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The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education located in the Northeastern United States. The term is now most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group. The term has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and a reputation for social elitism.

The term became ubiquitous, especially in sports terminology, after the formation of the NCAA Division I athletic conference founded in 1954, when much of the nation polarized around favorite college teams. The use of the phrase to refer to these schools as a group is widespread; Princeton notes that “the phrase is no longer limited to athletics, and now represents an educational philosophy inherent to the nation’s oldest schools.”

All of the Ivy institutions place near the top in the U.S. News & World Report college and university rankings and rank within the top one percent of the world’s academic institutions in terms of financial endowment. Seven of the eight schools were founded during America’s colonial period; the exception is Cornell, which was founded in 1865. Ivy League institutions, therefore, account for seven of the nine Colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The Ivies also are all located in the Northeast region of the United States and are privately owned and controlled. Although many of them receive funding from the federal or state governments to pursue research, only Cornell has state-supported academic units, termed “statutory” or “contract” colleges, that are an integral part of the institution.

Undergraduate enrollments among the Ivy League schools range from about 4,000 to 14,000, making them larger than those of a typical private liberal arts college and smaller than a typical public state university. Ivy League university financial endowments range from Brown’s $2.3 billion, the 24th-largest endowment of any U.S. college or university, to Harvard’s $34.9 billion, the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world.

Members

Institution	Location	Athletic Nickname	Full-time enrollment	Motto
Brown University	Providence, Rhode Island	Bears	7,769	In deo speramus
(”In God we hope”)
Columbia University	New York, New York	Lions	19,694	In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen
(”In Thy light shall we see the light”)
Cornell University	Ithaca, New York	Big Red	20,400	“I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study”
Dartmouth College	Hanover, New Hampshire	Big Green	5,753	Vox clamantis in deserto
(”A voice crying in the wilderness”)
Harvard University	Cambridge, Massachusetts	Crimson	20,042	Veritas
(”Truth”)
Princeton University	Princeton, New Jersey	Tigers	6,677	Dei sub numine viget
(”Under God’s power she flourishes”)
University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Quakers	19,771	Leges sine moribus vanae
(”Laws without morals are useless”)
Yale University	New Haven, Connecticut	Bulldogs	11,483
Lux et veritas
(”Light and truth”)

 

History

Founding of the institutions

Institution	Founded	Founding religious affiliation
Harvard University	1636, but named Harvard College in 1638	Congregationalist; sided with the Unitarians in their 1825 split from Congregationalists
Yale University	1701 as Collegiate School	Congregationalist
University of Pennsylvania	1740	Nonsectarian, but founded by Church of England members
Princeton University	1746 as College of New Jersey	Nonsectarian, but founded by Presbyterians
Columbia University	1754 as King’s College	Church of England
Brown University	1764 as College of Rhode Island	Baptist
Dartmouth College	1769	Congregationalist
Cornell University	1865	Nonsectarian

 

    Note Founding dates and religious affiliations are those stated by the institution itself. Many of them had complex histories in their early years and the stories of their origins are subject to interpretation. See footnotes for details where appropriate. “Religious affiliation” refers to financial sponsorship, formal association with, and promotion by, a religious denomination. All of the schools in the Ivy League are private and not currently associated with any religion.

Origin of the name

The first usage of “Ivy” in reference to a group of colleges is from sportswriter Stanley Woodward (1895-1965).

                “A proportion of our eastern ivy colleges are meeting little fellows another Saturday before plunging into the strife and the turmoil.”

-Stanley Woodward, New York Tribune, October 14, 1933, describing the football season.

According to book Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1988), author William Morris writes that Stanley Woodward actually took the term from fellow New York Tribune sportswriter Caswell Adams. Morris writes that during the 1930’s, the Fordham University football team was running roughshod over all its opponents. One day in the sports room at the Tribune, the merits of Fordham’s football team were being compared to Princeton and Columbia. Adams remarked disparagingly of the latter two, saying they were “only Ivy League.” Woodward, the sports editor of the Tribune, picked up the term and printed the next day.

