National Collegiate Athletic Association

Historical Background

The beginning of intercollegiate athletics in the United States dates to the Harvard-Yale rivalry of the 19th century, which was modeled after competitions between Oxford and Cambridge in England. During these early years, students were in charge of every aspect of athletics, including coaching. One of the earliest such events was a major rowing regatta between Harvard and Yale, sponsored by the Elkins Rail Line, in which Harvard is purported to have tried to gain an advantage by using a coxswain who was not a student. In the first collegiate football game, Rutgers beat Princeton with a football team that included three freshmen who were failing algebra. Cheating and gambling were known to be rampant during the latter part of this era.

The early commercialization and popularity of these athletic competitions caused much debate among academics about the role of sports on campuses. When students requested financial support from their schools for coaching professionals and facilities, it was viewed by a good many people as an opportunity for universities to have greater influence over the sports activities of their students. However, with official support from schools and alumni, the beginning of the 20th century saw intercollegiate athletics become far more organized and competitive. Despite official support, as more and more institutions began play, schools struggled with their oversight and policing of collegiate athletics, especially in the sport of football.

One result of this growth was the development of new, aggressive styles of play that led to new types of injuries and, in some cases, deaths. In 1905 alone, there were 18 deaths and more than [Page 324]100 major injuries attributed to college football. This prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to call for a White House conference on football. The needs for safety and oversight were two of the driving concerns that prompted Henry M. MacCracken, chancellor of New York University, to convene a meeting of 13 academic institutions for the purpose of modifying, unifying, and updating football rules. Within a few weeks after this late 1905 meeting, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) was founded. Before the decade was out, the IAAUS had become the NCAA and had grown to include 62 member schools.

Early and Modern-Day Development

During its early years, the NCAA did not assume an increased role in the governance of college athletics. Rather, the NCAA helped expand the catalog of athletic offerings of member schools by developing championships in a variety of sports. At the same time, the NCAA struggled with a litany of abuses, including overcommercialization, cheating, academic fraud, student-athlete welfare, and gambling. A report issued in 1929 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education acknowledged that these abuses were the results of the increasing popularity of college sports.

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