the opportunity to build community, develop interpersonal skills, socialize with others, and stay healthy.
UChicago Intramurals offers more than 32 intramural sports each year. Approximately 8,500 undergraduate and graduate students participate in the intramural sports program (double counting those students who participate in more than one sport).
The Sport Clubs program is comprised of groups of individuals organized to further their interest in common physical activity through instruction, recreation and/or competition. Sport Club membership must be composed solely of University of Chicago students, faculty, staff, alumni, and/or their spouses. Sport Clubs are driven by their student members and are supported and funded by the University for the benefit of these students. Approximately 1,100 people participate in 39 different sport clubs.