Note though that in the above quote Woodward used the term ivy college, not ivy league as Adams is said to have used, so there is a discrepancy in this theory, although it seems certain the term ivy college and shortly later Ivy League acquired its name from sports world.

The first known instance of the term Ivy League being used appeared in the Christian Science Monitor on February 7, 1935 Several sports-writers and other journalists used the term shortly later to refer to the older colleges, those along the northeastern seaboard of the United States, chiefly the nine institutions with origins dating from the colonial era, together with the United States Military Academy (West Point), the United States Naval Academy, and a few others. These schools were known for their long-standing traditions in intercollegiate athletics, often being the first schools to participate in such activities. However, at this time, none of these institutions would make efforts to form an athletic league.

The Ivy League’s name derives from the ivy plants, symbolic of their age, that cover many of these institutions’ historic buildings[citation needed]. The Ivy League universities are also called the “Ancient Eight” or simply the Ivies.

A common folk etymology attributes the name to the Roman numerals for four (IV), asserting that there was such a sports league originally with four members. The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins helped to perpetuate this belief. The supposed “IV League” was formed over a century ago and consisted of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and a 4th school that varies depending on who is telling the story.

However, representatives from four schools, Rutgers, Princeton, Yale and Columbia met at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Manhattan on 19 October 1873 to establish a set of rules governing their intercollegiate athletic competition, and particularly to codify the new game of college football (which at the time, largely resembled what is currently called soccer). Though invited, Harvard chose not to attend. While no formal organization or conference was established, the results of this meeting governed athletic events between these schools well into the twentieth century.

Before there was an Ivy League

Seven of the Ivy League schools are older than the American Revolution; Cornell was founded just after the American Civil War. These seven provided the overwhelming majority of the higher education in the Northern and Middle Colonies; their early faculties and founding boards were largely, therefore, drawn from other Ivy League institutions; there were also some British graduates - more from the University of Cambridge than Oxford, but also from the University of Edinburgh and elsewhere. The founders of Rutgers, in 1766, were largely Ivy; and so for many of the colleges formed after the Revolution. Cornell provided Stanford University with its first president and most of Stanford’s initial faculty members were Cornell professors. The founders of UC Berkeley came from Yale, hence their school colors of Yale Blue, and California Gold.

Most of these seven schools were more or less Congregationalist or Presbyterian in religious denomination; Church of England King’s College broke up in the Revolution, and was reformed as public non-sectarian Columbia College. In the early nineteenth century, the specific purpose of training Calvinist ministers was handed off to theological seminaries; but a denominational tone, and such relics as compulsory chapel, often lasted well into the twentieth century. Cornell has always been strongly non-sectarian, partly as a reaction to this.

“Ivy League” therefore also became, like WASP, a way of referring to this elite, and elitist, class. This sense dates back to at least 1935. Novels and memoirs attest this sense, as a social elite; to some degree independent of the actual schools.

After the Second World War, the present Ivy League institutions slowly widened their selection of students. They had always had distinguished faculties; some of the first Americans with doctorates had taught for them; but they now decided that they could not both be world-class research institutions and be competitive in the highest ranks of American college sport; in addition, the schools experienced the scandals of any other big-time football programs, although more quietly.

Cohesiveness of the group

The Ivy League schools are highly selective, with acceptance rates ranging from about nine to 20 percent.

These universities engage in a heated competition to attract students, illustrated by a 2002 incident in which admissions officers at Princeton logged into the Yale admissions website fourteen times to view the admissions status of cross-applicants, using the names, birth dates, and social security numbers indicated on their Princeton applications; Princeton later asserted that it had been considering a similar system of early Internet notification, and was surprised to find that Yale had used no password besides the Social Security number. Yale’s administration notified the FBI about the actions after conducting its own investigation. Princeton moved one admissions official to a different department over the incident and the university’s Dean of Admissions retired soon thereafter, though Princeton president Shirley Tilghman said that the dean’s decision to retire was unconnected to the incident.

Collaboration between the member schools is illustrated by the student-led Ivy Council that meets in the fall and spring of each year, with representatives from every Ivy League school. At these multi-day conferences, student representatives from each school meet to discuss issues facing their respective institutions, with a variety of topics ranging from financial aid to gender-neutral housing.[citation needed]

Cooperation

Seven of the eight schools (Harvard excluded) participate in the Borrow Direct interlibrary loan program, making a total of 88 million items available to participants with a waiting period of four working days. This ILL program is not affiliated with the formal Ivy arrangement.

The governing body of the Ivy League is the Council of Ivy Group Presidents. During their meetings, the presidents often discuss common procedures and initiatives.

Competition and athletics

Ivy champions are recognized in 33 men’s and women’s sports. In some sports, Ivy teams actually compete as members of another league, the Ivy championship being decided by isolating the members’ records in play against each other. (For example, the six league members who participate in ice hockey do so as members of ECAC Hockey; but an Ivy champion is extrapolated each year.) Unlike all other Division I basketball conferences, the Ivy League has no tournament for the league title; the school with the best conference record represents the conference in the Division I NCAA Basketball Tournament (with a playoff in the case of a tie).

On average, each Ivy school has more than 35 varsity teams. All eight are in the top 20 for number of sports offered for both men and women among Division I schools.

Harvard and Yale are celebrated football and crew rivals.

Princeton and Penn are longstanding men’s basketball rivals and “Puck Fenn” and “Puck Frinceton” t-shirts are worn at games. In only six instances in the last 51 years (from the 1955-56 season through the 2006-07 season) has neither Penn nor Princeton won at least a share of the Ivy League title in basketball, with each champion or co-champion 25 times. Penn has won 21 outright, Princeton 18 outright. Princeton has been a co-champion 7 times, sharing 4 of those titles with Penn (these 4 seasons represent the only times Penn has been co-champion).

Rivalries exist between other Ivy league teams in other sports, including Cornell and Harvard in hockey (either team has won or shared the men’s title each of the last five years), and Harvard and Penn in football (Penn and Harvard have each had two unbeaten seasons since 2001.).

In addition, no team other than Harvard or Princeton has won the men’s swimming conference title since 1972, with Harvard winning the 34 year series 19-15 as of 2006.

Unlike most Division I athletic conferences, the Ivy League prohibits the granting of athletic scholarships; all scholarships awarded are need-based (financial aid). Ivy League teams out of league games are usually against the members of the Patriot League which have similar academic standards and athletic scholarship policies. Its members include American, Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Holy Cross, Lafayette College, Lehigh University and Navy.

In the time before recruiting for college sports became dominated by those offering athletic scholarships and lowered academic standards for athletes, the Ivy League was successful in many sports relative to other universities in the country. In particular, Princeton won 24 recognized national championships in college football (Last Div I-A championship in 1911), and Yale won 19 (Last Div I-A championship in 1927). Both of these totals are considerably higher than those of other historically strong programs such as Notre Dame, which has won 12, and USC, which has won 11. Yale, whose coach Walter Camp was the “Father of American Football,” held on to its place as the all-time wins leader in college football throughout the entire 20th century, but was finally passed by Michigan on November 10, 2001. Currently Dartmouth holds the record for most Ivy League football titles, with 17.

Although no longer as successful nationally as they once were in many of the more popular college sports, the Ivy League is still competitive in others. One such example is rowing. All of the Ivies have historically been among the top crews in the nation, and most continue to be so today. (Other historical top crews include Cal, Washington, Wisconsin and Navy). Most recently, on the men’s side, Harvard won the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships in 2003, 2004, 2005, and on the women’s side, Harvard and Brown won the 2003 and 2004 NCAA Rowing Championships, respectively. The Ivy League schools are also very competitive in both men’s and women’s hockey.

The Ivy League is home to some of the oldest college rugby teams. These teams meet annually to compete in a tourney. The 2006 Ivy League Tournament was hosted by Yale, and the 2005 tournament was hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.

Athletic teams

    * Brown Bears

    * Columbia Lions

    * Cornell Big Red

    * Dartmouth Big Green

    * Harvard Crimson

    * Penn Quakers

    * Princeton Tigers

    * Yale Bulldogs

Conference facilities

School	Football stadium	Basketball arena	Ice hockey rink	Soccer stadium
Name	Capacity	Name	Capacity	Name	Capacity	Name	Capacity
Brown	Brown Stadium	20,000	Pizzitola Sports Center	2,800	Meehan Auditorium	3,100	Stevenson Field
3,500
Columbia	Wien Stadium	17,000	Levien Gymnasium	3,408	N/A	N/A	Columbia Soccer Stadium
3,500
Cornell	Schoellkopf Field	25,597	Newman Arena	4,473	Lynah Rink	3,836	Charles F. Berman Field
1,000
Dartmouth	Memorial Field	13,000	Leede Arena	2,100	Thompson Arena	5,000	Burnham Soccer Facility
1,600
Harvard	Harvard Stadium	30,898	Lavietes Pavilion	2,195	Bright Hockey Center	2,850	Ohiri Field
1,500
Penn	Franklin Field	52,593	The Palestra	8,722	The Class of 1923 Arena	2,900	Rhodes Field
~700
Princeton	Princeton Stadium	27,800	Jadwin Gymnasium	6,854	Hobey Baker Memorial Rink	2,094	Lourie-Love Field
2,000
Yale	Yale Bowl	64,269	Payne Whitney Gym	3,100	Ingalls Rink	3,486	Reese

Stadium                          3,000

 

Dartmouth also owns and operates the Dartmouth Skiway, the home racing grounds for the 2007 NCAA skiing champions.

 

Other “Ivies”

Marketing groups, journalists, and some educators sometimes promote other colleges as “Ivies,” as in Little Ivies; Public Ivies; Southern Ivies and Canadian Ivies. These uses of “ivy” are intended to promote the other schools by comparing them to the Ivy League, but unlike the “Ivy League” label, they have no canonical definition. For example, in the 2007 edition of Newsweek’s How to Get Into College Now, the editors designated twenty-five schools as “New Ivies,” some of which share no characteristics with the Ivy League colleges except a good reputation.

Championships

Football

    * 1956 Yale

    * 1957 Princeton

    * 1958 Dartmouth

    * 1959 Pennsylvania

    * 1960 Yale

    * 1961 Columbia and Harvard

    * 1962 Dartmouth

    * 1963 Dartmouth and Princeton

    * 1964 Princeton

    * 1965 Dartmouth

    * 1966 Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton

    * 1967 Yale

    * 1968 Harvard and Yale

    * 1969 Dartmouth, Princeton and Yale

    * 1970 Dartmouth

    * 1971 Cornell and Dartmouth

    * 1972 Dartmouth

    * 1973 Dartmouth

    * 1974 Harvard and Yale

    * 1975 Harvard

    * 1976 Brown and Yale

    * 1977 Yale

    * 1978 Dartmouth

    * 1979 Yale

    * 1980 Yale

    * 1981 Dartmouth and Yale

    * 1982 Dartmouth, Harvard and Pennsylvania

    * 1983 Harvard and Pennsylvania

    * 1984 Pennsylvania

    * 1985 Pennsylvania

    * 1986 Pennsylvania

    * 1987 Harvard

    * 1988 Cornell and Pennsylvania

    * 1989 Princeton and Yale

    * 1990 Cornell and Dartmouth

    * 1991 Dartmouth

    * 1992 Dartmouth and Princeton

    * 1993 Pennsylvania

    * 1994 Pennsylvania

    * 1995 Princeton

    * 1996 Dartmouth

    * 1997 Harvard

    * 1998 Pennsylvania

    * 1999 Brown and Yale

    * 2000 Pennsylvania

    * 2001 Harvard

    * 2002 Pennsylvania

    * 2003 Pennsylvania

    * 2004 Harvard

    * 2005 Brown

    * 2006 Princeton and Yale